Easing Windows' Graphics Bottleneck

New 64-bit graphics accelerator cards break Windows performance barriers

Greg Loveria

As a graphical operating system functioning on top of another operating system (DOS), Windows places unusually high performance demands on every PC subsystem. While CPU clock speed, hard drive response, and memory size all influence Windows application speeds, the biggest Windows performance bottleneck has always been the graphics adapter subsystem. That's particularly true if you work with 24-bit graphics applications.

Fortunately, manufacturers of graphics adapter cards have been producing products with on-board graphics accelerator chips, available from manufacturers like S3, Cirrus Logic, Weitek, Texas Instruments, and Tseng Labs, that specialize in handling graphics-intensive dut ies. Graphics card companies like ATI, Matrox, and Media Vision design their own graphics accelerator chips. The sole purpose of these chips is to relieve the CPU as much as possible from graphics processing chores such as font caching, fills, painting, and raster and vector drawing. The result is increased Windows application performance speeds.

While graphics accelerator chips using 32-bit-wide data paths have been around for a year or so (other wide graphics data-path designs have been around for years, however), the newest trend is to move graphical data between the graphics accelerator chip and the adapter's memory in a 64-bit-wide data path. Widening the data path increases bandwidths and allows the adapter to process and move greater amounts of graphical information more efficiently. Short of purchasing a new and faster PC, adding a 64-bit graphics accelerator card can be an easy and inexpensive way for end users to improve Windows application performance using their current VL-Bus (VESA [Video Electronics Standards Association] Local Bus) or PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect) system.

New Breed

In this review, I examine some of the first of a new breed of 64-bit accelerator cards that push graphics performance to new levels and are particularly suited to 24-bit graphics applications. Because they are optimized for 24-bit graphics, these cards run nearly as fast in 24-bit color-depth modes as they do with 8-bit graphics. But in all modes they are faster than previous cards.

While many of these products are high-end cards priced for graphics work at high resolutions (e.g., Matrox's card supports 1600- by 1200-pixel resolution with high speed and refresh rates), a few are reasonably priced cards that provide top speed for running general Windows applications that include some 24-bit work. Orchid's card, for example, starts at $249 with 1 MB of DRAM. I also tested 64-bit cards from Media Vision, Diamond, and ATI. Since my evaluation, other cards--both VL-Bus and PCI--have appeared from other manufacturers, such as Acronics, Actix, Genoa, Infotronic, Miro, Number Nine, and STB. All the reviewed cards except Media Vision's support VESA's DPMS (Display Power Management System) specifications, which lets them work with DPMS-compliant monitors and systems in power-saving modes.

I tested cards that follow the VL-Bus standard, considering them from the point of view of someone looking to upgrade a current VL-Bus system. If you're buying a new system with a PCI bus, the PCI versions of these cards should provide similar performance.

Gauging Benchmarks

In spite of myriad available graphics accelerator benchmark tests, gauging performance differences between such complex products as graphics adapter cards is a daunting task. Any particular benchmark test can slant test results in favor of one product or another.

Also, many of the graphics accelerator tests around can generate confusing mounds of raw performance data, giving timing details on such operations as numerical B ITBLT stretches, fills, and line drawing. I have found that poring over mountains of raw data results sometimes tells me little about how much faster my applications will run if I add a particular accelerator card to an existing system.

For this review I chose TI's Wintach 1.0, a tried-and-true graphics benchmark utility that emulates actual Windows with applications functions such as vector draws, font caching, scrolls, and paint fills. It also gives a pretty good estimate of CAD performance in general. Wintach runs four sets of operations, each characteristic of an application type: word processors, CAD/ draw, spreadsheets, and paint programs.

Wintach indexes the elapsed time of each application set against the performance of a Compaq Deskpro 386/20 with unaccelerated VGA. It then scales the resulting speed indexes according to resolution and color depth so the final application index reflects the amount of data a graphics system is actually processing over time. The four scaled indexes are th en averaged to get the overall RPM (Relative Performance Measurement) index number (as shown in the table "Performance for 64-bit Graphics Accelerator Cards.")

