Sometimes, when building or upgrading a system you tend to skimp on one or more areas, a common area being the video card. Sure you can buy a $50 Trident Video card, but if you're buying a Pentium II to go along with it that wouldn't be such a great idea. A Video Card will often either make your performance skyrocket, or make your system struggle. An excellent example of this would be my unfortunate friend. He was putting together a Pentium II - 233 and in order to cut down the cost ordered a $99 video card, a Creative Labs Graphics Blaster 3D (not the Verite based 3D Blaster). When he got the whole thing up and running and when he went to run Quake, he was getting about 10fps at 640 x 400!!! Now for a Pentium II that is sad, very sad, had he known better he would have gotten the ATI 3D Xpression+ which was in the same price range and produced 50fps+ at 640 x 400. That's where I come in, to point you in the right direction. So what should you look for in a video card? Well there are a number of things to consider:

Color Depth	640 x 480	800 x 600	1024 x 768	1152 x 864	1280 x 1024	1600 x 1200
8-bit (256 Colors)	60-200Hz	60-200Hz	60-150Hz	60-100Hz	60-85Hz	60
16-bit (65K Colors)	60-200Hz	60-160Hz	60-140Hz	60-100Hz*	60-85Hz*	60*
24-bit (16.7M Colors)	60-200Hz	60-160Hz	60-120Hz*	60-85Hz*	60-75Hz*

The ATI 3D Xpression+ PC2TV is truly an amazing card. The combination of decent 2D performance, excellent 3D acceleration, and superb MPEG playback make it the perfect card for the average user. But why stop there? It has a TV-out built on to the board!!! The option of a TV-in port as well as the ATI expansion channel make this board a very versatile one. Under Quake I get excellent performance even at the higher resolutions with the ATI 3D Xpression+. The MPEG performance of the 3D Xpression+ is difficult to rival, especially when running at full screen on a 31" TV via the TV out port. You haven't really played Quake until you've played it on a big screen TV. For your convenience ATI bundles both a RCA video cable as well as a S-Video cable for your TV-out. You have the option of the TV-in (tuner) card for the 3D Xpression+ with which you can not only watch TV on your PC, but you can also view shows with closed captioning and save the dialogue from each closed captioned episode. You can later search through the saved dialogue for quotes etc... Also included with the video card are two 3D Rage II accelerated games, Mechwarrior 2 (which looks outstanding with all of the 3D Rage II features enabled) and Wipeout. Of course a driver CD as well as a Photosuite and WIRL browser CDs are included. Installation of the 3D Xpression+ is a breeze. Unfortunately, the board conflicts with some revisions of the Award BIOS, the conflict is nothing major, it simply makes the screen flash for a few seconds upon bootup and you fail to see the ATI/3D logo during startup. Not that big of a loss. The ATI 3D Xpression+ PC2TV is overall a great board with an average software pack included which is masked by the superb set of features and extras.

Although the ATI 3D Xpression+ PC2TV is seemingly a perfect board, its flashy packaging can be deceiving. Its awesome MPEG acceleration and well managed 3D acceleration mask average 2D acceleration. I wouldn't say it has horrible 2D performance, just average. Its not really for the die hard 3D gamer either, since its 3D performance can easily be topped by a Monster 3D or an OR3D. The main reason for purchasing this board would be its overall quality, since it has a variety of features (i.e. TV-out). Unfortunately, the TV-out feature isn't as great as its PC display since you are limited by the 525 scan lines of a standard NTSC TV Screen. When typing, the words tend to get blurry and the desktop often doesn't fit completely on the screen. Also, when using the TV-out, the 3D Xpression+ resizes your display so you lose about an 0.75" off the top and bottom of the PC screen when using the TV-out. This can be disabled by simply unplugging the RCA/S-Video cable plugged into your 3D Xpression+. Its a small price to pay for an overall great product.

