what are pixel pipelines?

[menards]

what are pixel pipelines?

What is their specific influence on graphics?

Do they improve resolution? anti-aliasing? anisotropic filtering? frame rate?

 

[cleeve]

The number of pixel pipelines in a GPU determines how many pixels it can manipulate per clock cycle.

It is the basic measure of GPU performance, and influences all of the items you've listed and more.

________________
<b>Radeon <font color=red>9700 PRO</b></font color=red> <i>(o/c 332/345)</i>
<b>AthlonXP <font color=red>3200+</b></font color=red> <i>(Barton 2500+ o/c 400 FSB)</i>
<b>3dMark03: <font color=red>5,354</b>

 

[menards]

what would you rather have?


a video card with 4 pixel pipelines and 256 memory,

or

a video card with 8 pixel pipelines and 128 memory.

 

[priyajeet]

LATTER

:tongue: <A HREF="http://www.geocities.com/priyajeet/fing.jpg" target="_new"><i><font color=red>Very funny, Scotty.</font color=red><font color=blue> Now beam down my clothes.</font color=blue></i></A> :tongue:

 

[menards]

are "render outputs" the same thing as pixel pipelines?

 

[pauldh]

Are you talking 128MB or 256MB of memory, or 128-bit memory interface or 256-bit memory interface? I can't recall a 4 pipe 256-bit card though. But assuming it's MB's, easily the extra pipes will make a card much faster, while the amount of ram will have very little impact.

For instance, the 8-pipe Radeon 9500 pro is generally faster than the 4-pipe radeon 9600 pro. Both have the same 128-bit memory interface, but the Radeon 9600 pro is clocked much higher (400/600) helping it almost keep up with the lower clocked(275/540) 8-pipe card it replaced. Now the Radeon 9500 non-pro is clocked the same as the pro, but is 4-pipes, making it a slower card no matter how much ram you were to put on it.





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[menards]

yah, I was referring to MB, not bit interface. Ty this is very informative stuff.

 

[pauldh]

AH, 9800se 256-bit, of course, thx. I guess I was thinking a good card.

So 9800se 256-bit vs. a Radeon 9800 128-bit. Some SE's are even clocked the same 350/600 I believe, although most are a little lower. That explains it a little, as the 128-bit 9800's would usually win that battle.

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[cleeve]

IN ORDER OF IMPORTANCE:

1. GPU Architecture (pipelines) - most important
2. Memory interface (64, 128, 256-bit)
3. Clockspeeds
4. Video RAM amount - least important

________________
<b>Radeon <font color=red>9700 PRO</b></font color=red> <i>(o/c 332/345)</i>
<b>AthlonXP <font color=red>3200+</b></font color=red> <i>(Barton 2500+ o/c 400 FSB)</i>
<b>3dMark03: <font color=red>5,354</b>

 

[menards]

^man..... this is good stuff, thanks.

I used to think the amount of RAM was the most important lol! (talk about marketing ploys taking advantage of the ignorant!)