In the early years of local-bus graphics, VL-Bus graphics accelerator cards stole the show. But now PCI has overtaken the VL-Bus. Most cutting-edge Pentium systems include a PCI local bus, and most new systems use some type of local bus to accelerate graphics, whether integrated or via a slot.
To rank cards for the general-business category, we compared test results for resolutions of 1024 by 768 pixels with 256 colors. Most noninterlaced 15-inch monitors that come packaged with your average business system support this resolution.
While many adapters support higher resolutions, on small monitors these resolutions are hard on the eyes. But if you have a 21-inch monitor, such as the Nanao FlexScan F760i-W MultiSync we u
sed for testing, you could certainly make complete use of any adapter that supports 1600- by 1200-pixel resolutions with as many colors as the card supports.
Although prices for graphics accelerators have dropped since last year, one thing remains the same: In most cases, you get what you pay for. For example, the lowest-priced adapter we tested, the $143 DFI WG-2000P, has just 1 MB of DRAM and, predictably, finished last in the best-overall category. And while you'll like the results of our best-overall winner, you might cringe when you see that ATI Technologies' Graphics Pro Turbo--while a good deal at $699 (configured with 4 MB of VRAM)--costs almost five times as much as the DFI WG-2000P.
The MGA Impression Plus, from Matrox Graphics, had one of the strongest combinations of features, usability, and performance; it finished second in the best-overall category. Its $449 price tag may seem a bit steep, but that's substantially lower than the price of many other comparable high-performance PCI
boards on the market today. Its ability to change resolutions on the fly, its pioneering support of 3-D (unfortunately for testing purposes, it does not yet support OpenGL), and its high performance scores put it one step from the top.
Two of the runners-up in the best-overall category were priced under $300 and turned out overall scores that were nearly identical to those of the winner. The Premier 2000 PCI card, from Focus Information Systems, includes an ARK2000PV chip set and 2 MB of DRAM. This board's consistently high features and usability scores kept it in the running. The TrueSpeed W32 PCI, also from Focus, uses the Tseng Labs ET4000/W32P chip set and has 2 MB of DRAM; it ended up in a virtual tie with the Premier 2000 PCI.
Our high-performance rankings differ from the best-overall category in that we did not consider features and usability scores but relied solely on the adapters' InterMark performance numbers under Windows 3.11. ATI took high honors in this speedburner class with its
Graphics Pro Turbo and WinTurbo adapters. The $369 WinTurbo has only 2 MB of VRAM (compared to 4 MB for the Graphics Pro Turbo), but it didn't lag too far behind in the InterMark tests. The Picasso 64-PCI from Actix Systems, which finished a whisker behind the WinTurbo, costs only $279.
Differences in InterMark scores of less than 5 percent can be discounted as relatively insignificant; every board has particular strengths and weaknesses. Determining exactly how a board scoring 9.6 is better than one scoring 9.5, for instance, can be quite difficult. You're likely to spot the difference in a board that runs 10 percent faster than a competitor, but the difference might not be enough to affect your productivity. A 25 percent speed difference is great enough for you to choose a board for the productivity gains it offers.
Our low-cost general-business category comprised only those boards priced under $250, which cut the test pool to 11 PCI boards. Of these 11, seven were based on an S3 chip set. All
the runners-up in this class had 2 MB of DRAM, and the differences among the top five were insignificant.
Orchid's Kelvin 64 PCI, the first low-cost runner-up, came in just under the frugal wire at $249. The other runners-up showed slightly better performance, but the Kelvin 64 PCI had the second-highest features and usability scores, excellent documentation, and a four-year warranty.
Weighing for Best Overall and Low Cost
PERFORMANCE 75%
FEATURES 15%
USABILITY 10%
BEST OVERALL
ATI Technologies Graphics Pro Turbo
The Graphics Pro Turbo posted the highest InterMark performance score
of any adapter in this review, although its $699 price tag may cause
you to look for something with a better price/performance ratio. When
we tested it, 1280 by 1024 dots per inch was the highest resolution
it supported, but ATI is expected to release 1600- by 1200-dpi
drivers early this year.
