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Graphic Wisdom: 3D Video Cards Part I
By Len "Viking1" Hjalmarson

Article Type: Feature / Hardware
Article Date: May 07, 2001

Harken To My Words

Listen, my son, while I share with you wisdom.
Get video hardware, and get more power for your games.
Do not dwell in the land of the hardware challenged.
Seek the land of horsepower and 32 bit color.
Then you will be happy,
Yea, your flight through the heavens will be smooth and delightful.

At one time the most important part of any upgrade was the CPU. These days memory and video hardware are equally important, and anyone trying to build a properly balanced system needs to seriously consider video hardware.

Unfortunately, while there are fewer graphics boards competing for our dollars these days (with Matrox and 3Dfx no longer players), the scene is no less complex. NVIDIA, in particular, has so many different entries in the video hardware market that the combat simulation fan has to be an avid reader of hardware news and reviews just to follow the constant flood of new entries.

This article is not a hands-on review or even an exhaustive survey of brands and boards, but rather an up-to-date consideration of what you need to know to make your next video purchase. I’ll attempt to clarify some of the issues and boil things down to the basics.

The Players

The first problem many gamers face when they consider a new video accelerator is the confusion of brand names. Hercules, Creative, Guillemot, Elsa, Leadtek, VisionTek, Asus . . . what’s the difference between this incarnation of GeForce2 and that one?

NVIDIA GeForce3

Don’t be confused by brand names. The same silicon brain inhabits Elsa’s Gladiac 920 as inhabits Hercules 3D Prophet III. Ignore brand names and consider only the brain that drives the board. The current contenders are:

• ATI’s Radeon
• NVIDIA’s GeForce3 GPU
• NVIDIA’s GeForce2 GPU
• NVIDIA’s GeForce2 MX
• Imagination Technologies KYRO II

Matrox has recently announced that there won’t be a G600 or G800. For the moment, they are out of the gaming market. Their recent Millennium G450 is business hardware only, and slower than the G400 in games. If you really need dual display capability, consider ATI’s Radeon instead.

At the Pearly Gate

The easiest buying decision is for those for whom price is no object. If you have excess cash and want the best money can buy, head down to your nearest hardware outlet and purchase the latest video hardware available: any brand using the GeForce3 chip will do. Your choices are Elsa, Hercules, LeadTek, VisionTek, or Asus. Creative isn’t entering the GeForce3 market, but all these board makers have plenty of experience with video hardware.

The advantage of buying the latest hardware is not what some people think: raw hardware horsepower of the GeForce3 isn’t that much higher than the GeForce2 Ultra in present games. Instead, the advantage of buying the most recent hardware is the games of winter, 2001 and spring, 2002. Buying the latest is an investment in future gaming.

The easy part of the decision is that only those with lots of cash need apply. The latest video hardware is always expensive. The rest of us will stick with the last generation and some new technology.

That leaves the more budget conscious to consider ATI’s Radeon, versus the new KYRO II based boards and the last generation of NVIDIA chips in their many guises: the GeForce2 and GeForce2 MX series.

Let’s eliminate the Radeon from consideration. It’s roughly the same speed as the budget NVIDIA hardware (the MX series) but costs more. Besides, with the arrival of KYRO II boards, you can have the same horsepower for less expense.

We are left with NVIDIA’s GeForce2 chip and the new KYRO II (ATI’s Radeon II will show up this fall, but information is scarce).

Let’s say you don’t have the free cash for the latest and greatest, but you do want hardware that will take you into 2002. You don’t want to pay the premium for the GeForce3, but you want hardware that will allow you to run current simulations with all features ON.

Then you, my son, will look for a good price on any brand using the GeForce2. If you are particularly wise, you will purchase the GeForce2 Pro. This version sports faster memory and more of it, and prices are falling with the release of NVIDIA’s new GeForce3 hardware. Yea, the Pro version will make you happy and your games will be beautiful.

“But,” you ask, “what about KYRO II based video hardware?”

The Wisdom of NVIDIA

Do not fear, my son, when your frame rate goes south,
Neither sweat nor curse,
Lest you fall into error and tweak wrongly,
And your system crash.

Instead, consider your options, that it may go well with you,
And your purchase decision be wise.
Understand the latest technology, and receive the counsel of your elders.
Then you shall have victory,
And your missions will have good success.

