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ATI 3D Hardware Reviews
Confused by all the 3D hype and where ATI stands in the crowd. You are not alone. Here is a collection of links/articles and reviews by industry leaders to help you sort out the issues.

1.1 Six-part Primer of 3D Chips/Boards
Read these articles first if you are a "newbie". Simply put, 3D Hardware offers the possibility of more realism through increased detail without the time lag.

1.2 Rage I Board Reviews: Xpression
The 3D Xpression was one of the early low cost boards that combined traditional 2D Windows acceleration with 3D, smooth video playback of MPEG, TV-out in a low cost package. This board used the original Rage I chipset.

1.3 Rage II Board Reviews: Xpression+, 3D Pro Turbo, All-in-Wonder
The "+" symbolizes the use of the Rage II chipset. It offers a speedup of about 2x over the Rage I in 3D benchmarks. Note that higher performance boards, such as the 3D Pro Turbo, with resolution up to 1600x1200 at high refresh rates require higher speed memory subsystems such as SGRAM.

1.4 Rage Pro Board Reviews...Xpert@Work, Xpert@Play, All-in-Wonder Pro

1.5 Rage 128 Excitement

1.5 Rage 128 Pro

This chip is timed to coincide with the release of faster generation of memory products aruond the 143 Mhz region. and the high resolution flat panel support up to 1600x1200. Advanced 3D features such as anisotripic filtering and AGP 4x round up the list of improvements.

1.6 Sixth Generation RADEON Graphics Chipset

  1. ATI RADEON 256 Preview IXBT, April 25, 2000
  2. ATI's new Chip revealed A. Ajami/GameSpot
  3. ATI Press Release for RADEON April 24, 2000
  4. ATI's Radeon-Rage 6 revealed M. Chiappata et al/Hot Hardware, April 24,2000
  5. ATI's new Radeon 256 D. Pemberton/Gamer's Depot, April 24, 2000
  6. Radeon Graphics! Alan Dang/FiringSquad, April 24, 2000
  7. ATI Radeon 256 Overview T. Tokubo/GamePC, April 24, 2000
  8. ATI Radeon 256 Unveiled! Chris Angelini/Sharky's Extreme, April 24,2000
  9. Radeon 256 J. Cross/Computer Games Online, April 25, 2000
  10. ATI Radeon 256 Preview A. Shimpi/AnandTech, April 25,2000
  11. ATI speaks in Detail P. Cohen/MacCentral, April 2000
  12. Radeon Preview S. Orozco et al/Tom's Hardware, April 2000
  13. VooDooExtreme Radeon Review G. Soffer/VE, April 27,2000

    The following are Production Radeon Reviews sorted alphabetically by Hardware Site Name

