The NVIDIA GeForce2 MX graphics processing unit (GPU) brings a number of signature features to the Macintosh platform, including hardware transform and lighting (T&L), per-pixel shading and drop-dead gorgeous 3D effects at high resolutions. Transforms — mathematical calculations that determine shifts in the location, size, shape and orientation of geometric objects as they appear on your two-dimensional display — require an enormous number of floating point calculations to execute.   The NVIDIA GeForce2 MX graphics accelerator essentially takes over the transform and lighting calculation functions from your computer’s CPU, enabling more robust collision detection, better pathing algorithms, and realistic physics. Curves are curvier, character joints look more natural, and the overall look and feel of the game is richer—and edgier.   The Power Mac G4 Cube connects to your choice of three stunning displays with the Apple Display Connector (ADC). The ADC reduces desktop clutter by combining power, video and USB signals on a single slim cable. A standard 15-pin VGA connector is also provided.   The Power Mac G4 Cube features robust support for OpenGL, the industry standard technology for professional-quality rendering, texture-mapping and eye-popping 3D effects.

Want to see your supercomputer prove its mettle in graphic detail? Just open a humongous image file in Adobe Photoshop, or kick start a hot new game like Oni.   It’s the moment of truth that separates supercomputers from the rest of the pack. Because professional graphics applications like Photoshop and graphics-intensive 3D games like Oni give your computer’s processor and graphics card the most punishing workout imaginable. And that’s precisely where the Power Mac G4 Cube comes into its own.   The Power Mac G4 Cube is driven by the 450MHz PowerPC G4 processor with Velocity Engine (500MHz model available as a build-to-order option from the Apple Store), the chip that first put supercomputing power on the desktop with the Power Mac G4. And the G4 Cube features robust support for OpenGL, the industry standard technology for professional-quality rendering, texture-mapping and eye-popping 3D effects.   It shows. In tests, a 500-megahertz G4 Cube took just 46.9 seconds to complete eight common Adobe Photoshop tasks. The same tasks took 60 seconds on a 1GB-Pentium III-based PC.   The Power Mac G4 Cube comes combat-ready for an edge-of-your-seat gaming experience. The logic board architecture, for example, has been designed to maximize overall system throughput. And the G4 Cube features a high-bandwidth memory bus, an Ultra ATA/66 interface for fast hard disk access, FireWire and USB.   You can also cram the G4 Cube with tons of additional RAM. Pre-loaded with 128 megabytes of memory, the Power Mac G4 Cube holds up to a staggering 1.5 gigabytes of PC100 SDRAM RAM (letting you allocate up to 999 megabytes of memory per game or application). And you can add this memory yourself. With no tools. In a matter of seconds.   It’s loaded The Mac has always been noted for its gorgeous graphics. In the Power Mac G4 Cube, those graphics capabilities have been turbocharged to phenomenal levels. The G4 Cube comes with a dedicated AGP 2X graphics slot fully loaded with the ATI RAGE 128 Pro graphics card.   At the heart of the ATI RAGE 128 Pro is the unique 128-bit SuperScalar rendering architecture designed to operate in high-memory environments—and at scorching speeds. AGP allows your games to treat the computer’s main memory as a seamless extension of the graphics card for storing large visual elements like textures, and to thus deliver a standout gaming experience. Single-Pass Multi-Texturing (SMT) delivers advanced 3D effects like texturing, lighting and shading, and additional gains kick in from the chip’s Twin-Cache Architecture (TCA), which uses texture and pixel caches to increase the effective memory bandwidth to squeeze out extra performance. The RAGE 128 Pro, by the way, has 16 megabytes of SDRAM.   The G4 Cube includes both an Apple Display Connector for easy connection to your new Apple display, as well as a VGA connector for use with other monitors. So go ahead: wreak your mayhem within the safe confines of your Power Mac G4 Cube. After office hours, of course.   The next level If you’re looking for an unfair advantage, consider adding the NVIDIA GeForce2 MX graphics processing unit with 32MB of SDRAM, or the ATI RADEON graphics card with 32MB DDR RAM. When these cards kick in, watch out.   The NVIDIA GeForce2 MX does geometry at rates that would make a Pythagorean’s head spin—20 million triangles per second. When playing 3D games at high resolutions, this graphics accelerator essentially takes over the transform and lighting calculation functions from your G4 Cube’s CPU, enabling more robust collision detection, better pathing algorithms, and realistic physics. The net effect is that the overall look and feel of the game is richer—and edgier. And faster, too: in Apple tests playing Quake III Arena at 1024X768, the 500MHz Power Mac G4 Cube with a NVIDIA GeForce2 MX graphics card hit 52 fps (frames per second), as against only 44 fps for a 1.5GHz Pentium 4 with the NVIDIA GeForce2 MX.   The ATI RADEON advanced graphics processor has 32MB of double data rate (DDR) memory for twice the memory bandwidth and the highest data transfer rates through the graphics pipeline. Featuring the 30 million triangle-per-second ATI Charisma Engine, RADEON is the first advanced graphics chip to blow past the gigatexel barrier with its awesome 1.5 gigatexel-per-second rendering engine. And it’s now available as a build-to-order option for the Power Mac G4 Cube.

Looking to add extreme graphics performance to your G4 Cube’s many attributes? The ATI RADEON graphics card is available as a build-to-order option from the Apple Store. The ATI RADEON takes full advantage of the advanced programming interface of OpenGL, Apple’s primo gaming technology, and it’s ideal for heavy-duty tasks like 3D modeling, geometry processing, rendering and—you guessed it—games.   The ATI RADEON advanced graphics processor with 32MB of double data rate (DDR) memory, features the ATI Charisma Engine (a phenomenal 30 million triangle-per-second geometry engine), for immersive, realistic 32-bit true color 3D graphics at the fastest possible frame rates. The ATI RADEON is the first advanced graphics chip to blow past the gigatexel barrier with its awesome 1.5 gigatexel-per-second rendering engine. What this all means, of course, is that you get even more photorealistic effects on your Power Mac G4 Cube.     Display your digital images on the Internet Sign up for iTools, Apple’s free suite of Internet services, and you can email your digital images to friends and family or share them with millions of people on the Internet. iTools lets you use the power of HomePage (the point-and-click way to building your own website), and gives you your own mac.com account. Mac OS 9.1 (pre-installed on the Power Mac G4 Cube) lets you sign up automatically through the Setup Assistant.     A digital dark room If you’ve been using a digital camera for any length of time, chances are you’ve noticed that those megapixel images are getting to be so sharp, they’re starting to look professional. Save them, and use your hard disk as a digital image album—and a digital dark room. The G4 Cube is great for retouching, resizing and cropping those images in applications like Photoshop.

 

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