Honorable Mentions

The miroCrystal 40SV Twin , from miro Computer Products, includes not just one, but two graphics accelerators. To add the second S3 processor, it uses a daughterboard mounted on the main adapter. The miro TwinFace driver can control the two monitors simultaneously, creating one large Windows workspace. With your desktop stretched across two monitors, you can seamlessly drag Windows from one monitor to the other, cut and paste between two full screens, or operate with one screen displaying your Windows application and the other displaying your C++ debugger.

It may not provide the grandeur of the silver screen, but VideoLogic's PCI Movie can run full-screen movies plus accelerate Windows multimedia presentations. The board is powered by a Weitek P9100 graphics accelerator as well as VideoLog ic's PowerPlay32 Digital Movie accelerator chip. The movie processor incorporates SmoothScale, which is a proprietary scaling algorithm that allows the acceleration of Indeo, Cinepak, MPEG 1, and Video 1 video clips. Boards like this will expedite the adoption of motion video into mainstream computing.

The MGA Impression Plus from Matrox offers helpful productivity features that set it apart from similarly priced PCI graphics adapters. One of Matrox's way-cool innovations is a feature called Pixel Touch, which allows you to zoom up to 2 and 4 magnification and pan in a window within AutoCAD via a hot key. A QCDP (Quality Color Dithering Process) feature simulates true color in 8- and 16-bit modes at resolutions up to 1600 by 1200 pixels.