PC Magazine -- June 25, 1996
Editors' Choice: GLyder 16
Linda Von Schweber
Symmetric Inc.
The GLyder 16, from Symmetric, is a high-end graphics board that excels
at every 3-D task you send its way. Competitively priced at $2,695 (list),
this Editors' Choice winner was the most consistent performer in our
group, whether for visualization, engineering, animation, or virtual
reality and simulation.
Installation was straightforward. No jumpers or switches need to be
set. The documentation is brief but accurate, and has some welcome hints
at optimizing GLyder performance both generally and with Pro/Engineer,
Microstation, Open Inventor, and I-DEAS 3D applications. The board also
supports color-space double buffering for better animation performance
without resorting to lowly 8-bit color.
The GLyder dominated our tests, thanks to its 3D Labs' Glint 300SX and
new Delta coprocessor (it was the only board here to have the new chip).
Geometry acceleration has been a hallmark of the high-end of professional
graphics workstations such as the SGI Onyx Reality Engine/2. The Delta
chip brings this concept down to the PC, offloading many geometry
processing tasks that hamstring an Intel CPU.
The GLyder is a balanced performer, capable of maintaining a very high
frame rate while handling transparency, texture mapping, rotations,
translations, and scaling. While other boards showed one or two
performance bright spots, in 1,024-by-768 24-bit color mode the GLyder was
consistently at the top of the performance heap.
The GLyder also exhibits usable performance even when coupled with a
Pentium/100. The GLyder performed the Rotate Simple Object, Rotate Complex
Object, Rotate Transparent Object, and Architectural Fly-Through Tests (at
640-by-480) on our HP Vectra 5/100 with aplomb. This means a GLyder can
make for an effective entry-level 3-D solution coupled with a Pentium and
later be moved into a Pentium Pro machine.
By the time you read this, Symmetric will also be offering the even
more affordable GLyder 8 for those who don't need the highest resolutions
and color depth modes. Symmetric is also planning a model built around the
forthcoming Glint 300TX. For now, Symmetric has an outstanding offering
for the professional 3-D user. To paraphrase the airline, the
Delta-equipped GLyder loves to fly, and it shows. N
GLyder 16. List price: $2,695. Symmetric Inc., Dallas, TX;
214-931-5999; http:// www.symmetric.com.
We build our products in the USA. 