Vendor(s): (2MB Version) - Megatrends Technologies (4MB Version)Sage Computer Solutions
WebSite(s): Megatrends - http://www.megacom.com Sage Computer Solutions - http://www.sagecomp.com
Phone: Megatrends - 1-800-495-2955 Sage Computer Solutions - 1-813-661-6125

Color Depth	640 x 480	800 x 600	1024 x 768	1280 x 1024	1600 x 1200
8-bit (256 Colors)	60-150Hz	56-120Hz	43-100Hz	60-85Hz	48-60Hz
16-bit (65K Colors)	60-150Hz	56-120Hz	43-100Hz	43-85Hz
24-bit (16.7M Colors)	60-150Hz	56-120Hz	43-85Hz

Let me settle one thing first, this card is the Graphics Blaster 3D, NOT the 3D Blaster. It is based on the Cirrus Logic Chipset, NOT the Rendition Verite Chipset. Now that we've gotten that out of the way lets move on to the good points of the card. The 2D performance of this card is well above average, its CBench scores are up there, a bit lower than the Matrox Millennium but they're still up there. The 2D performance under Wintune is about equal to the ATI 3D Xpression+'s 2D performance (~35MP/S). Now if you notice, another strong point of this video card is its outstanding price. 4MB of RAM on a 2D/3D accelerator for UNDER $100!! A spectacular price for a card such as this.

The Graphics Blaster 3D, unfortunately, has a wide variety of downsides which cannot be masked by its decent 2D performance or excellent price. Its 3D performance can't even be categorized by the term lackluster, it is truly horrible. It even made Quake weep on a Pentium II!!! CBench proved that its Dos SVGA performance was well beyond poor. I can't really justify this horrible performance except by saying that you get what you pay for. I would just shell out the extra $30 and get an ATI.

Chipset: S3 ViRGE/S3 ViRGE - VX (Stealth 3D 3000XL)/S3 ViRGE - DX (Stealth 3D 2000XL Pro)

Color Depth	640 x 480	800 x 600	1024 x 768	1152 x 864	1280 x 1024
8-bit (256 Colors)	60-120Hz	56-120Hz	43-100Hz	60-85Hz	48-75Hz
16-bit (65K Colors)	60-120Hz	56-100Hz	43-100Hz	60-85Hz	48-60Hz*
24-bit (16.7M Colors)	60-120Hz	56-85Hz	43-85Hz*

Price: $79 (2000XL - 2MB) - $129 (2000XL - 4MB) - $149 (2000XL Pro - 4MB)
$169 (3000XL - 2MB) - $199 ( 3000XL - 4MB)

2D, 2D, 2D!!! This card has tremendous 2D acceleration capabilities, some say it rivals the Matrox Millennium, some say it surpasses it. Nevertheless, it is just as fast in most cases. Plus it has better 3D acceleration than most combo cards. The Stealth 3D is newer than the Millennium so it supports a few more 3D functions than the Millennium, but overall it is on par with its more extravagant counterpart. The newest additions onto the Stealth 3D family are the Stealth 3D 3000 and Stealth 3D 2000 Pro. The Stealth 3D 3000 was made in order to compete with some of the newer VRAM, WRAM, and SGRAM cards, by using dual ported VRAM instead of the conventional EDO DRAM that the previous Stealth 3D model uses. Of course with VRAM the price compensates for the performance increase, the 2MB 3000XL is nearly twice the price of the 2MB 2000XL. Whether or not the price justifies the performance increase is questionable. In order to fill the void between the base 2000XL and the powerhouse 3000XL Diamond introduced the Stealth 3D 2000XL Pro. It has all of the features of the 2000XL, with a few extras. First, it is only available in a 4MB version, and uses a modified version of the S3 ViRGE chipset, dubbed the S3 ViRGE-DX. The ViRGE-DX is much like its more expensive ViRGE - VX counterpart found in the 3000XL, except for that it is complemented with 4MB of EDO DRAM not dual ported VRAM. In order to give the 2000XL Pro the edge over the competition, Diamond decided to add in a TV-out port for Television Display much like ATI's 3D Xpression+. As with all Diamond cards, the Stealth 3D comes with a nice assortment of games and applications to show off the power of the Stealth 3D. Not a bad card...not bad at all, considering you can pick on up for under $80!

We don't live in a perfect world, so you can't expect a perfect video card. The Stealth 3D comes pretty close but still doesn't get the cigar. What could be improved on in the Stealth 3D? First, the 3D performance could be improved to accent the name Stealth 3D. I personally think that the 3D performance of the Stealth is better than the Millennium, but it still doesn't touch the performance of the 3D Xpression+. And if that wasn't enough, the MPEG performance of the Stealth 3D is quite terrible. When running an MPEG file in a Window the quality is decent, but once you scale up to full screen it really begins to get blurry and choppy. The "friendly" Stealth 3D box makes the MPEG performance look much better than it is in all actuality. I guess if you can look past the MPEG performance of the Stealth 3D it is a very good card, that is only if you don't pay attention to the MPEG performance.