TI originally designed Wintach to exercise the functions of its TMS-34020 and 34040 graphics coprocessors. I picked it for my tests because it matched the results from preliminary tests I ran using actual Windows programs with two cards, an unaccelerated Diamond SpeedStar with 1 MB of DRAM and Media Vision's Pro Graphics 1024 accelerated card with 2.25 MB of VRAM (video RAM).

I timed speed differences between the two cards using four application tests. The first displays a CorelDraw .CDR file with 849 vector objects, to gauge vector and paint/fill screen redraws. The second scrolls a 20-MB TIFF file in Photostyler 2.0, to gauge raster redraws. The third and fourth scroll a 28-page multifont Microsoft Word document and a two-page multifont PageMaker 5.0 document, respectively, to test redraws, font caching, and vector font fills. When I ra n Wintach on these two cards, the percentile differences in speed observed between the two cards running my Windows application tests and Wintach's RPM results were virtually identical.

Speed Trials and Tribulations

In testing these cards in three VL-Bus systems and with several monitors, I ran into problems you should be aware of. With two early VL-Bus systems, I ran into compatibility problems. Only one of the new cards, ATI's Graphics Pro Turbo, would work in these systems. With a 66-MHz MIS 486DX2 PC, which had one of the first Micronics VL-Bus motherboards (circa March 1993), I was able to fix the problem by updating the PC's Phoenix flash BIOS with new software from MIS and Micronics.

I'm still working on the compatibility problem with the other system, a home-built unit with an early Diamond VL-Bus FastBus motherboard (circa June 1993) and a Chips & Technologies BIOS. The older motherboards follow version 1.0 of the VL-Bus specification, while the new graphics cards comply with VL-Bus 2.0. The graphics cards are supposed to be downward compatible with version 1.0 systems.

All the cards functioned flawlessly in the newer system I ended up using for the testing, a 66-MHz 486DX2 from Gateway 2000 with 16 MB of RAM, a current-model Micronics VL-Bus motherboard, and a Phoenix BIOS. I tested all cards using DOS 6.2 and vanilla Windows 3.1 configurations. I generated all Wintach test results at frequencies between 60 and 72 Hz in noninterlaced modes (as needed per resolution with each card).

The test monitors were a 21-inch MF-5421A Idek and a 15-inch Optiquest 3000. Caution is the word when working with low-bandwidth monitors and high-bandwidth adapters: I destroyed my 15-inch Optiquest monitor by plugging it into an adapter that was already configured at a 1200- by 1600-pixel test resolution from a prior test with the multisync, multibandwidth Idek monitor.

ATI Graphics Pro Turbo

ATI Technologies' Graphics Pro Turbo 64-bit accelerator is based on the company's proprietar y mach64 graphics accelerator chip and 64-bit ATI68860 DAC (D/A converter). I tested the 2-MB VRAM version of the card, which retails for $449. You can upgrade it to 4 MB with ATI's 2-MB VRAM expansion daughtercard ($249) or buy the 4-MB VRAM version for $699. The Graphics Pro Turbo ships with drivers for Windows 3.1, NT, OS/2, AutoCAD 386, Autoshade, 3D Studio, and Intergraph's MicroStation.

The VL-Bus version of the Graphics Pro Turbo is a three-quarter-length card (the minimum size because of VL-Bus slot design). The PCI and ISA versions are half-size cards. The 2-MB version supports resolutions of up to 1280 by 1024 pixels (256 colors). With 2 MB, only 65,536 colors are supported at the 1024- by 768-pixel resolution; with the 2-MB VRAM expansion module or the 4-MB version, you can get 24-bit color depth (16.7 million colors) at 1280- by 1024-pixel resolution where the card uses a packed-pixel mode.

