Re: [CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO] Imbedded computers

Stephen Wille Padnos wrote:

>Codesuidae wrote:
>
>>
>>A question regarding systems that may exibit this problem. AGP uses
>>main memory to expand texture memory (to reduce the need to use more
>>expensive video memory and the requirement to move large textures across
>>the PCI bus into video memory).
>>
>>
>Isn't it usually just the opposite - ie, the textures are transferred to
>the card once (possibly even compressed), then used many times in rendering?
>
>
>

Not from what I've read. The idea is that rather than copying texture
data from main memory across the relatively slow PCI bus and taking up
video memory the video system is given direct access to main memory via
the fast AGP bus where large quantites of texture data can be stored.
Many 3D games use huge amounts of texture data, 100MB or more of active
textures isn't uncommon, so its expensive to put enough ram onto the
video card to handle it all.

From a performance standpoint its probably always better to keep
everything in video memory, but I guess there are other considerations
(Intel's bottom line among them).

Dave K