OVERALL GRAPHICS AS TESTED
SCORE ACCELERATOR RAM (MB) PRICE
BEST ATI Graphics Pro Turbo **** ATI mach64 4 VRAM $699
RUNNER-UP Matrox MGA Impression Plus **** Matrox MGA 64 4 VRAM $449
RUNNER-UP ATI WinTurbo **** ATI mach64 2 VRAM $369
RUNNER-UP Focus Premier 2000 PCI **** ARK2000PV 2 DRAM $269
RUNNER-UP Focus TrueSpeed W32 PCI **** ET4000/W32P 2 DRAM $289
STANDARD DRIVERS PROVIDED
WIN NT 3.1 WIN 3.11 AUTOCAD UNIX
BEST ATI Graphics Pro Turbo x x x
RUNNER-UP Matrox MGA Impression Plus x x x x
RUNNER-UP ATI WinTurbo x x x
RUNNER-UP Focus Premier 2000 PCI x x x
RUNNER-UP Focus TrueSpeed W32 PCI
x x x x
SCORES
INTERMARK FEATURES USABILITY
BEST ATI Graphics Pro Turbo 72.9 *** ****
RUNNER-UP Matrox MGA Impression Plus 66.1 **** ****
RUNNER-UP ATI WinTurbo 68.7 *** ****
RUNNER-UP Focus Premier 2000 PCI 67.0 **** ***
RUNNER-UP Focus TrueSpeed W32 PCI 67.3 **** ***
KEY
Excellent ****
Good ***
Fair **
Poor *
HIGH-PERFORMANCE
ATI Technologies Graphics Pro Turbo
For displaying 1024- by 768-pixel resolutions with 256 colors, no
other board could match the greased-lightning speed of ATI's Graphics
Pro Turbo. The board has 4 MB of VRAM and the ATI mach64 accelerator
chip set. You get what you pay for with this board: high performance
under Windows for lots of money. T
his adapter also supports instant
mode switching, allowing you to change color and resolution on the
fly with a single keystroke, without the usual restarting of Windows.
OVERALL GRAPHICS AS TESTED
SCORE ACCELERATOR RAM (MB) PRICE
BEST ATI Graphics Pro Turbo **** ATI mach64 4 VRAM $699
RUNNER-UP ATI WinTurbo **** ATI mach64 2 VRAM $369
RUNNER-UP Actix Picasso 64-PCI **** ARK2000PV 2 DRAM $279
RUNNER-UP Focus TrueSpeed W32 PCI **** ET4000/W32P 2 DRAM $289
RUNNER-UP Focus Premier 2000 PCI **** ARK2000PV 2 DRAM $269
STANDARD DRIVERS PROVIDED
WIN NT 3.1 WIN 3.11 AUTOCAD UNIX
BEST ATI Graphics Pro Turbo x x x
RUNNER-UP ATI WinTurbo x x x
RUNNER-UP Actix Picasso 64
-PCI x x x
RUNNER-UP Focus TrueSpeed W32 PCI x x x x
RUNNER-UP Focus Premier 2000 PCI x x x
SCORES
INTERMARK FEATURES USABILITY
BEST ATI Graphics Pro Turbo 72.9 *** ****
RUNNER-UP ATI WinTurbo 68.7 *** ****
RUNNER-UP Actix Picasso 64-PCI 68.5 *** ***
RUNNER-UP Focus TrueSpeed W32 PCI 67.3 **** ***
RUNNER-UP Focus Premier 2000 PCI 67.0 **** ***
KEY
Excellent ****
Good ***
Fair **
Poor *
LOW-COST
ATI Technologies Graphics Xpression
The Graphics Xpression offers great value for a fast 64-bit Windows
accelerator. We picked it as the top under-$250 board because it had
the best low-cost performance. It performs high-
speed fills, line
draws, BITBLTs, and bit masking in accelerated modes with up to 16.7
million colors and 1280- by 1024-pixel resolutions. Instant mode
switching lets you toggle between high-resolution and true-color
modes with a single keystroke. Since the Graphics Xpression has no
jumpers to set, it's also easy to install.
OVERALL GRAPHICS AS TESTED
SCORE ACCELERATOR RAM (MB) PRICE
BEST ATI Graphics Xpression **** ATI mach64 2 DRAM $249
RUNNER-UP Orchid Kelvin 64 PCI **** CL GD5434 2 DRAM $249
RUNNER-UP Mirage Storm 1600-PCI **** S3 Vision864 2 DRAM $245
RUNNER-UP STB PowerGraph 64 **** S3 Trio64 2 DRAM $199
RUNNER-UP PraeoTek FastMax P20 **** S3 Vision864 2 DRAM $235
STANDARD DRIVERS PROVIDED
WIN NT 3.1 WIN 3.11 AUTOCAD UNIX
BEST
ATI Graphics Xpression x x x
RUNNER-UP Orchid Kelvin 64 PCI x x x x
RUNNER-UP Mirage Storm 1600-PCI x x x x
RUNNER-UP STB PowerGraph 64 x
RUNNER-UP PraeoTek FastMax P20 x x x
SCORES
INTERMARK FEATURES USABILITY
BEST ATI Graphics Xpression 63.3 *** ****
RUNNER-UP Orchid Kelvin 64 PCI 58.7 *** ****
RUNNER-UP Mirage Storm 1600-PCI 60.1 *** ***
RUNNER-UP STB PowerGraph 64 61.0 *** ***
RUNNER-UP PraeoTek FastMax P20 58.8 *** ****
KEY
Excellent ****
Good ***
Fair **
Poor *
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The Best Graphics Accelerators For General Business