Card setup and device driver installations are straightforward and are performed from a DOS ut ility. The card has only one set of on-board IRQ (interrupt request) jumpers; you set I/O and memory addresses through software. After configuring the card for monitor resolutions and refresh frequencies, you start Windows and then access ATI's control panel to fine-tune your Windows setup using ATI's FlexDesk+ utility. FlexDesk+ allows you to configure color bit depths, screen and virtual desktop sizes, and fonts, after which you must reboot Windows.

ATI's WinSwitch utility allows you to change between most of the above resolutions on the fly without rebooting Windows, while the DeskScan utility implements accelerated panning and zoom features. Another bundled Windows utility accelerates playback of Video For Windows motion video clips, allowing viewing at twice the capture size without pixellation (i.e., without creating a granular effect). Last, a DPMS utility lets any system implement power saving with VESA Green PCcompliant monitors.

In the Wintach tests at 640- by 480-pixel and 800- by 600 -pixel resolutions with 24-bit color depth, the 2-MB Graphics Pro Turbo was one of the slowest 64-bit cards tested (which isn't that slow). With ATI's FlexDesk+ utility, however, you can enable a 32-bit-depth mode and increase the card's performance enough to put it in second place at those resolutions. (As with many other accelerator cards, in 32-bit-depth mode, ATI uses the extra alpha channel bits as an additional 8-bit data path to increase transfer rates of graphical information.)

People like me, whose applications need 24-bit color in all modes, will want the 4-MB version of the card, which wasn't available for testing. Because most of my work centers around 24-bit image manipulation, I'd like to know how the 4-MB version performs at higher resolutions. However, at the 2-MB version's lower resolutions and color bit depths, the Graphics Pro Turbo is fast and well worth your consideration.

Orchid Kelvin 64

Costing considerably less than the other 64-bit cards I tested, Orchid Technology's DRAM-based Kelvin 64 was also the slowest, but not by much. It kept close to the high-end Matrox cards at lower resolutions. The card's Cirrus Logic 5434 chip, a 64-bit graphics accelerator, uses inexpensive DRAM and also functions as the high- and true-color DAC.

For $250, the Kelvin 64 ships with a 1-MB bank of 256- by 16-bit DRAM. A user-installable 1-MB DRAM upgrade kit costs $45. The 1-MB version supports resolutions ranging from 640 by 480 pixels with 16.7 million colors (24-bit) to 1280 by 1024 pixels with 16 colors (4-bit). Upgraded to 2 MB, the card supports 24-bit color at 800- by 600-pixel resolution, and 256 colors at 1280- by 1024-pixel resolution noninterlaced. Drivers bundled with the unit are the same as those that ship with ATI's adapter. I tested a 2-MB card.

The Kelvin 64 is completely jumperless; all I/O addresses are set through software. You first load Orchid's KINSTALL DOS setup utility to select and install drivers for Windows, CAD, and certain word processors. The KINST ALL utility also installs KSCAN, Orchid's advanced monitor setup utility, where you select and test monitor video modes and make screen-centering adjustments. After starting Windows, you use the Kelvin 64 Setup icon from Windows' Control Panel to configure display resolutions, color palettes, and DPMS times, as well as how much memory to reserve for the card's font caches.

Additionally, you can configure virtual screen resolutions and set hardware screen-magnification "zoom-in" and "zoom-out" hot keys. Because it holds only 2 MB of memory, the Kelvin 64 can display only 65,536 colors (16-bit) at 1024- by 768-pixel resolution. Like the ATI card, the Kelvin 64 uses a 32-bit color depth for acceleration, though not as effectively.

Still, Orchid's Kelvin 64 accelerator card is substantially less expensive than the others, and it's one heck of a bargain for the performance I observed. Orchid bills it as "the first affordable 64-bit graphics acceleration solution," and rightly so. Anyone who demands f ast graphics speeds for minimal dollars should put the Kelvin 64 first on his or her shopping list.