  14. ATI back in action: Radeon Ace's Hardware, John De Gelas, July 27, 2000
  15. ATI Radeon 64 MB DDR Graphics Accelerator The Adrenaline Vault, Paul D. Sullivan, September 19, 2000
  16. ATI Radeon 64MB DDR, Anandtech Matthew Witheiler, July 17, 2000
  17. ATI Radeon 64 MB DDR Graphics Accelerator Avault, Paul D. Sullivan, September 19, 2000
  18. ATI Radeon 64Mb DDR Chick's Hardware Chick Cheung, August 30, 2000
  19. The ATI Radeon 64Mb DemoNews, August 10, 2000
  20. ATI Radeon 64 MB DDR - Review Fast Graphics, Eric Van Ballegoie, July 25, 2000
  21. Windows 2000 Video Card Roundup FiringSquad, Sarju Shah, September 1, 2000
  22. FSAA Comparison: V5 vs. Radeon FiringSquad, Sarju Shah, August 02, 2000
  23. ATI Radeon 64Mb GA Hardware, Eric Lizotte, July 17, 2000
  24. ATI 64 MB DDR Game PC, Todd Tokubo, August 11, 2000
  25. ATI Radeon 64MB DDR GameCenter, Joel Durham Jr, July 19 2000
  26. ATI's new Radeon - Final Release Gamer's Depot, Duane Pemberton, July 17, 2000
  27. ATI Radeon 64MB DDR SDRAM GameSpy, Craig Companaro
  28. Ati Radeon 64MB DDR VIVO Display Adapter GotApex, Darth, Sept 18, 2000
  29. ATI's Radeon, the Beauty of the Beast Hardware Central, Sander Sassen, 2000
  30. ATI Radeon 64MB Hartware.net/English Translation ,Franc Schraeer, 2000
  31. ATI Radeon 64 Meg DDR OEM Review Hexus.net, Robert Irwin, 2000
  32. The ATI Radeon Experience Hot Hardware, Marco Chiapetta, July 17, 2000
  33. Radeon Review I_am_a_geek,John August 14, 2000
  34. ATI AIW Radeon 32 MB DDR MS, Lost Circuits, November 11, 2000.
  35. Hardware Preview: Radeon The Meter, July 17, 2000
  36. Radeon Review One PC, Mindsoup, Sept 21, 2000
  37. Radeon review Overclockers Online, Steven Van Eycken, Nov 13, 2000
  38. ATi Radeon 64MB DDR SDRAM Hands On Test Planet Hardware,Craig Companaro, July 17, 2000
  39. ATi Radeon Tested on AMD Platforms Planet Hardware, Kevin Barton, July 19, 2000
  40. Planet Hardware, ATi Radeon & NVIDIA GeForce2 GTS Screenshot Comparison July 19, 2000
  41. Overclocked ATi Radeon vs. Overclocked GeForce2 GTS Planet Hardware, Craig Companaro, July 20, 2000
  42. ATI RADEON 64 MB DDR Review Unique-PC, August 23, 2000
  43. ATI RADEON 32MB SDR Rage3D/Kbench.com , 2000
  44. ATi RADEON - The Empire strikes back Rivastation, Benjamin Kraft, 2000
  45. ATi Radeon 256 32MB DDR video card review 1.0 Savage News, Mike Nero, August 23, 2000
  46. ATI Radeon 32MB DDR Review Sharky Extreme, Chris Angelini, September 2000
  47. ATI Radeon 64MB DDR Guide Sharky Extreme, July 17, 2000
  48. Sharky's Value Video Card Round-up Sharky Extreme, October 2000
  49. ATI's new Radeon-Smart Technology meets Brute Force Tom's Hardware Site, Tom Pabst/Silvino Orozco, July 17, 2000
  50. Update: ATI's Industry shaking Radeon revisited Tom's Hardware Site, Silvion Orozco, July 21, 2000>
  51. ATI Radeon PC Magazine UK, Cliff Joseph

Recent Radeon Reviews

For those of you who have never owned ATI or have just discovered the Radeon family from friends, knowlegeable, dealers or shows, read the about this classic review by Sharky's Extreme comparing current generation 3D video cards in their Value Video Card Roundup. Find out more by reading the reviews above and the reviews below which see why the Radeon fever has been catching. It is now the number one retail video brand.
  1. Which Graphics Card Should I buy...some advice from Jarreth Hather/GA-Hardware
  2. Video Shootout Review Zone/Dinusha, Oct 13, 2000
  3. ATI Radeon Review..."love those beta 7020 drivers"...HardwareOC/B. Palmer, Nov 29, 2000.
  4. Maximum PC 64MB Radeon Will Smith..."Kick Ass" rating in October, 2000
  5. Radeon 32MB Long Term Look..."stunning 2D quality"...Radeonic/Wayne Booker, December 2, 2000
  6. ATI Radeon 32 MB SDR review..."I've never seen such a warm, bright, and clear picture before...", Bench-house/Peca, Dec. 13, 2000
  7. AIW Radeon 32MB DDR Review..."crystal clear quality"...Sharky's/Chris Angelini, Jan 9, 2001.
  8. Radeon Roundup..."clearly the best image"...PC Monkey, Jan 2001
  9. Radeon Tome..."we're not worthy"...Fullon3d/Tom Monkish, Feb 15,2001
  10. The Radeon Experience ...I once owned TNT, TNT2 and GF2",April 4, 2001
  11. Radeon LE Graphics Card Review (X-bit Labs, March 17, 2001)and what you should know about rebranded Nvidia MX2 chips
  12. Working on two Fronts:Radeon VE..."dual monitor support with MX kicking performance", Tom's Hardware, March 16, 2001.
  13. Radeon VE...a good overview of the Radeon family", Andrew Worobyew/Digit-Life,March 28, 2001,
  14. ATI Radeon LE 32MB DDR...a budget version of the 32MB DDR card with a secret weapon...Anaadtech, Mathew Witheiler, May 23, 2001.