Vendor(s): Megatrends Technologies / Sage Computer Solutions
WebSite(s): Megatrends - http://www.megacom.com / Sage Computer Solutions - http://www.sagecomp.com
Phone: Megatrends - 1-800-495-2955 / Sage Computer Solutions - 1-813-661-6125

Many of you think you've played some of the best games on your PC, no offense, but you're dead wrong! You haven't played Quake until you've tried GLQuake, if you think its just a small patch with a few new enhancements you need to experience it for yourself. GLQuake as well as the other GL enhanced games available for the Monster 3D are truly examples of what the PC platform can really do. I thought my Pentium II was the best possible Quake performer, then I paired it up with a Monster 3D and really watched the game fly! The Monster 3D is an excellent add-on to any computer which will be used for games at least some of the time. The Monster's strong points not only originate from its spectacular Voodoofx chipset (which is also featured in the Orchid Righteous 3D) but from its tremendous game pack bundled with the Retail version of the card. I found myself spending hours playing games I've seen before, but never really experienced before. Among those included are accelerated versions of Tomb Raider, Descent, Mechwarrior 2 (this one is even better than the 3D Rage version that came with my 3D Xpression+), Whiplash, and much much more. The installation of the card is a breeze, I just popped it in and Windows 95 automatically detected it, and installed the proper drivers. The Monster 3D, unlike its competitors, installs its own configuration utility in the Windows 95 Display control Panel therefore making tweaking (we've got to have tweaking) so easy even a baby could do it. There are also 3rd party software addons available which allow you to "overclock" the Monster 3D!!! Mine is running at 57MHz now instead of the 50MHz it is spec'd at, not bad for a $159 card, it is definitely for the power user. I haven't even begun to talk about the performance of the Monster 3D when running these amazing enhanced games. You say the 6x86 can't run Quake right? WRONG!!! My 6x86-150+ ran Quake beautifully with the Monster 3D installed (an average of 20fps+), at resolutions of 512 x 384 x 16 bit color and 640 x 480 x 16 bit color!!! Then I moved on to the K6, a weak 6th generation Quake performer, and achieved frame rates above 30fps at 640 x 480 x 16 bit color. The Pentium MMX showed the same increase in performance, but it still wasn't too exponential (I wanted more proof) so I decided to pop it in my Pentium II.....A Pentium II at 300MHz on the world's fastest Pentium II board combined with Micron EDO RAM, a Matrox Millennium, an Ultra Wide SCSI-3 HDD, and a Monster 3D showed me what performance really is. At 512 x 384 x 16 bit color at the start of E1M1 using Timerefresh I received a whopping 151.5fps!! At 640 x 480 x 16 bit color I still got over 100fps, now that is really amazing. Even when I took out the UW SCSI 3 HDD, Micron EDO (replaced with normal EDO), and ran the P2 at 266MHz I still got amazing frame rates. The Monster 3D is really a wonder and can make any system perform to even the hardest critic's standards. And most new games are being optimized for it, Hexen 2, Quake 2, Unreal, Prey, Duke Nukem Forever, just to name a few will be optimized for the Voodoofx chipset and will be great performers on the Monster 3D.

Yes, I did find a few things wrong with the Monster 3D, they aren't big downsides but nevertheless, here they are. First of all let me point out the obvious, the Monster 3D cannot accelerate games while in Windowed mode. Not that you would want to run Quake in a Window, but that's one very small drawback of the Monster 3D. The only big drawback I could find is the fact that although the Monster 3D has 4MB of EDO DRAM, only 2MB is reserved for the Frame Buffer therefore limiting the user in some areas to lower resolutions. For example, in Quake, the Monster 3D is limited to a resolution of 640 x 480 (sorry, no 800 x 600 for all of you Pentium Pro and II owners). If Diamond had allowed us to expand the memory capacity to 6MB or 8MB this problem would've easily been solved, however this isn't possible with the Monster 3D. In other games however (like Mechwarrior 2) the 2MB Frame Buffer is enough for an 800 x 600 resolution, it really depends on the specific title you want to run.