Before we venture into the unfamiliar land of KYRO II technology, let’s take a closer look at the many varieties of GeForce2 boards. From that exalted place we can put the new KYRO II hardware, like Hercules's 3D Prophet 4500 and Videologic’s Vivid!XS in perspective. We’ll close with a brief look at the future of video hardware with DX8 compatible boards like GeForce3 and Radeon II.

KYRO II

NVIDIA launched their GeForce technology about 18 months ago, proclaiming the first GPU: Graphics Processing Unit. It makes sense. The CPU has been increasingly unburdened from the worries of image building, and those burdens have been wisely transferred to video hardware.

The second generation of NVIDIA hardware increased features and horsepower, in particular expanding memory bandwidth. This translates into both improved framerate and more beautiful games, as developers have made use of advanced lighting features and greater color depth. GeForce hardware, as we all know, (say the mantra with me, please) does T&L in hardware… (T&L, T&L, T&L . . . I am approaching enlightenment!)

Unfortunately, for the feint of heart, NVIDIA has more versions of their GeForce2 boards on the market than Elizabeth Taylor has ex-husbands. In fact there are six versions of the board for the AGP bus, and a seventh for those old PCI slots on Pentium II machines. (Yes, my son, though your board be old and grey, it too can achieve enlightenment!)

Three of the AGP versions of GeForce2 now come with a full 64MB of video memory. The Ultra (the fastest GeForce2 board), the Pro (the second fastest) and now even the MX are available with 64MB of memory.

“Thank you, O wise one! But is there great strength in more memory? Will my games run faster, or look better? Will women notice me?”

With current games there isn’t a great advantage to extra memory, and all memory is not created equal. The Ultra is the most expensive of the three GeForce2 boards, with super fast double data rate (DDR) memory. When texture volume (especially at high resolution) will bog down some boards, the Ultra and the Pro will keep on moving. The Ultra, however, not only has DDR memory but also a faster clock speed than the Pro. That’s why you will pay a premium for the Ultra, and that’s why it is faster even than GeForce3 in some current games. The MX, on the other hand, has the slowest memory of the three 64MB boards.

My son, if your cash fails you, consider your ways,
And look to your bank account.
Buy the Pro or the MX 400, and preserve your life.
For why should you fall into error?

Now that prices are falling, the Pro or the MX 400 are good choices. One of the reasons for this is new competition, in the form of the new KYRO II as seen in the VideoLogic Vivid!XS and Hercules 3D Prophet 4500.

A New Breed of Chariot: KYRO II

Once there was the iron age; then steel appeared. The latter age's weapons were stronger, lasted longer, could be sharpened to a fine edge, and were far less brittle. Ain’t new technology grand?

Imagination Technology and PowerVR has been best known for LBE's (Location-Based Entertainment). Their transition to the PC scene with new technology comes at a great time for gamers, providing NVIDIA with some needed competition.

The KYRO II chip uses a new approach to rendering images. Rather than using a larger hammer, Imagination Technologies uses a sharper nail. By working smarter with new technology, they get away with greater simplicity, meaning a fast board that costs you less.

I asked David Harold, PR Manager for Imagination Technologies, to instruct us in the fine points.

Hjalmarson: Does KYRO II support FSAA, and what kind of performance hit will we see when FSAA is enabled?

Harold: Absolutely - we have a very good FSAA implementation and we see less performance hit from FSAA than our competitors do ; )

Hjalmarson: Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe one of the new features in DX8 is support for scene occlusion. How does this method compare to tile-based rendering?

Harold: Depth complexity is a key issue in 3D games content and an essential problem to tackle if we want 3D worlds to continue to get richer, more varied and more complex. PowerVR's tile based rendering technology is the single best solution to the depth complexity issue. Problem solved.

Hjalmarson: KYRO II uses full 32-bit Internal True Colour resolution. Does this mean that there is no performance penalty for the user running in 32 bit color vs. 16?

Harold: There is a very small performance difference between 16 and 32 bit.

Hjalmarson: How do you expect KYRO II to perform in comparison to the GeForce3 series with current games?

Harold: KYRO II will provide games with excellent performance - for less than 1/3rd of the price of a GeForce3 product.

Hjalmarson: What advantage will there be for the consumer who chooses a KYRO II based graphics board over GeForce3, other than money in the bank?

Harold: Well, they'll have shown they have good taste and judgement ; ) And they'll still have enough money to buy the next generation PowerVR card when it comes out as well!

See list below for Graphic Wisdom: 3D Video Cards Part II

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