Here are the major points you should consider when purchasing a 3D card:

• Do you want to have 2D and 3D on one card or on two cards? With the exception of the coming Voodoo Banshee card, all cards based on the 3Dfx chipset are solely 3D cards; that means you have to buy a separate 2D card. This requires an extra PCI slot on your motherboard. Until recently the 2d/3d combination yielded some of the highest frame rates. Cards based on the i740, Riva TNT, Matrox G200 and 3dfx Banshee are an "all-in-one" solution.

• Are you looking for OpenGL support? OpenGL can, among other things, accelerate 3D in a Window, whereas 3Dfx based cards can only do 3D acceleration in full-screen mode. Cards based on the 3Dfx chipset do not support 3D acceleration in a Window, but this will change with the new Banshee based boards.

• What about picture quality? The Matrox G200 chipset and the new Riva TNT, while being some of the quickest processors, arguably sport the best displays [partly because they use an internal 32-bit color palette].

• Which is the fastest card out there? It depends what software you plan on running. If you want hardcore 3D gaming action with really high frame rates and decent display quality, the Voodoo2 SLI (two boards running together) is the ticket. Keep in mind, it also depends on what resolution you plan on running (which also depends on the size of your monitor). For anything beyond 800x600 Matrox and TNT are your choices. Banshee may change this.
• Is AGP important to me? If you have 16 meg onboard, AGP may not be such a big deal. But with anything less, you might reconsider your choice.

Riding the Bus

The question that could be in your mind now regards AGP. Up to now I haven't taken this question very seriously. First, there was no software that mattered to me where AGP was critical. Second, I wasn't convinced that this was not just another Intel marketing ploy. However, my time in San Francisco viewing Nations: Fighter Command and speaking with one of the artists working on the sim has changed my mind.

Does AGP Really Improve Performance? You can read this article at Tom's Hardware site. It's the response of Real3D, co-developer of the Intel i740 3D graphics chip to Bert McComas' article 'Does AGP Really Improve Performance?', first pubished on Tom's Hardware Guide about six weeks ago. Tom has included his own comments as well. Its not always a crystal clear discussion, but it does illumine the issues.

Let me share some impressions of the Nations alpha. First, the AGP version is significantly richer graphically than the PCI version. I watched Nations on both V2 systems (8 meg board) and on an AGP system (The V2 system was a PII 300 and the AGP system a PII 400 with i740).

I was told that the 2 meg of texture memory per texture unit on the 8 meg Voodoo 2 board was completely inadequate, requiring texture compression that affected image quality and also limited detail levels. The 4 meg of a 12 meg V2 board (4 megs per texel unit) is an improvement, but still very limiting compared to the AGP option. Textures in Nations can be as large as 12 meg, therefore the need for AGP. Texture compression is used if your board has access to 4 meg of texture memory or less, and the effects do degrade the image.

What this will mean is that those who have an AGP board will get the best out of Nations. And those who have a powerful system behind the board will be able to run with maximum detail at resolutions exceeding 1024x768. If you are near the top of the rung in early 1999, say with a PII 400 or better, running a Matrox MGA G200 or Riva TNT based board like the STB V4400, you should be very pleased indeed. With support for tri-linear filtering, image quality may be the best we have seen yet.

What if you don't have AGP? If you have 16 meg onboard, like the Matrox, Savage3d boards, TNT boards or Banshee, you should be okay. But when textures get larger and resolutions move up, you may face a performance penalty. There is a good reason that Rendition is designing their new Redline chip to address 32 meg of onboard video memory! AGP will become very important in 1999.

Survey: On TNT and Texels

When you decide to purchase a 3D accelerator, as mentioned above, you will have to consider 2D/3D integration or separate cards, picture quality, speed, price, and API compatibility.

Click to continue . . .

At the moment, there are two chipsets on top of the heap. Both 3dfx Voodoo 2 chipset and nVidia's TNT use twin texel processors to speed rendering. In fact, 3dfx has recently launched a lawsuit against nVidia claiming infringement of copyright. Here's the rundown on high end 3d accelerators (for individual review links see our Video page).

