ATI Rage 3727943 216088454 2008-05-31T00:51:11Z Jeepday 2604600 remove unreferenced rumor per [[WP:V]] [[Image:rage128logo.png|right|ATI RAGE 128 logo]] The '''[[ATI Technologies|ATI]] RAGE''' is a series of [[Graphics processing unit|graphics chipset]]s offering [[Graphical user interface|GUI]] [[2D computer graphics|2D acceleration]], video acceleration, and [[3D acceleration]]. It is the successor to the [[ATI Mach|Mach]] series of 2D accelerators. ==3D RAGE (I)== The original RAGE chip was based upon a Mach64 2D core with new 3D functionality and [[MPEG-1]] acceleration. The 3D RAGE was used at least on ATI's ''Xpression'' video board (a board that previously used a Mach64). ==3D RAGE II (IIC, II+, II+DVD) == [[Image:3drageii+dvd.jpg|left|50px|RAGE II+DVD chip]] [[Image:ATIXpressionRageII.png|right|ATI 3D Xpression+]] The second generation RAGE offered roughly two times greater 3D performance. Its graphics processor was based again on a re-engineered Mach64 GUI engine that provided optimal 2D performance with either single-cycle [[DRAM#Extended Data Out .28EDO.29 DRAM|EDO]] memory or high-speed [[SGRAM]]. The 3D RAGE II chip was an enhanced, [[Pin-compatibility|pin compatible]] version of the 3D RAGE accelerator. The second-generation [[Peripheral Component Interconnect|PCI]]-bus compatible chip boosted 2D performance by 20 percent and added support for [[MPEG-2]] (DVD) playback. The chip also had driver support for [[Microsoft]] [[Direct3D]] and [[Reality Lab]], [[QuickDraw]] 3D Rave, Criterion [[RenderWare]], and Argonaut [[BRender]]. [[OpenGL]] drivers are available for the professional 3D and [[Computer-aided design|CAD]] community and Heidi drivers are available for [[AutoCAD]] users. Drivers are also provided in operating systems including [[Windows 95]], [[Windows NT]], the [[Mac OS]], [[OS/2]], and [[Linux]]. ATI also shipped a TV encoder companion chip for RAGE II, the ''ImpacTV'' chip. [[Image:rageIIC.png|thumb|120px|RAGE IIC PCI card]] RAGE II was integrated into several of the current Macintosh Computers, including the [[Power Macintosh G3|Macintosh G3]], Power Mac 6500, and the original [[iMac G3]]. (RageII+). In IBM compatible PCs, several [[motherboard]]s and video cards used the chipset as well including: the ''3D Xpression+'', the ''3D Pro Turbo'', and the original ''All-in-Wonder''. *Specifications for the RAGE II+DVD: **60 MHz core **60 MHz memory **480 MB/s memory bandwidth **DirectX 5.0 ==3D RAGE Pro== [[Image:3dragepro.jpg|left|50px|RAGE Pro chip]] ATI made a number of changes over the 3D RAGE II: a new [[triangle setup engine]], [[perspective correction]] improvements, [[Distance fog|fog]] support and transparency implementations, [[Specular highlight|specular lighting]] support, and enhanced video playback and [[MPEG-2|DVD]] support. The 3D RAGE Pro chip was designed for [[Intel Corporation|Intel]]'s Accelerated Graphics Port ([[Accelerated Graphics Port|AGP]]), taking advantage of execute-mode texturing, command pipelining, sideband addressing, and full 2x-mode protocols. Initial versions relied on standard graphics memory configurations: up to 8 [[MiB]] of [[Synchronous Graphics Random Access Memory|SGRAM]] or 16 MiB of [[Window Random Access Memory|WRAM]], depending on the model. RAGE Pro offered performance in the range of [[Nvidia]]'s [[RIVA 128]] and [[3dfx Interactive|3dfx]]'s Voodoo accelerator, but generally failed to match or exceed its competitors. This, in addition to its (early) lack of [[OpenGL]] support, hurt sales for what was touted to be a solid gaming solution. In February 1998, ATI attempted to "reinvent" the RAGE Pro by simultaneously renaming the chip to "RAGE Pro Turbo," and releasing a new "RAGE Pro Turbo" driver-set (4.10.2312) that supposedly increased performance by 40%. In reality, the drivers only delivered increased performance in [[Benchmark (computing)|benchmark]]s such as [[Ziff-Davis]]' [[3D Winbench]] 98 and [[Final Reality]]. In games, the performance actually suffered. Despite the poor introduction, the name RAGE Pro Turbo stuck, and eventually ATI was able to release updated drivers without the performance hit in