Color Depth	640 x 480	800 x 600	1024 x 768	1152 x 864	1280 x 1024	1600 x 1200
8-bit (256 Colors)	60-200Hz	60-150Hz	60-100Hz	60-90Hz	60-90Hz	65Hz
16-bit (65K Colors)	60-200Hz	60-150Hz	60-100Hz	60-75Hz	60-75Hz	60Hz
24-bit (16.7M Colors)	60-200Hz	60-120Hz	60-75Hz	60-70Hz	60Hz

FINALLY! An all in one 2D/Voodoo 3D solution for the gamer. The Stringray 128/3D provides better than average 2D acceleration while giving users the option of playing Voodoo accelerated games. Unfortunately, no games have been recompiled for the Voodoo Rush chipset so testing GLQuake on the 128/3D is kind of pointless. The 128/3D is simply just a well rounded card, the 6MB of EDO RAM is more than enough to do the basics and more. When running the latest games the 3, count 'em 3 graphics processors really come into effect and make the screens fly! The 128/3D even one ups the Diamond Monster 3D by allowing you to run a 3D game in a window, not that you would want to, but you can. With all this in mind, it looks like Hercules has another winner under its belt...or does it?

The Stingray 128/3D is not as great as it seems. I would attribute most of this to the fact that all of the drivers are still being majorly tweaked, so I won't really say that much until I can re-review the card. Just to show you how bad it performed, under DOSQuake 1.06 at 320 x 200 the 128/3D was barely getting 30fps!! That is quite sad for a card that costs $300!!! That is just way too much for a card that is well below par on its performance, performance that it should be excelling in. Again, I'm sure that when Quake is recompiled for the Voodoo Rush chipset the performance will be much better, but until then the Stingray 128/3D is a poor card. It also does NOT support VESA 2.0! Once again, I'll give the Stingray 128/3D some time to get itself settled, and for some new drivers to be released, but until then this review sticks...

Color Depth	640 x 480	800 x 600	1024 x 768	1152 x 864	1280 x 1024	1600 x 1200
8-bit (256 Colors)	60-85Hz	56-85Hz	43-85Hz	60-75Hz	43-75Hz	43Hz
16-bit (65K Colors)	60-85Hz	56-85Hz	43-85Hz	60-75Hz	43-60Hz**
24-bit (16.7M Colors)	60-85Hz	56-85Hz	43-75Hz*		60Hz

Who says there are no great deals in the computer industry anymore? The Jaton ET6000 video card is not just a low cost PCI video card, it is, in my opinion, a video card which really gives you the most bang for your buck. For under $50 you can have a PCI video card which gives you tremendous 2D acceleration as well as above average MPEG playback. The 2D performance of the Jaton ET6000 is a bit below that of the Matrox Millennium, however it does outperform the ATI 3D Xpression+ in standard 2D Windows acceleration which isn't to bad considering the price of the card. What powers this amazing card? Well, the 128-bit Tseng Labs ET6000 chipset plays a major part in the amazing performance which is ideal for any gamer, especially when paired up with the Diamond Monster 3D. However, since the current PCI bus of our Pentium and Pentium Pro class systems is only 64-bits wide, the Jaton ET6000 paired the chipset with ultrafast Multibank DRAM, or MDRAM for short. Which can access multiple data access rows at a time, hence the name Multibank DRAM, and in turn allows the true performance of a 128-bit graphics engine to be seen. Too good to be true? Lets find out...

I've only experienced a few problems with the Jaton ET6000 that I should mention. First, the card supports no form of 3D acceleration (c'mon, what do you expect from a $50 card) which is perfectly fine especially if you will be using it with an add-on card like the Monster or if you have no need for expensive 3D acceleration. The only other problem I've run into with the ET6000 is its lack of support, many DOS games will detect it at best as an ET4000 which isn't too bad but you're still limiting yourself a bit when using unoptimized gameplay drivers. Windows 95 also detects it as an ET4000 however the ET6000 drivers can be installed flawlessly over those, not really a major downside. All in all, the ET6000 is an excellent card with a more than excellent price.

