Here you can read some of the results of my continual research for the latest and greatest graphics accelerators (I am a hardware enthusiast), both for gaming and for professional work. What is new, what is cool, etc. Ratings: 1 star is terrible, 2 stars are mediocre, 3 stars are are good, 4 stars are very good, 5 stars are excellent.3dfx Voodooo3 2000
A very basic card, but also very effective. 16MB SDRAM, AGP and PCI interfaces (makes little difference), heatsink-only cooling. These cards work on almost everything (Super 7, Pentium 100's, Athlons) with excellent performance. 16-bit color only, of course, but it looks good enough for my tastes. Usually available for around $80. Good DirectX performance. And it works with every game out there; it is extremely standard and easy to set up. 2D performance is also fine.Rating: 
- 4/5ASUS V6600 Deluxe
A Nvidia GeForce 256-based graphics card with 32MB memory, TV out, TV in, 3D stereoscopic shutter glasses...the works. Performance is excellent, for a SDR (single data rate) card, and I believe it is clocked higher than standard GeForce cards. 1600x1200@16-bit, high-detail mode is possible in Need for Speed: High Stakes, with playable performance. The stereoscopic 3D shutter glasses are gimmicky; they do work in some games, but they make my eyes hurt (I have seen stereoscopic 3D shutter glasses on other graphics cards, and had similar experiences). I have not had an opportunity to test the TV in/out features, but I have heard that the card can do 30fps video capture at fair resolutions, such as 400x300 or so. TV out is probably acceptable for action games such as Quake III Arena.The card did give me some trouble under Windows 98 until I installed DirectX 7, which got it running stably. I also had troubles on Athlon motherboards, until I flashed its BIOS to the latest version, which got it working fine. The card now performs flawlessly.Rating: - 5/5ATI Rage Fury MAXX
An interesting card. It uses two ATi Rage Fury 128 (Pro?) chipsets on one card rendering alternate frames, kind of like 3dfx's scan line interleave feature whereby one could run two Voodoo2's for double performance. 64MB total memory, although the two chipsets split it, so it's more like a 32MB card. 3D performance is competitive with a Nvidia GeForce 256 SDR. DVD playback is outstanding, even for very complex video, and it even comes with a software DVD decoder. 2D performance is extremely fast; on a par with a Nvidia GeForce 256.Not as technologically advanced as a GeForce 256 for 3D gaming, but about as fast for today's games, and the price is somewhat lower than a GeForce. Future games that take full advantage of the GeForce's T&L will run better on a GeForce, though. Also, appears to lack a TV out.Rating: - 4/5Diamond FireGL1
A workstation-class 2D/3D graphics accelerator. 32MB SGRAM memory, single monitor display. You can run up to four cards (both PCI and AGP cards are available) in a single machine for four-monitor support. I tried running Quake II timedemos on this card under NT4 in OpenGL mode; it did not perform very fast. Its drivers are not meant for gaming, obviously. 2D application performance, such as in Adobe Photoshop, is very good, with little redraw delays when working with large images. Visual quality is superb. 3D professional app performance is very good; much faster in 3D Studio Max than, for example, a Nvidia TNT2 Ultra card.It also works very well with Pentium III CPUs, as its drivers are optimized for the PIII's SSE extensions. Of course, an Athlon is so powerful that the difference is negligible. Its drivers are also multi-threaded and allegedly get it working quite well with multiple CPUs. Price is roughly $700-$900. All I can say is, do not buy this card for gaming. Oh yes, and it only has drivers for NT4, not 98 (unless you like 16-color VGA mode). Linux and Windows 2000 drivers are under development, and beta Linux drivers are available.Rating: - 4/5 (for 2D/3D professional apps, not for games)Matrox Millennium G400MAX DualHead
Dual monitors, one card, 32MB SGRAM, Environmental Bump Mapping, 32-bit color, AGP 4x. A great card. Nearly, although not quite as, fast as a Nvidia GeForce 256 SDR in 3D games. Outstanding graphics quality. The dual monitors work very well under 98. Under NT4, I have heard there are ways to get windows so they will not split across the two monitors, a la the Hydra, with its Millennium II's. I have not, unfortunately, had an opprotunity to see EMBM (environmental bump mapping) in action, but I hear it is wonderful. The EMBM performance hit is, I guess, probably the difference between 1280x1024 and 1024x768. 2D performance is top-notch, with high refresh rates, resolutions, and deep color depths.The card even has a neat TV out cable that plugs into the second monitor port, so your second monitor could be a TV, if you wanted. For professional users and gamers alike, this card is great.Rating: - 5/5Matrox Millennium G200
I bought one of these long ago as my primary card, and am still using it. 8MB SGRAM, AGP 2x. Also available in PCI versions; useful for building a multi-monitor 98 machine. 3D gaming performance is middling, but acceptable; I can run Quake III Arena at 512x384@16-bit color with reasonable results on a K6-2 450MHz machine, it does Homeworld at 800x600 well, and of course 2D performance is very good, although not excellent like a modern GeForce card or something of the sort. One thing I somewhat disliked was the heatsink-only cooling. It works, but it gets uncomfortably hot to the touch during 3D gaming in very hot climates, such as a tropical island :) A TennMax Lasagna cooler made me happy on that count.The card can be upgraded to 16MB, which would probably significantly improve performance in 3D games. Also, it works on Super 7 motherboards well. And finally, I was able to clock mine from its default 113MHz core/memory to a maximum of 135MHz core/memory (though I prefer 125 or 130 for coolest operation). You can find these cards used for as little as $50 on eBay, though of course if you are a reseller you should buy them new from sg3d.com.Rating: - 3/5Back to home