games. Still, there was no tangible gaming performance improvement following the debacle. The 3D RAGE Pro was mainly sold as the Xpert@Work or the Xpert@Play, with the only difference being a [[TV-out]] port on the Xpert@Play version. It was also the built-in graphic chipset in the [[Sun Microsystems|Sun]] [[Ultra 5/10]] workstations, their first computer model to offer commodity PC hardware components. ==RAGE LT== [[Image:3drageltpro.jpg|left|50px|RAGE LT chip]] RAGE LT was often implemented on motherboards and in mobile applications like [[laptop|notebook computer]]s. This chip was very similar to the RAGE Pro and supported the same application coding. It integrated a Low Voltage Differential Signaling ([[Low voltage differential signaling|LVDS]]) transmitter for notebook [[Liquid crystal display|LCD]]s and advanced power management (block-by-block power control). The RAGE LT PRO also offered "Filtered Ratiometric Expansion," which automatically adjusted images to full-screen size. ATI's ImpacTV2+ is integrated with the RAGE LT PRO chip to support multi-screen viewing, i.e. simultaneous outputs to TV, CRT and LCD. In addition, the RAGE LT PRO can drive two displays with different images and/or [[refresh rate]]s with the use of integrated dual, independent [[Cathode ray tube|CRT]] controllers. A ''RAGE LT Pro '' chip also existed which was a slightly faster variant.. ==RAGE XL== [[Image:3dragexl.jpg|left|50px|RAGE XL chip]] RAGE XL was a low-cost ''RAGE Pro''-based solution. As a low-power solution with capable 2D-acceleration, the chip was used on many low-end graphics cards. It was also seen on [[Intel]] motherboards, as recently as 2004, and was still used in 2006 for server motherboards. The RAGE XL has been succeeded by the ATI ES1000 for server use[http://ati.amd.com/products/server/es1000/index.html]. The chip was basically a die-shrunk ''RAGE Pro'', optimized to be very inexpensive for solutions where only basic graphics output was necessary. ==RAGE 128== [[Image:rage128chip.png|left|50px|RAGE 128 chip]] In the continuing struggle to create the fastest and most advanced 3D accelerator, ATI came up with the ''RAGE 128''. The chip was announced in two flavors, the RAGE 128 GL and the RAGE 128 VR. Aside from the VR chip's lower price-point, the main difference was that the former was a full 128-bit design, while the VR — still a [[128-bit]] processor internally — used a [[64-bit]] external memory interface. *'''Magnum''' - A workstation board for OEMs with 32 MiB [[SDRAM]]. *'''RAGE Fury''' - 32 MiB [[SDRAM]] memory and same performance as the Magnum, this add-in card was targeted at PC gamers. *'''Xpert 128''' - 16 MiB SDRAM memory and, like the others, used the RAGE 128 GL chip. *'''Xpert 2000''' - RAGE 128 VR design using 64-bit memory interface. RAGE 128 was ATI's [[Direct3D]] 6.0-compliant accelerator. It supported many features from the previous RAGE chips, such as triangle setup, DVD acceleration, and a capable VGA/GUI accelerator core. RAGE 128 added inverse discrete cosine transform ([[IDCT]]) acceleration to the DVD repertoire. It was ATI's first dual texturing renderer, in that it could output two pixels per clock (two [[pixel pipeline]]s). The processor was known for its well-performing [[truecolor|32-bit color]] mode, but also its poorly dithered [[Highcolour|16-bit]] mode; strangely, the RAGE 128 was not much faster in 16-bit color despite the lower bandwidth requirements. In 32-bit mode, RAGE 128 was more than a match for the [[RIVA TNT]], and the [[Voodoo 3]] did not support 32-bit at all. The chip was meant to compete with the [[NVIDIA]] RIVA TNT, [[Matrox G200]] and [[Matrox G400|G400]], and [[3dfx]] Voodoo 3. ATI implemented a [[cache|caching]] technique it called "Twin Cache Architecture" with RAGE 128. The RAGE 128 used an 8 [[KiB]] buffer to store [[Texel (graphics)|texels]] that were used by the 3D engine. In order to improve performance even more, ATI engineers also incorporated an 8 KiB [[pixel]] cache used to write pixels back to the [[Framebuffer|frame buffer]]. * 8 million [[transistor]]s, 0.25 [[micrometre|micrometer]] fabrication * 3D Feature Set ** Hardware