OpenGL implementations for Windows

Hi all!

I read somewhere that Silicon Graphics’ implementation of OpenGL is by about 30 percent faster than that of Microsoft. Not sure if it’s really true or one of those “urban legends.” I’ll be glad to hear from you any thoughts about this.

Thanks in advance!

X3J16

Is there no one who might know the answer to my question? :frowning:

X3J16

yes, sgi provides an alternative software implementation to microsoft’s. if i remember correctly, it uses MMX instructions and microsoft’s doesn’t, so they probably get a nice little speed boost with some of the gl functionality. sgi’s files are named “opengl." instead of "opengl32.” i think.

the bottom line though is that it’s a software implementation. it doesn’t really matter if sgi’s software implementation is 30% faster than microsoft’s, since any hardware implementation is 1000000% faster than either.

-steve

Thanks, Steve! That’s what I thought, but I didn’t find any OpenGL .lib and .dll files on SGI’s web site. Can you post a link? And what is meant by hardware implementation of OpenGL?

X3J16

Originally posted by SThomas:
[b]yes, sgi provides an alternative software implementation to microsoft’s. if i remember correctly, it uses MMX instructions and microsoft’s doesn’t, so they probably get a nice little speed boost with some of the gl functionality. sgi’s files are named “opengl." instead of "opengl32.” i think.

the bottom line though is that it’s a software implementation. it doesn’t really matter if sgi’s software implementation is 30% faster than microsoft’s, since any hardware implementation is 1000000% faster than either.

-steve[/b]

Hardware implementation means that opengl is hardware accelerated and that your cpu is no longer executing gl code. Basically, your video card’s vendor wrote an opengl driver that implements all of gl bypassing microsoft’s software implementation. When we talk about hardware accleration it really means that the chip on the video card is executing gl code and not your cpu which is way slower because it is not optimized to run gl code. You can buy $30 gf2 card and have it run gl in hw accelerated mode which is much faster than ms software mode.

I have GF3… Does it always run in hardware accelerated mode or do I need to change some settings?

Thanks again!

X3J16

Originally posted by JD:
Hardware implementation means that opengl is hardware accelerated and that your cpu is no longer executing gl code. Basically, your video card’s vendor wrote an opengl driver that implements all of gl bypassing microsoft’s software implementation. When we talk about hardware accleration it really means that the chip on the video card is executing gl code and not your cpu which is way slower because it is not optimized to run gl code. You can buy $30 gf2 card and have it run gl in hw accelerated mode which is much faster than ms software mode.