It is only available as a $2,000 to $3,000 option on pre-built workstations.
![softimage3d wildcat softimage3d wildcat](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/RkTr0xXi5Kw/hqdefault.jpg)
Now the bad news: you can't buy the 5110 as an upgrade for your current workstation. The ability to leave material palettes, schematic views, function curve editors and the like open on a second monitor is incredibly useful and timesaving. I haven't used dual-monitors since my PowerMac days, and I somehow forgot how sweet it is. The dual-monitor capability of the Wildcat II 5110 is wonderful. On the right, the same image using the Wildcat II 5110 and SuperScene full-scene anti-aliasing. On the left is an image created without full-scene anti-aliasing. These processor and memory architecture designs are responsible for the card's great speed. The large buffers keep your data on the card longer, minimizing slow traffic over the AGP bus to retrieve scene data. The 5110 uses a ParaScale architecture to run dual-pipelines of geometry and raster operations on multiple processors. As in four times faster than the previous Wildcat 4110! It obliterated the synthetic and real-world benchmark tests and made working in Maya, 3ds max, Softimage XSI and Lightwave a pleasure. It is packed with 128MB of RAM split between frame buffer and texturing, can drive two monitors simultaneously without a hitch and is fast. Wildcat II 5110 Impressionsīefore we go any further, I'll get this out of the way: the Wildcat II 5110 is the best graphic card I've used to date for OpenGL 3D content creation.
![softimage3d wildcat softimage3d wildcat](https://i.pinimg.com/736x/4c/b9/03/4cb9032fec3e76f01310895fe0d91db5.jpg)
These tweaks can be saved as a new preset. For example, the better looking the full scene anti-aliasing, the slower the framerate. After 10 minutes of back-and-forth between the control panel and your 3D software it is possible to tune it to your own optimal speed vs. Once installed, the Wildcat II control panel allows you to select optimized settings for all of the major 3D animation programs, as well as manually fine-tunes them. This physically huge card is hungry for power. After one more restart you are ready to go. When Windows asks for drivers, point it to the drivers that 3Dlabs provides on CD. Close the case, plug it in and fire it up. Then, replace the old card with the (did I mention, monstrous?) Wildcat II. Next, power down, unplug and open the case. First, uninstall the previous card's drivers. Installing a Wildcat II card is a straightforward process. The 5000 runs on the more common AGP 2.0 standard and consumes less power.
![softimage3d wildcat softimage3d wildcat](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/WqQWwR7fXcw/maxresdefault.jpg)
Be sure your case has serious cooling before adding one of these monsters.) The 5110 is hungry for power - its AGP Pro50 interface allows it to draw up to 50 watts. (Neither card boasts cooling fans instead they rely on heat sinks. They occupy the AGP slot and the empty PCI slot below it for purposes of heat dissipation. Both are physically huge cards - filling the entire length of the test machine's ATX case. The Wildcat IIs are stable, fast and reliable. Formerly the workstation graphics card line from Intergraph (which 3Dlabs acquired last year), the Wildcats have a great lineage.