Alternate Frame Rendering

ATI Alternate Frame Rendering Technology

Alienware bought the PGC technology, intending to offer dual TNT2 or Voodoo3 systems, but the project was abandoned because of delays and the upcoming generation of video cards would render PGC TNT2 or V3 technology obsolete.

ATI took a completely new approach to the multiple accelerator problem. Originally, ATI was in talks with Metabyte about purchasing the PGC technology, but negotiations fell through. ATI managed to develop a tentative alternate frame rendering (AFR) plan in a single week, and ATI's engineers started working on the technology immediately. We see the fruits of their labor in the Rage Fury MAXX.

Just one card

ATI decided to eliminate the AGP/PCI problem altogether by developing a multiple accelerator single card solution. A single AGP card would have two Rage Fury 128 Pro accelerators. This is similar to Quantum3D's Obsidian cards that had multiple 3dfx accelerators on-board.

With the AGP/PCI problem eliminated, ATI had to find a new way to divide the work between the accelerators. While both SLI and PGC have multiple accelerators dividing up the work for every single frame, ATI's MAXX technology has each accelerator rendering alternate frames. Each accelerator renders every other frame instead of portions of the same frame. The MAXX card needs 64MB of memory because each accelerator has to have its own separate 32MB frame buffer/texture memory.

Drivers

All the work is done completely in software. The Rage Fury 128 Pro chips used in the MAXX card are the same chips found on normal Rage Fury 128 Pro cards. ATI will be able to apply MAXX technology to all future technology. That means ATI will be able to apply MAXX to their next generation .18 micron T&L 3D accelerator.

The fact that ATI will be able to use their MAXX technology in future products may have you wondering why Alienware decided to pull the plug on PGC if they might also be able to apply PGC to future technology. You have to remember that PGC technology is designed to allow an AGP card to work with a PCI card.

Now, how many next generation cards are available in PCI format?

That's why PGC is dead.