February 1994 / BYTE Lab Product Report

Hands-On Testing: 76 Cards For Fast Graphics	Our custom tests use real-world applications to find the fastest accelerator cards for Windows and the Macintosh - by Jim Hurd and Mark Paxson
Promising Beta	Although it wasn't yet in production during our testing, we found the beta version of the Actix Systems Graphics Engine 32 VL plus particularly interesting.
PCI: Still Just A Promise PCI Benchmarks	At the time of testing, we could obtain only three PCI-based (Peripheral Component Interconnect) video adapters; all were preproduction models.
The Best Graphics Accelerators For Vl-Bus Systems Need speed for general business? Do you need 64,000 colors? When true color is mandatory... For high resolution and fast performance	We saw the biggest speed gains from VL-Bus in the true-color cards designed for graphics illustration and desktop publishing.
How We Tested	For most applications, the video adapter is the biggest bottleneck in system performance.
Comparing Scores	When comparing performance scores among various boards, consider differences of less than 5 percent to be unnoticeable in actual use.
The Best Graphics Accelerators For ISA-Bus Systems Need top performance and economy? The speed leader in 64,000 colors For the best speed in true color For switching resolutions on the fly	While VL-Bus video receives most of the attention, ISA video adapters are offering more capabilities than ever at bargain-basement prices of as low as $149.
When Video Drivers Matter	Under Windows (but not the Mac), video-driver software is vital for drawing images in system memory.
Avoid Interlacing	In deciding what graphics accelerator to buy, make sure you weed out those that support only resolutions that are used in interlaced mode, because eyestrain will result if you work for long periods of time with an interlaced display.
Windows NT Drivers: Better Late Than Never?	Many of the best-performing accelerators we tested had only beta Windows NT drivers during our test cycle.
How To Buy A Graphics Accelerator Video memory	Find the Right Color Depth Although 8-bit boards capable of 2 56 colors are adequate for Windows and general-purpose applications, consider stepping up to a 16-bit board with 64,000 colors.
The Best Graphics Accelerators For Macintosh Nubus Systems Need the best 24-bit Mac card? Are you cost-conscious? When speed matters	We tested 10 two-page, true-color display adapters for Macintosh-based graphics illustration and desktop publishing.
DSP Acceleration	Several of the SuperMac display adapters come equipped with DSPs (digital signal processors) to accelerate image-processing algorithms.
The Best Graphics Accelerators For EISA-Bus Systems Need to speed business applications? EISA leaders in 64,000 colors Want the best for true-color work? For high resolution and speed	After testing six graphics cards designed for EISA, we were pleasantly surprised to find that EISA video speeds can keep up with VL-Bus speeds.
How Bus Architect ure Affects Graphics	The effect of the different buses on graphics performance is modest when using typical business applications.
The Colorgraphic Twin Turbo gives not one	The Colorgraphic Twin Turbo gives not one, but two accelerated displays.
There's a variety of ways	There's a variety of ways to tell your software how fast your monitor can be refreshed, but the best we've seen is the m ode-selection utility that's shipped with the Elsa Winner adapters.
Hercules excels at the little touches	Hercules excels at the little touches that differentiate its products from similarly priced and performing competitors.
The Appian Renegade 1280 offers top-notch	The Appian Renegade 1280 offers top-notch Windows performance and, as an added bonus for software developers, can run two-screen "hard-mode" Windows debuggers such as MultiScope, Soft-Ice/W, and Turbo Debugger.
It's annoying to find	It's annoying to find that some display adapters for the PC market do not integrate VGA support, but the SuperMac Spectrum/24 adapters and the Nth Edge 1280 all require you to purchase a separate VGA adapter with a feature connector and connect the two adapters via a pass-through cable.
The Appian Renegade 1280	The Appian Renegade 1280 adapters are among the few that actually require you to read the manual to install them.
Roll Call Of Accelerators Tested

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