support for vertex arrays, fog and fog table support ** [[Alpha blending]], vertex and Z-based fog, video textures, texture lighting ** Single clock [[bilinear filtering|bilinear]] and [[trilinear filtering|trilinear texture filtering]] and texture compositing ** Perspective-correct [[Mipmap|mip-map]]ped texturing with chroma-key support ** Vertex and Z-based reflections, shadows, spotlights, 1.00 biasing ** [[Hidden surface determination|Hidden surface removal]] using 16, 24, or 32-bit [[Z-buffering]] ** [[Gouraud shading|Gouraud]] and [[specular]] shaded polygons ** Line and edge [[anti-aliasing]], [[bump mapping]], 8-bit [[stencil buffer]] * 250 MHz [[RAMDAC]], [[Accelerated Graphics Port|AGP]] 2x and 4x ===RAGE 128 Pro=== Later, ATI developed a successor to the original RAGE 128, called the '''RAGE 128 Pro'''. This chip carried several enhancements, including an enhanced triangle setup engine that doubled geometry throughput to eight million triangles/sec, better texture filtering, DirectX 6.0 texture compression, AGP 4x, DVI support, and a ''RAGE Theater'' chip for better video encoding/decoding. This chip was used on the gamer-oriented ''RAGE Fury Pro'' boards and the business-oriented ''Xpert 2000 PRO''. RAGE 128 Pro was generally an even match for Voodoo 3 3500, [[RIVA TNT2]] Ultra, and [[Matrox]] G400 MAX. ===Alternate Frame Rendering=== The '''RAGE Fury MAXX''' board held dual RAGE 128 Pro chips in an alternate frame rendering (AFR) configuration to allow a near-double increase in performance. As the name says, AFR renders each frame on an independent graphics processor. This board was meant to compete with the NVIDIA [[GeForce 256]] and later the 3dfx [[Voodoo 5]]. While it was able to somewhat match 32 MB SDR GeForce 256 boards, the GeForce 256 cards with DDR memory still easily came out on top. Though there were few T&L titles at the time, the MAXX's lack of hardware T&L would potentially put it at a disadvantage for future games. It was later discovered by ATI that [[Windows NT]] 5.x operating systems (Windows 2000, XP) did not support dual AGP GPUs in the way ATI had implemented them. Windows 5.x put them both on the AGP bus and switched between them, and so the board could only operate as a single RAGE 128 Pro with the performance of a RAGE Fury card. The optimal OS for the RAGE Fury MAXX is Windows 98/ME. [[Windows 95]] was not supported. [[Image:rage fury maxx board.jpg|right|thumb|RAGE Fury MAXX]] ==Rage 6== The RAGE 128 Pro graphics accelerator was the final revision of the RAGE architecture and last use of the RAGE brand. While the next iteration was initially codenamed '''[[Radeon R100|Rage 6]]''', ATI decided to rename it [[Radeon]]. == Mobility == Almost every version of RAGE was used in mobile applications, but there were also some special versions of these chips which were optimized for this. They were ATI's first graphics solutions to carry the "Mobility" moniker. Such chips included: *RAGE Mobility C, EC, L, M, M1, M2, P (RAGE Pro-based) *RAGE Mobility 128, M3, M4 (RAGE 128-based) ==Models== {{main|Comparison of ATI Graphics Processing Units}} ==See also== *[[Radeon|ATI Radeon]] ==References== *[http://www.tomshardware.com/1999/10/08/ati_rage_fury_pro_review/index.html "ATI RAGE Fury Pro Review"] by Silvino Orozco and Thomas Pabst, Tom's Hardware, [[October 8]] [[1999]], retrieved [[January 15]] [[2006]] *[http://www.ati.com/companyinfo/press/1999/4165.html "ATI's RAGE LT PRO Press Release"] by [[ATI Technologies]], [[January 25]] [[1999]] *[http://www.ati.com/products/rage128pro/xpert2000pro/ "XPERT 2000 PRO"] by [[ATI Technologies]], retrieved [[January 15]] [[2006]] *[http://www.tomshardware.com/1998/02/14/3d_winbench_98_/page5.html "3D Winbench 98 - Only a Misleading Benchmark or the Best Target for Cheating ?"] by Thomas Pabst, Tom's Hardware, [[February 15]] [[1998]], retrieved [[June 1]] [[2006]] ==External links== *[http://www.ati.com/products/discontinued.html ATI: Discontinued Products] {{ATI}} [[Category:ATI Technologies]] [[de:ATI Rage]] [[fr:ATI Rage]] [[ko:ATI 레이지]] [[ja:ATI Rage]] [[pt:ATI Rage]] [[ru:ATI Rage]] [[sk:ATI Rage]] [[zh:3D Rage]]