Media Vision Pro Graphics 1024

Media Vision's Pro Graphics 1024 accelerator card comes in two flavors. The $449 True Color unit with 2.25 MB of VRAM can display 24-bit color at 1024- by 768-pixel resolution, while the $299 8-bit Color unit with just 0.75 MB of VRAM can display 1024- by 768-pixel resolution with up to 256 colors. You can upgrade the $299 unit for the difference in price between the two.

Media Vision ships the units with a full array of drivers for Windows 3.1, Windows NT, and OS/2, as well as Autodesk ADI drivers for AutoCAD, 3D Studio, and Animator Pro. Extra goodies include Kai's Power Tools for Windows (an excellent fractal-generation program) and FastFilm (a Media Vision hardware implementation that allows full-screen playback of Video For Windows clips). The FastFilm feature is made possible by Media Vision's MVV462 Video DAC, part of the company's Stingray24 multimedia chi p set.

Media Vision's multimedia plans for this card are obvious. Besides the normal 15-pin SVGA connector, the card has both S-VHS Video and NTSC composite in-and-out connectors. These connectors will become functional when Media Vision releases its 1024 multimedia daughtercard, probably this fall.

The 1024 True Color adapter installs easily, without your having to set any jumpers (a single jumper block disables or enables the on-board VGA). To install, you start Windows in a 16-color, 640- by 480-pixel mode. You choose all Windows drivers, monitor options, and screen resolutions from a Pro Graphics 1024 setup utility icon in Windows' Control Panel and then restart Windows to invoke the new resolutions and color bit depths.

Expanded Pro Graphics 1024 units are not actually 64-bit accelerators--with 2.25 MB of VRAM on-board, the True Color unit uses a 72-bit-wide data path to speed up graphics functions. The Pro Graphics 1024 cards use a Cirrus Logic 5402 accelerator card coupled with Med ia Vision's own MVV452 graphics accelerator chip. The design moves graphical data via interleaving between the MVV452 chip along three 24-bit-wide data paths to three 0.75-MB banks of VRAM (one path each for the red, green, and blue color channels).

Of the six 64-bit accelerator card configurations I tested, only the Pro Graphics 1024 and two 4-MB adapters can display 16.7 million colors at 1024- by 768-pixel resolution. At this mode and resolution, the Media Vision chip comes in a distant second behind Diamond's card (and it's hard to say how a 4-MB ATI card might do). In 640- by 480-pixel and 800- by 600-pixel modes, the card placed in the middle of the pack.

Although the Pro Graphics 1024 is not the fastest accelerator card, I'm impressed by Media Vision's design and engineering implementations of the present 72-bit acceleration and FastFilm subsystems, and with all the extras that come with the card. If your graphics needs include future plans for capturing video or taping full-screen digita l video playback and SVGA computer sessions on your VCR, then you must have a Pro Graphics 1024 in your system.

Matrox MGA Ultima

Since introducing it last year, Matrox has revamped its 64-bit MGA graphics chip, removing some 3-D capabilities to lower the cost and tuning drivers to improve the performance. I tested two VL-Bus versions of the current 64-bit MGA card: the $499 MGA Ultima, a three-quarter-length card with 2 MB of VRAM, and the $599 MGA Ultima Plus, a full-length card that comes with 2 MB but upgrades to 4 MB for an additional $250. I tested the Ultima Plus both ways and found that the Ultima and 2-MB Ultima Plus perform almost identically.

With 2 MB, both cards support resolutions of up to 1152 by 882 pixels in 15-bit high-color mode and 1280 by 1024 pixels in 256-color mode (8-bit). The Ultima I tested uses a Brooktree 485 RAMDAC for high- and true-color modes. With 4 MB, the MGA Ultima Plus displays resolutions of up to 1152 by 882 pixels with 24-bit color depth, as well as 12 80 by 1024 pixels and 1600 by 1200 pixels with 15-bit color depth.