Memory Configuration	640 x 480	800 x 600	1024 x 768	1152 x 882	1280 x 1024	1600 x 1200
2MB	16.7M	16.7M	65K	65K	256	256
4MB	16.7M	16.7M	16.7M	16.7M	16.7M	65K
8MB	16.7M	16.7M	16.7M	16.7M	16.7M	16.7M

Have you ever wondered why most benchmarks Magazines and other Hardware Review Sites are performed using a Matrox Millennium? Well, that is mostly because the Millennium performs VERY well in synthetic benchmarks as well as real world operations. The 2D performance of the Matrox Millennium is truly bone shattering. With the Millennium on my FX83-A I managed to get a Business Graphics Winmark (Winbench97 1.1) of 150 with my Pentium II running at 300MHz (75 x 4)!!! In Wintune97, a score of 61MP is as easy as flipping a light switch with the Millennium. Don't think that the Millennium only performs well in benchmark applications, it also performs excellent in gaming and business/high end applications. For example, in Quake, at 320 x 200 in E1M1 with the Millennium I receive a Timerefresh score of 174fps!!! (on the same Pentium II system). That is truly amazing for a 2MB video card. The MPEG playback of the Millennium closely rivals that of ATI's 3D Xpression+. And with the optional Media Playback card it surpasses the 3D Xpression+ by a significant amount. You also have the option of adding in a TV tuner (like the 3D Xpression+) so you can view Television Programs directly on your PC, neat feature if you don't have a TV in your computer work area.

The Matrox Millennium and its multitude of expansion capabilities does suffer from some problems here and there. Unfortunately, the 3D performance of the Matrox Millennium isn't anywhere near its 2D (Windows) performance. The Millennium has average 3D acceleration, however the card still lacks some of the major 3D functions (Mip Mapping etc...). Its SVGA Dos gaming performance is also lagging behind its 2D acceleration. In Quake, at 640 x 400 I only get 30fps on my Pentium II running at 300MHz compared to the ATI 3D Xpression's 50fps+. The Millennium II may prove to be a worthy successor to the original Millennium, possibly correcting some of its flaws.

640 x 480	800 x 600	1024 x 768	1152 x 882	1280 x 1024	1600 x 1200	1920 x 1080	1920 x 1200	1800 x 1440
60-200Hz	60-200Hz	60-140Hz	60-120Hz	60-100Hz	60-85Hz	60-75Hz	60-70Hz	60-65Hz

When I first tested the Matrox Millennium I was left wanting much more, I felt that Matrox let us all down with the lackluster 3D support and poor direct draw performance. With the announcement of the Millennium II came high expectations, which were ALL fulfilled by its release. While still maintaining the excellent 2D and MPEG performance of its predecessor, the Millennium II added excellent 3D acceleration as well as the ability to support much higher resolutions courtesy of the increased RAM capacity (16MB). Although targeted mainly for professional use, the Matrox Millennium II surpassed the original Millennium in all synthetic benchmarks as well as the Jaton ET6000 in Direct Draw performance, something the original Millennium simply could not accomplish. The Millennium II is perfectly paired with the Diamond Monster 3D to make the ultimate professional video system as well as an awesome gaming system. As with other Matrox cards you have the option of adding a variety of expansion cards onto the Millennium II, including the Rainbow Runner, an award winning digital video editing card which increases the overall quality of the already superb video card. The 16MB RAM limit of the Millennium II makes it an viable option for high end users, and since it is optimized for use with the Pentium II as well as larger monitors it makes the perfect addition to any system used for professional video work. Like the original Millennium, the Millennium II comes with its own intelligently designed configuration utility which also allows switching resolutions/color depths on the fly. The installation is very user friendly, just make sure that you properly remove your previous video card before installing this one. The Millennium II should also work in multiple monitor configurations much like the Millennium, although I received no confirmation of this. As you might be able to tell by the power of the video card, the Millennium II's software bundle is mainly centered around professional applications, so don't look forward to play any games with the Millennium II when you open the box. Overall it is an excellent card, with its own set of flaws unfortunately....

The price of performance, how much are you willing to spend for the ultimate system? The $235 price tag on the Millennium II may be the scary factor of this video card. It should not be used as a gaming card, the Jaton ET6000 + Monster 3D combo makes a much more sensible decision if you are looking for a gaming system. The Millennium II is geared towards professional use, and the hefty price tag reflects that.

MRM's Performance

Back