X and Eye Candy

[Lennart Sorensen]

On Tue, Mar 14, 2006 at 05:37:21PM -0500, D. Hugh Redelmeier wrote:
> With the nVidia 7800GTX (and probably the ATI x1800) I felt that I
> needed to upgrade the power supply in my stock HP computer.  I don't
> know for sure because nVidia does't publish usable specs on power
> requirements (HP does provided OK specs on what they'll provide for
> add-in boards).  Grrr.

Well I run 3 HDs, 2 optical drives, 768M ram and an athlon 700 with a
6600GT on a 350W.  Not sure how much more a 6800 or 7800 would take,
although I would hope no more than another 30W or so.  I think they
recomend at least a 450W power supply when running dual cards.

> Some eye candy is nice.  I remember the old days when moving a window
> was moving a wire frame; the window would be repainted after the new
> position was selected.  The current way (dragging the whole window) is
> much nicer.

Doesn't require 3D, just requires a blitter, which is common in all
accalerated 2D cards.

> 3d buttons and stuff look nicer than what we originally had.

3D looking buttons never required 3D, just decent graphics designers
making pretty bitmaps.

Scaling, warping, transparency, etc, is all much easier with polygons on
a 3D engine.  The useful eyecandy so far ahs been just fine with 2D in
my opinion.  Most 3D eyecandy has been annoying after the first 15
minutes wow factor is over.

Len Sorensen
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