Installation was easy, although Matrox uses a 10-position DIP switch to set the card's memory addressing and enable or disable on-board VGA. You use a DOS utility to establish and test monitor frequencies, resolutions, and color depths, as well as for installing Windows 3.1, NT, AutoCAD, 3D Studio, OS/2, and MicroStation drivers. The setup program modifies AUTOEXEC.BAT and CONFIG.SYS to set software communication links with the MGA adapter's hardware BIOS.

After rebooting the system and starting Windows, you use Matrox's MGA Control Panel utility to set operating resolutions and bit depths, as well as virtual screen resolutions of up to 1600 by 1200 pixels. The Control Panel also lets you enable Matrox's ModeSWITCH utility, which lets you switch Windows resolutions and color depths on the fly without interrupting your applications. You can also enable or disable Matrox's PixelTouch hardware zoom utilities, which let you instantly magnify images for precision pixel retouching in image editors such as Photostyler.

Surprisingly, the extra 2 MB of VRAM I installed on the Ultima Plus increased Windows speed only marginally, and only in a few applications. Also surprising was that, with or without the extra 2 MB installed, the Ultima Plus ran slightly slower than the lower-cost MGA Ultima in some modes. Although it was once the only 64-bit Windows accelerator card and one of the fastest graphics cards of any type, the MGA Ultima tested slower than most of the other 64-bit cards at lower display resolutions. At higher resolutions, it's on a par with all the cards except the Diamond Stealth 64--and at 1600- by 1200-pixel resolution, it is the only card still in the running.

Using Matrox's QCDP (Quality Color Dithering Process) color mode, both Ultima cards can provide fairly realistic color, with display speeds in between those provided by 8- and 24-bit modes. QCDP is an 8-bit mode that uses the Matrox chip's hardware dithering process to emulate 24-bit color depths using only 8 bits of data. It comes into its own at 1280- by 1024-pixel and 1600- by 1200-pixel resolutions where true color isn't available.

A strong point is that the 4-MB MGA Ultima Plus supports the highest screen resolutions at the highest color depths of any accelerator card I've seen on the market. And particularly at these high resolutions and added color depths, the Ultima cards provide their best performance. A special $999 version of the card, the MGA Ultima 200, has the 200-MHz bandwidth necessary for an ergonomic 76-Hz refresh rate at 1600- by 1200-pixel resolution. In my image-editing applications, I found that the PixelTouch zoom and ModeSWITCH features were a real plus, and for spreadsheets and PageMaker layouts, the 1600- by 1200-pixel modes proved ideal with a large monitor.

Diamond Stealth 64

Diamond's Stealth 64 VL-Bus card, the fastest card I tested, ships in two configurations--a 2-MB VRAM version ($399) and the 4-MB VRAM unit ($59 9) I tested. Versions are also available for PCI systems. Besides Windows 3.x and NT drivers, the Stealth ships with drivers for Lotus 1-2-3, WordPerfect 5.1, Cadkey, DataCAD, MicroStation, and Panacea's TurboDLD ADI drivers for 3D Studio, AnimatorPro, and AutoCAD releases 10, 11, and 12.

The Stealth 64 VL-Bus unit is a three-quarter-length card with only one jumper (IRQ setting). The half-length PCI version is completely jumperless. The Stealth uses S3's new Vision 964 graphics accelerator chip along with a Brooktree 485 RAMDAC for high- and true-color support.

The 4-MB VRAM unit supports 24-bit color depth at resolutions of from 640 by 480 pixels to 1152 by 864 pixels, and 65,536 colors at the adapter's maximum resolution of 1280 by 1024 pixels. The 2-MB VRAM version supports 24-bit color at 800- by 600-pixel resolution, 65,536 colors at 1024 by 768 pixels, and 256 colors at 1280 by 1024 pixels.

