From...

December 22, 1999
Web posted at: 12:23 p.m. EST (1723 GMT)

by Rex Farrance

(IDG) -- Gamers are always looking for that little extra edge in performance. This month they'll find it in Creative Labs' 3D Blaster Annihilator, the first board we've tested based on NVidia's new GeForce 256 chip. This new Best Buy blew away the competition during testing with Quake III Arena, one of the new games in our updated test suite.

GeForce 256 boards are expected to be particularly speedy with some of the new games that support Microsoft's DirectX 7 drivers. While such games are few for now, at least 15 are expected by the end of the year from mainstream vendors such as Accolade, Blizzard Entertainment, Electronic Arts, Id Software, and LucasArts. Many more should arrive next year.

Total annihilation

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Like most cutting-edge products, this board has a few rough edges and should benefit from driver refinement: Our test games could have looked more realistic, and we experienced poor performance with one racing game. Still, despite that one poor showing, the 3D Blaster Annihilator earned our top 3D rating. It offers what hard-core gamers demand: good basic image quality and screaming performance.

Buyers who prize image quality over performance will want to consider our runner-up, Guillemot's Maxi Gamer Xentor 32, based on NVidia's RIVA TNT2 Ultra chip. While it can't match the Annihilator's speed, the Maxi Gamer Xentor 32 provides fine performance, with image quality a cut above all the other boards. At number three, Creative Labs' 3D Blaster RIVA TNT2 Ultra is another appealing value, providing a good balance of quickness and fine image quality.

New tests, new products, and new ratings

Overall, we tested 15 AGP boards with our new methodology, and for the first time we've provided an all-AGP Top 10. But although the PCI ranks are thinning as the market moves to AGP products, we're not leaving PCI out: Next month we'll review a half dozen PCI boards with our new tests and restore the three best to our Top 10. Meanwhile, we still recommend 3dfx's Voodoo3 2000 PCI board.

We evaluated five AGP contenders this month that didn't make the Top 10: ATI Technologies' All-in-Wonder 128, Xpert 128, and Xpert 2000; Diamond Multimedia Systems' Stealth III S540 Xtreme; and 3dfx's Velocity 100. None of these boards provided the balance of features, quality, price, and performance required to earn a spot on our chart.

A tale of chips to come

In addition, boards based on chips that were not available for our current round of testing should be showing up in future reviews. Diamond Multimedia/S3, for example, is already trumpeting its Viper II, which is based on the company's new Savage 2000 chip. Like the GeForce 256, the Savage 2000 is designed to take more of the graphics processing load off the system CPU, and it should also take advantage of DirectX 7 games.

Also on the horizon is 3dfx's next-generation Voodoo4 chip, which should finally bring support for 32-bit color together with 3D graphics on 3dfx's boards; it may be delayed until early next year.

1. Creative Labs 3D Blaster Annihilator
   Here's the top choice for dedicated gamers. With NVidia's hot new GeForce 256 chip pumping out the polygons, Creative Labs' new 3D Blaster Annihilator cranked out record-setting frame rates in Quake III: 62 frames per second at a 32-bit color depth, an amazing 89 fps using 16-bit color. It was almost as blazing in all but one of our other test games.

2. Guillemot Maxi Gamer Xentor 32
   The Guillemot Maxi Gamer Xentor 32 is quick, with an above-average 51 frames per second in Quake III Arena at 32-bit color depth, and 71 fps using 16-bit color. Thanks to its well-tuned drivers, this card also delivered terrific image quality; the display was particularly impressive in Quake III and Unreal Tournament, with realistic and vivid lighting and transparency effects.

3. Creative Labs 3D Blaster RIVA TNT2 Ultra
   Like most boards we've tested that use NVidia's RIVA TNT2 Ultra chip, this card is a rock-solid 3D performer. In Quake III Arena, it managed 48 frames per second at 32-bit color depth, and 71 fps with 16-bit color. Its image quality was bright and crisp overall, though we noticed some unnatural background texturing in Unreal Tournament.

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4. 3dfx Voodoo3 3000
   Formerly the fastest board on our chart, the 3dfx Voodoo3 3000 is still competitive: Its 71-frames-per-second rate in Quake III at a 16-bit color depth is a close match for the top scores of every board except the pacesetting Creative Labs 3D Blaster Annihilator. At only $150 the Voodoo3 3000 is also the least expensive model on our chart.

5. Matrox Millennium G400
   The Millennium G400 provided realistic lighting effects, and it did a better job of keeping distant objects in view than other boards. For only $199 Matrox provides an unusually large software bundle, including Micrografx's Picture Publisher 8 image editor and Simply 3D graphics animation program, along with the Rage Software game Expendable.

6. Elsa Erazor III
   The Elsa Erazor III Pro performs well for its price, particularly at 16-bit color depth, where it hit 70 frames per second in Quake III Arena. At the 32-bit setting, it still managed a respectable 44 fps. And the board displayed generally fine image quality, particularly in the Sierra Viper Racing test, where backgrounds, level of detail, and transparencies all looked good.

7. 3dfx Voodoo3 3500 TV
   3dfx's Voodoo3 3500 TV card offers fast performance, a fine software bundle, and some nifty multimedia extras--including video and TV connectors and a TV tuner. Producing 72 frames per second in Quake III (in 16-bit color mode), it wound up in a virtual tie with its Voodoo3 3000 sibling.

8. Diamond Multimedia Viper 770 Ultra
   The Viper V770 Ultra did a great job with lighting effects and backgrounds in two of our test games, Unreal Tournament and Quake III Arena. It also showed above-average quickness in Unreal Tournament.

9. Matrox Marvel G400-TV
   This may not be the best board for dedicated gamers, but it's ideal for those who edit videos and only dabble in 3D game play. Its hardware video capture takes a load off your CPU and prevents dropped frames, and its DualHead Display feature lets you edit videos on your monitor and then watch the results of your work in full screen on a TV.

10. ATI Technologies Rage Fury Pro
    At $179 the Rage Fury Pro is a likely choice for buyers who want an affordable board for gaming and video editing. It performed well in most of our tests, with the notable exception of Quake III. Its image quality in all our test games--again, except for Quake III--was also good.