SGI: Hardware

What is it like to use the Infinite Reality graphics?

The IR Graphics are a league above IMPACT and VPro. I've spent a little time on an Onyx2, IR3, quad 400MHz and 8GB RAM. Its very fast, but what IR is good for primarily is for is high performance 3D visualization and rasterization, you wouldn't want an IR workstation as your everyday system, the desksides consume over a kW of power, and the rackmounts require 220V power. Plus my friend told me an Onyx2 weighs in at over 300lbs.

TeamBlackFox wrote: The IR Graphics are a league above IMPACT and VPro.

v10 and v12 have faster geometry but the IR's ram and fillrate were very impressive at the time.

Plus my friend told me an Onyx2 weighs in at over 300lbs.

it's more like 300kg but depends on how well it's equipped.

Of course the VPro series is better at processing, but an IR3 or IR4 can easily blow them away on most tasks.

I am wondering if the Graphics is liquid in flow when rendering to screen.

Sure, so long as you don't surpass the technical limitations of the system. This is true for any computer.

So how much data are we talking about?
1. Resolution
2. Texture mapped Polygons/sec.
I think of it as a pick-up truck. Load it down and slower it goes. Empty and it goes fast.

The original IR, for polys, 7 million textured, lighted and anti-aliased triangles per second.

As far as resolutions go, the IR can go up to 1080p, but this depends on various things including colour depth, refresh rate etc. The thing about the SGI graphics architecture is that there's significant flexibility with regards to how the system works. The main difference between the IR through the IR4 is the raster and texture memory available, they're all built around the same core graphics system. The IR4 has 1GB of texture memory per RM11 board and 2.5GB for example. But these systems are still widely used, especially the IR3 and IR4, so you're going to be looking at thousands of dollars. Plus, they're insanely static sensitive.

The V10 and V12 has far less memory available, but they're much more practical for a workstation. As I said, thebulbguy has had his electric bill go over $1000/month at times, and he has so many systems its not even funny.

Oh wow
I still would like to have a rack system that is about 6 ft tall full of 1u cases and processor.
If I could afford it.

Trekiej wrote: a rack system that is about 6 ft tall full of 1u cases and processor

1u cases only have the stripped down stuff. no matter which vendor. if you're after something serious you'd have mixed units in the rack anyway because the 1u thinges are very limited i.e. hard to compile a proper system out of just 1u units.

if you're interested in onyx rack versions techpubs give quite a nice overview:
http://techpubs.sgi.com/library/tpl/cgi ... /ch01.html
http://techpubs.sgi.com/library/tpl/cgi ... /ch01.html

note that onyx2 as well as onyx3x00/350 can have IR4

Trekiej,

You're gonna pay out of the nose for anything with the name Onyx attached to it. Probably over $1,000 USD after shipping. When it comes to SGIs, I highly recommend as a collector myself to cut your teeth on a cheaper and lighter model. An SGI Octane dual 300 with a V6, for example, can still drive a display at 1920x1080. Can it do HD video? Not from what I've seen with common encodings like h.264, XviD, or the dreaded WMV, but its capable of playing Quake 3 Arena acceptably and many other common tasks. I've seen Octanes with V6 or V8s for sub-$300, and unless you're planning to do something with it for your job, it has most of what you'd ever need.

Trekiej wrote: What is it like to use the Infinite Reality graphics?

Noisy

Also you can do without a sweater because it raises the room temperature a couple of degrees.

Sure, I can understand that I need more than 1U's in a rack. This is more of a wish list than an actual lay out.

With the Octane2, how detailed of a model can I make before it chuggs? The peecee recommendations for Blender seems to be higher than what some of the machines have maxed out.

I can get 220v/60hz, but could not pay the bill though.

It is cold in here.

I do not want to sound like I am down playing these machines, It would have been more revealing if I had one when it was released and compared it other machines at the time.
I admit that an AMD OpenGL card with 2 Gb ram sounds tempting at the moment.

Cheers.

TeamBlackFox wrote: An SGI Octane dual 300 with a V6, for example, can still drive a display at 1920x1080. Can it do HD video? Not from what I've seen with common encodings like h.264, XviD, or the dreaded WMV, but its capable of playing Quake 3 Arena acceptably and many other common tasks. I've seen Octanes with V6 or V8s for sub-$300, and unless you're planning to do something with it for your job, it has most of what you'd ever need.