The Stealth installed without a hitch, and driver setup was equally painless. From box to Wi ndows, I was up and running at 1024- by 768-pixel resolution in 24-bit color in less than 5 minutes. With Diamond's DOS-based installation and setup utility, you set and test monitor frequencies, text modes, and DPMS timings. A utility, S64BIOS.COM, loads as a TSR program for systems that don't automatically shadow the Stealth's BIOS into memory on bootup. (The Gateway 2000 test system did auto-load the BIOS, so I didn't test the unit with this TSR installed.)

The installation program next installs Windows drivers and starts Windows itself. Once in Windows, Diamond's InControl Tools dialog box requests additional information about monitor frequencies, as well as Windows screen resolutions and color bit-depth preferences.

During the Wintach test, the application screen tests really screamed, but I decided the results were a fluke--the RPM index numbers from the Wintach test seemed too fast. I spent almost 3 hours running multiple applications, rerunning Wintach, and performing some AutoCAD redraw timing tests that I had run with the other cards. I also tried a number of other graphics benchmarks, including NSTL's tests, before convincing myself that the Stealth was indeed running as fast as I perceived.

Diamond's Stealth 64 blazes in every Windows and DOS application. It will make your old 486 feel like a double-speed Pentium. I give it two thumbs up for excellence in all categories, as well as for being the fastest graphics accelerator card I've ever worked with.

For Every Need and Budget

Obviously, the top pick for best performance is Diamond's Stealth 64. It's a tad expensive with 4 MB of VRAM on-board, but it's worth every penny. My next choice goes to Orchid's DRAM-based Kelvin 64 as the least expensive 64-bit card on the market. Although a bit slower than most, it should appeal to users on a budget who need faster Windows application speeds but don't need 24-bit color at 1024- by 768-pixel resolution.

Media Vision's Pro Graphics 1024 is a great choice for those who can u se 64-bit acceleration performance now but want to do everything with one card in future multimedia applications. The most expensive of all, Matrox's Ultima cards are the only cards in this review that support 1600- by 1200-pixel resolution, and they do it with good performance. The jury's out on ATI's Graphics Pro Turbo until test results with a 4-MB configuration become available.

Other than the initial VL-Bus installation problems, all the cards that I tested worked as advertised, albeit some a bit faster than others. If you're tired of slow Windows speeds with 24-bit graphics, give one of these cards a try. Maybe you don't need a Pentium just yet.

---

The Facts

Graphics Pro Turbo (2 MB of VRAM, VL-Bus)       $449
   2-MB upgrade                                 $249
   4-MB version                                 $699
(same pricing for ISA and PCI versions)
ATI Technologies, Inc.
33 Commerce Valley Dr. E
Thornhill, Ontario, Canada L3T 7N6
(905) 882-2600
fax: (905) 8
82-2620


Kelvin 64 (2 MB of DRAM, VL-Bus)                $325
   1-MB DRAM version                            $250
   1-MB DRAM upgrade                            $45
(same pricing for ISA and PCI versions)
Orchid Technology
45365 Northport Loop W
Fremont, CA 94538
(800) 767-2443
(510) 683-0300
fax: (510) 490-9312


MGA Ultima (2 MB of VRAM, VL-Bus)               $499
   PCI version                                  $449
MGA Ultima Plus (4 MB of VRAM, VL-Bus)          $849
   2-MB VL-Bus version                          $599
   2-MB PCI version                             $499
   2-MB VRAM                                    $250
Matrox Graphics, Inc.
1055 St. Regis Blvd.
Dorval, Quebec, Canada H9P 2T4
(800) 361-1408
fax: (514) 685-2853


Pro Graphics 1024 (2.25 MB of VRAM, VL-Bus)     $449
   8-bit color version (0.75 MB of VRAM)        $299
   1.5-MB VRAM upgrade                          $149
(same pricing for ISA and PCI versions)
Media Vision, Inc.
47300 Bayside Pkwy.