Voodoo 2

If it's pure speed you want, especially at high resolution (800x600 or 1024x768), the Voodoo2 SLI (this requires 2 cards!) is the best bet. You get a good image, more speed than TNT (how much more depends on the software), and a widely supported chipset.

The pitfalls? Price and PCI slots. Even with Guillemot's recent announcement of TWO 12 meg boards for $300 US, you still need 3 slots for video (one for your 2D card and two for the twin Voodoo2 cards) and three cards. Sorry, no AGP! V2 is sometimes faster in its native Glide API than TNT but image quality is lacking.

Matrox MGA G200

A grand entrance was made by the Matrox G200 AGP. The card is about 25% slower in frame rate compared to Voodoo2, but it compensates in picture quality, 2D/3D integration, and price. The MGA G200 chip is VERY fast in 2d, and will run OpenGL full screen when the drivers are released. Furthermore, the Matrox chip supports advanced AGP features like 2x and can directly support 16 meg of onboard RAM.

Intel i740

Intel recently released its i740 video chipset. While it scored very well in some benchmarks, the actual frame rates in games were roughly half that of the Voodoo2 card. The i740 is a 2D/3D combo card and for under $100 US is a good entry level purchase.

Riva TNT

Nvidia's Riva TNT chipset (as found on the Diamond Viper V550 or STBs Velocity V4400) is the basis for another 2D/3D combo card. The frame rate of this new chip is extrememly impressive, up to 100% faster than a single V2 board under D3d (Falcon 4.0 alpha), and as much as 60% faster compared to V2 under Glide (also F4 alpha). Like the Matrox MGA G200, advanced AGP features are supported in addition to full OpenGL support.

At the moment, the TNT is the fastest 2d/3d combo on the market and will support 16 meg of onboard RAM. TNT is also available from STB in a PCI version, good news for those pre-LX mainboards. TNT is also THE leader in AGP performance, passing even Matrox' implementation.

3dfx Banshee

Something of a hybrid, the Banshee might pass almost unnoticed if it weren't for four factors: 1) it supports 16 meg of onboard RAM and will exceed the old 3dfx limitation of 1024x768 resolution; 2) its a 2d/3d single board solution; 3) its faster than a single Voodoo2 board by about 20%; 4) pricing will be UNDER $100 US! Banshee in its first incarnation will do AGP, but not AGP 2x. Banshee is destined to become the new budget level high powered single board solution (Watch for a hands on report next week).

The S3 Savage3d seems to fall between Matrox and TNT in performance. However, since I haven't had my hands on any card based on this new chip by S3 I really can't comment on performance.

What's Next?

Some time ago we heard intriguing news that No.9 would enter the 3d accelerator marketplace this fall with a board that should compete well with the Matrox MGA G200. But since that bit of news we've heard and seen nothing else.

Rendition has been strangely quiet of late, but recently announced their new Redline chipset, which will sport dual texture rendering pipelines and also sport internal support for twin displays (yes, dual 250 MHz RAMDACs). Furthermore, the new chip will directly support up to 32 meg of onboard memory. Since Micron (the big motherboard and memory maker) has now completed their purchase of Rendition, doubtless we will hear and see more of Rendition soon.

Videologic is also working on a new chipset, dubbed "PowerVRSG". This chipset is a 2D/3D all-in-one solution which will produce over 1.2 million polygons a second (that's quick!).

Future chips are already on the drawing boards. Bitboys Oy announced their Glaze3d a few months back, estimated at 400 million dual textured, illuminated, fogged, alpha blended, anti-aliased, Z buffer pixels per second. The 3d future is bright!

Who Makes What?

Most of the chips named above can be found on a variety of name brands. Diamond, Canopus and STB are using the RivaTNT; too many to name use the Voodoo2 chipset; the S3 Savage3d can be found on Hercules Beast among others; Banshee will be first released by Guillemot, followed quickly by Metabyte and others. Matrox is... well, Matrox! And the Intel i740 can be found on a large number of name brand boards.

For reviews of most of the major 3d accelerator boards, see the links on our Video Hardware page.