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by Loyd Case

A year ago, the choice in 3D graphics accelerators was clear-cut. If you had the bucks, you got a 3Dfx add-on card. If that was too pricey, your alternative was one of the Rendition-based cards (other 3D accelerators proved too slow - particularly S3 ViRGE cards - or lacked important image enhancement features). This year's crop of cards, for the most part, is much faster than last year's, and includes a richer set of features.

Noticeably absent from this year's graphics card roundup are S3 ViRGE-based cards. There are a lot of cards out there, it's true - but most card vendors didn't seem interested in having their S3 products tested. And while S3 seems to be regrouping, they're busy at work on two new graphics engines, which will most likely see the light of day next spring.

The temporary absence of S3 was more than made up for by a host of new chips from NVIDIA, Number Nine, Trident, and 3DLabs. Returning to the fray are 3Dfx (particularly with their Voodoo Rush part); Matrox, with an updated Mystique; Rendition, with their new V2200; and ATI, with a much-enhanced Rage Pro chip. With a couple of exceptions, all of these cards proved very impressive in our tests, but all had one or two flaws. There's a lot of ground to cover, so let's dive right in and "do the numbers."

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