Fremont, CA 94538
(800) 845-5870
(510) 770-8600
fax: (510) 770-9592


Stealth 64 (2 MB of VRAM, VL-Bus)               $399
   4-MB VRAM version                            $599
(same pricing for PCI version)
Diamond Computer Systems, Inc.
1130 East Arques Ave.
Sunnyvale, CA 94086
(408) 736-2000
fax: (408) 730-5750

---

Performance For 64-Bit Graphics Accelerator Cards

Diamond's Stealth 64 was by far the fastest card tested, but other cards have their strong points. Although expensive, Matrox's Ultima cards do well at higher resolutions and reach 1600- by 1200-pixel resolution. For its price, Orchid's Kelvin 64, the only DRAM-based card tested, provides good performance at lower resolutions. The 2-MB version of ATI's card does even better at lower resolutions; the 4-MB version, unavailable at the time of this review, may also do well at higher resolutions. Higher numbers are better; -- = not applicable.


                                        Resolutions*

                        640 x           800 x                   1024 x
                        480 x   800 x   600 x   1024 x  1024 x  768 x
                        16.7    600 x   16.7    768 x   768 x   16.7
                        million 65,536  million 32,768  65,536  million
ATI Graphics
Pro Turbo               84.73** --      110.48**  --    112.87  --
Diamond Stealth 64      143.34  --      176.50    --    --      234.34
Matrox MGA Ultima
for VL-Bus              69.18   --      86.88     88.16 --      --
Matrox MGA Ultima
Plus for VL-Bus         69.63   --      88.41     --    --      113.89
Media Vision
Pro Graphics 1024       75.80   --      99.86     --    --      133.51
Orchid Kelvin 64        66.18** --      71.46**   --    83.58   --
Genoa Phantom 32i***    26.72   51.71   --        --    63.69   --


                                        Resolutions*
                        1280 x  1280 x  1280 x  1600 x  1600 x
                        1024 x  1024 x  1024 x  1200 x  1200
 x
                        256     32,768  65,536  256     32,768
ATI Graphics
Pro Turbo               87.25   --      --      --      --
Diamond Stealth 64      --      --      186.96  --      --
Matrox MGA Ultima
for VL-Bus              92.41   --      --      84.56   --
Matrox MGA Ultima
Plus for VL-Bus         --      119.08  --      --      117.29
Media Vision
Pro Graphics 1024       --      --      --      --      --
Orchid Kelvin 64        --      --      --      --      --
Genoa Phantom 32i***    50.71   --      --      --      --


*   In pixels x pixels x colors.
**  Wintach read this card in this mode as using 32-bit color depth instead of
    24-bit and scaled it accordingly. The Wintach RPM value has been adjusted
    downward (by 0.75) so that it  can be compared with the other cards
    in 24-bit mode.
*** The fastest of three 32-bit cards tested for comparison. All used a 32-bit interlaced memory design. These cards slowed down with 24-bit color.


Texas Instruments'
 Wintach graphics benchmark times four sets of graphics operations that simulate word processor, CAD/draw, spreadsheet, and paint programs. Wintach indexes the time results to those of a Compaq Deskpro 386/20 with unaccelerated VGA and then scales the results based on resolution and color depth so that the resulting four application indexes reflect the amount of graphics data involved. The four indexes are then averaged to the single overall index (called RPM for Relative Performance Measurement) that is presented here. RPM values are shown for the highest color depth supported at each resolution. For the 64-bit cards, the highest color mode provides the best Wintach result at a given resolution. Because of the scaling of RPM values for resolution and color depth, numbers at different modes are not directly comparable. An RPM value for 24-bit mode, for example, will be three times higher than the RPM value for the 8-bit mode at the same pixel resolution if both tests take the same time.

---

Pho tograph: Five new 64-bit graphics cards (clockwise from left) from Media Vision, Diamond Computer Systems, Matrox Graphics, ATI Technologies, and Orchid Technology. Whether in the PCI version or the VL-Bus version shown here, any one of these is faster than any PC card you've used before. (Although it's not in the photo, a 2-MB Matrox MGA Ultra was also tested.)

---

loveria@bix.com .