I have an Octane with those specs and also enjoy playing the original Quake. So I thought hey that's a pretty cool way to do some multiplayer. Well the SGI binaries no longer work with the newer servers. There is a nekoware port but the performance is so bad you have to play in a postage stamp sized window. Kind of disappointing when you consider that a 100Mhz Pentium with a Voodoo card renders it so much better.

I know the Octane was never designed for gaming but why is it so slow?

Optimization, and perhaps other issues with rendering/bugs in that binary. When I get my development box up and running I'll look more into it, and look into porting some more games.

I had an IR Onyx (1) for many years, and yes it is a very cool machine but the whole absurdity of it put a lot of limitations on what you can do. Quake through Quake3 are all playable, the hardware features are very nice such as buffering and AA, but it's hardly impressive nowadays especially when most 3D programs that run on it (irix demos) have less than impressive texturing that doesn't do a good job of showing off what the hardware can do. I think among the best demos for it would be the rss-glx package and even those run pretty well on ancient low end PC hardware. All of the good IR stuff was proprietary and is either not available or requires huge periphery that would dwarf the onyx itself.

Lack of sound unless you have vigrasound or the ASO makes games kinda dull. The huge 9" blower does adjust it's speed but it is never quiet, in a cold room it is quite noisy and in a warm room it is a jet engine (and within a few hours of it running, ANY room will be a warm room). You should budget about $100 extra every month for your electric bill if you decide to run it 24x7 (at LEAST, not accounting for cooling costs. 1.5kWx24hx30Dx$0.10 kwh. 1.5kW is a very minimum spec system but with one RM you can get away with a 120V outlet) So you will not be using it as a server. You will probably not want to run it in summer. You don't want to cycle it on and off all the time, because of the fragility of the many DCDC converters scattered throughout the system. etc, etc, etc.

For a lot of applications the vpro is harder, better, faster, stronger. Unless you need the specialized features (raster memory, video I/O, etc) or have 8 monitors you want to hook up to one pipe, the business case just isn't there.

And yet, we love them anyway. The whole ridiculousness of the machine is what makes them appealing to me. I wanted one ever since I was six and rode the magic carpet at disney. Eventually, you get one if you want one enough. I don't want another one. Maybe an octane or a tezro but I've recovered from the lunacy of the big boxes.

Ignore what blackfox has to say about price, as he's never bought or sold one personally, and have to live with it in the house. I did, and the transaction was "technically" $0 on both counts. You ideally need to be able to pick it up, and be very patient. And the same words are true when you go to sell it. It took me two years to find one, and several months to figure out how to get rid of it (I didn't want to part it out or sell it for scrap, which made getting rid of it much harder). Shipping is not expensive if your fedex account has sufficient volume to get a good discount, it's only 300 pounds and is easily palletized. I could send that anywhere in the country for <$200. If you don't have access to a corporate account, then I will agree, don't bother. I bet more than half of the onyx owners here got them either for free or less than $200. They are not hard to move, people say you will need a pickup truck or large van but that is only for the racks.

You're right that I haven't bought/sold one personally, but I was VERY close to getting one. The freight quote from NH to NoVA totaled the system out to over $1000, and the system was only $650. I'm just speaking from experience with *trying* to buy one. Of course, I'll yield to your authority Guardian, as I've not one myself.

I'd get one if I could take it with me overseas when I move. Hmm, maybe if I can get over Aquaphobia I can take a boat...

@ guardian452
Thanks for the post. I want to check out a machine to see how it runs certain task or application. I do not want to buy one just for that. It would be like buying a 4K Gaming rig just to experience it and never playing with it again. I wish had a job that could use these machines it would justify the cost at least.

TeamBlackFox wrote: maybe if I can get over Aquaphobia I can take a boat...

please shoot a photo then, you with the onyx on a boat

Trekiej wrote: @ guardian452
Thanks for the post. I want to check out a machine to see how it runs certain task or application. I do not want to buy one just for that. It would be like buying a 4K Gaming rig just to experience it and never playing with it again. I wish had a job that could use these machines it would justify the cost at least.

well let's be clear, an onyx rack at home is for fun. you can't justify that reasonably but the good thing is you don't have to either
if you dig it and find some good offer just take it and enjoy the view

It is funny to see people selling Blender on ebay, and a little bit sad.