Worth it?

[stefcep2]

We've all heard the argument that the worth of something is whatever someone is willing to pay for it, but I think this is insane:  

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/Amiga-Vivid24-Graphics-Card_W0QQitemZ290290089193QQcmdZViewItemQQptZAU_Computers_Vintage?hash=item290290089193&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=66%3A2|65%3A1|39%3A1|240%3A1318

[beller]

Wow, that is pricey but it looks like this board was geared toward the professional graphics market when it was introduced.  It has some amazing specs (from the Big Book of Hardware):

The Vivid 24 is a Zorro III parallel multi-processor graphics card capable of doing 160,000 polygons/sec, 25,000 shaded polygons/sec and 40 FLOPS per graphics processor up to a maximum of 160MFLOPS. The graphics processor also features a 3D vector support rendering engine. The video memory on board can also be used as standard Amiga memory for running applications. Various expansion kits were available for the Vivid 24 including:

    * A Single graphics coprocessor upgrade kit, (1 x TMS 34082) with 128K of 32bit static RAM. (Max 2 per card)
    * Double graphics coprocessor upgrade kit ( 2 x TMS 34082) with 256K of 32bit static RAM. (Max 2 per card)
    * Video Memory Upgrade - 4MB VRAM (Max 4 per card, or 3 with video encoder)
    * Program memory upgrade kit - 4MB DRAM
    * Broadcast quality digital video encoder (NTSC, PAL, SVHS)
    * Allows high resolution graphics to be recorded directly to video tape.
    * Genlocks the Vivid 24 using either sync generator or any external video source
    * Video Effects Generator
    * Provides input for two video sources
    * Special Effects
    * Allows the mixing of both sources based on the Vivid 24 computer generated graphics.

[Firedawg]

When this item was originally ebayed the price was over 11,000USD.  The seller has come down a lot on the price.  I guess reality of the market has dawned on the seller :lol:

[da9000]

Seller's an a**hole: I asked for a video or something to show operation of the card or the demo and he's like: I have no time, this is for collectors etc. Yeah, OK, collect this then: :smack:

Really? Well, no $3500AUD wet dreams for you, d***.

I certainly don't recall buying an item of equal monetary value (ex: car) and not turning it on before purchase!

[Lorraine]

/

[coldfish]

I don't get why people would want this?  But if someone does buy it, I'd hope the thing actually works, the guy seems a bit vague on that point.

Unlike classic cars; classic computer gear walks a very fine line between interesting museum piece, and old electronic junk.

f0r $3000+ its not that interesting.

[da9000]

@Lorraine:

I don't think so. It is supported by SAGE, but nobody supports SAGE :-)

@coldfish:

I personally didn't really want it (unless it came with full programmer's documentation or at least the register set documentation), but I just wanted to "test the waters".

You're absolutely correct about classic cars vs classic computer gear. Cars haven't "advanced" so much in the last 50 years, so that a car that's new can do a whole lot more. They both do the same (take you from point A to point B) and more or less with the same success (ok, so the newer ones have heated seats! ;-)). But I mean, the new ones don't fly or warp space and time.

New computers on the other hand have advanced so much that the old ones do feel obsolete when it comes to "heavy lifting". They're not worthless, nor junk, but don't quite compete. The differential is exponential.

Of the old classics, only a souped up Amiga can come close to today's powerhouses :-)

[CountRaven]

@ Amiga we sometimes got to pay much to obtian hardware, sometimes not that old... -see my signature-....