Editing PowerVR (section)

===Series1 (NEC)===
[[File:VideoLogic Apocalypse 3Dx.jpg|thumb|VideoLogic Apocalypse 3Dx (NEC PowerVR PCX2 chip)]]
[[File:NEC D62011GD (PowerVR PCX2).png|thumb|NEC D62011GD (PowerVR PCX2)]]
The first series of PowerVR cards was mostly designed as 3D-only accelerator boards that would use the main 2D video card's memory as framebuffer over PCI. Videologic's first PowerVR PC product to market was the 3-chip Midas3, which saw very limited availability in some OEM [[Compaq]] PCs.<ref>{{cite web|title=Compaq Selects PowerVR 3D Graphics Architecture for Next- Generation, High-Performance Presarios Home PCs|url=http://www.pure.com/press-release/compaq-selects-powervr-3d-graphics-architecture-for-next-generation-high-performance-presarios-home-pcs-7/|archive-url=https://archive.today/20130630053742/http://www.pure.com/press-release/compaq-selects-powervr-3d-graphics-architecture-for-next-generation-high-performance-presarios-home-pcs-7/|url-status=dead|archive-date=June 30, 2013|publisher=Imagination Technologies Limited|access-date=24 April 2013}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=VideoLogic Targets PC OEMs with PowerVR 3D Accelerator Card|url=http://www.pure.com/press-release/videologic-targets-pc-oems-with-powervr-3d-accelerator-card-8/|archive-url=https://archive.today/20130630044351/http://www.pure.com/press-release/videologic-targets-pc-oems-with-powervr-3d-accelerator-card-8/|url-status=dead|archive-date=June 30, 2013|publisher=Imagination Technologies Limited}}</ref> This card had very poor compatibility with all but the first Direct3D games, and even most SGL games did not run. However, its internal 24-bit color precision rendering was notable for the time.

The single-chip PCX1 was released in retail as the VideoLogic Apocalypse 3D<ref>{{cite web|title=VideoLogic Launches PowerVR-Based 3D Graphics Card Apocalypse 3D|url=https://www.pure.com/uk/press/november-1996/article_3696|publisher=Imagination Technologies Limited|access-date=24 April 2013|archive-date=5 May 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180505134842/https://www.pure.com/uk/press/november-1996/article_3696|url-status=dead}}</ref> and featured an improved architecture with more texture memory, ensuring better game compatibility. This was followed by the further refined PCX2, which clocked 6&nbsp;MHz higher, offloaded some driver work by including more chip functionality<ref>{{Cite web |date=August 23, 2017 |title=Back to the start: PowerVR 25 |url=https://blog.imaginationtech.com/back-to-the-start-powervr-25/}}</ref> and added bilinear filtering, and was released in retail on the Matrox M3D<ref>{{cite web|title=Matrox Graphics Inc. Selects PowerVR for new 3D Accelerator Add-In Card Range|url=http://www.pure.com/press/august-1997/article_3724|publisher=Imagination Technologies Limited|access-date=2016-01-20|archive-date=2016-09-09|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160909133348/http://www.pure.com/press/august-1997/article_3724|url-status=dead}}</ref> and Videologic Apocalypse 3Dx cards. There was also the Videologic Apocalypse 5D Sonic, which combined the PCX2 accelerator with a [[Tseng Labs|Tseng]] ET6100 2D core and ESS Agogo sound on a single PCI board.

The PowerVR PCX cards were placed in the market as budget products and performed well in the games of their time, but weren't quite as fully featured as the [[3DFX Voodoo]] accelerators (due to certain blending modes being unavailable, for instance). However, the PowerVR approach of rendering to the 2D card's memory meant that much higher 3D rendering resolutions could be possible in theory, especially with PowerSGL games that took full advantage of the hardware.

* All models support [[DirectX]] 3.0 and PowerSGL, MiniGL drivers available for select games

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align: center"
|-
!rowspan=2|Model
!rowspan=2|Launch
!rowspan=2|Fab ([[nanometer|nm]])
!rowspan=2|Memory ([[Mebibyte|MiB]])
!rowspan=2|Core clock ([[Hertz|MHz]])
!rowspan=2|Memory clock ([[Hertz|MHz]])
!rowspan=2|Core config<sup>1</sup>
!colspan=4|[[Fillrate]]
!colspan=3|Memory
|-
!MOperations/s
!MPixels/s
!MTexels/s
!MPolygons/s
!Bandwidth ([[Gigabyte|GB]]/s)
!Bus type
!Bus width ([[bit]])
|-
!Midas3
|1996
|?
|2
|66
|66
|1:1
|66
|66
|66
|0
|0.24<sup>2</sup>
|[[Synchronous dynamic random-access memory#SDR|SDR]]+FPM<sup>2</sup>
|32+16<sup>2</sup>
|-
!PCX1
|1996
|500
|4
|60
|60
|1:1
|60
|60
|60
|0
|0.48
|SDR
|64
|-
!PCX2
|1997
|350
|4
|66
|66
|1:1
|66
|66
|66
|0
|0.528
|SDR
|64
|-
|}

* <sup>1</sup> [[Texture mapping unit]]s: [[render output unit]]s
*<sup>2</sup> Midas3 is 3-chip (vs. single-chip PCX series) and uses a split memory architecture: 1 MB 32-bit SDRAM (240 MB/s peak bandwidth) for textures and 1 MB 16-bit FPM DRAM for geometry data (and presumably for PCI communication). PCX series has only texture memory.