1.6 Optimizing 2D

~
  • Human factors engineering by the "big" guy has resulted in us having a number of built in eye processing algorithms. We have very good sense of changes near the periphery of our sight to warn us against impending danger. The down side is that as monitors get bigger and begins to occupies more of our peripheral vision. The result is that we notice refresh rate more readily and the headaches/eyeaches begin to to tell us that things are not exactly right.

    The combination of big screens and high refresh rates combine to produce pixel clocks higher than the FM carrier (350Mhz vs 108 Mhz). Another closely related quirk is our sensivity to pacing whether it be audible or visual. The human brain has an amazing internal time clock that can perceive minute "deltas" or changes. It is this that allows to appreciate a virtuoso violinist solo but to also be senstive to variation in framerates. It is far better (my opinion) to aim for slightly lower but more stable frame rates as found in Radeon products. Benchmarking using the "biggest" number should also become by the standard deviation...bring out your statistics books.

  • 3D image vibrancy or just plain better looking games...is there a secret? The Radeon was conceived to manipulate information accurately. The term image quality is a confusing one which is also a product of 2D quality that can be judged using programs making heavy use of text such as WORD and EXCEL. In the 3D world, when 32 bits of colour depth is used, acceptable roundoff error in the 16 bit world by using mathematical approximation (Taylor series approximations of sine, cos and exponential functions) are not as acceptable. The Radeon chip contains a math accurate IEEE-754 computation unit. Can this accuracy be determined ? Yes, it turns out as we can compare the math unit in the graphics chipset to the one in the CPU. In a recent roundup, the Radeon proved to have the most accurate graphic computation unit.

    If you examine the graph above, you will notice that the 2D text quality is just a shade below top notch. There will be a facility within a future driver release (post 7049) to allow the user to "dial in" the 2D quality to account for issues dealing with the following:

    1. Variable noise of power supplies found in computer cases
    2. Motherboard regulation
    3. Impedance mismatch of cables and monitor termination
    Different combinations of power supplies, motherboards, and cables may or may not see any problems with the same monitor. The current Radeon tradeoffs have been design to account for this interaction with a wide variety of systems but tradeoffs need to be made for some monitors. To resolve this, a user enabled option will be provided in the driver to select slower edge rates to accomodate non optimal cable/monitor interfaces. There may be some small tradeoffs in resolution for fast tracking (very high bandwidth) monitors. The user can choose the setting that best suits his system. It is all to do with effectual sets of priorities and tradeoffs. Again, both modes have their advantages...it is up to the user to decide what works in his particular system.

    If you examine the chart above and rethink the ranking process, a card with the best performance but a blank screen should get a "0" score...it is not a graphics pipe to your eye. With this in mind, you can

    1. Take the scores in each column and ignore the video score to get a score out of 90.
    2. You can then take this score and multiply by 10/9 to get a score out of a 100%. This number does not take 2D Video Quality into account.
    3. The last thing to do is take video quality in effect by multiplying the above result by "2D Video Quality"/10.
    So what are the modified rankings and score when this is done ?

    Rank Card Score
    1 ATI 32MB DDR 78.5/100
    2 ATI 32 MB SDR 75/100
    3 Matrox G450 68.3/100
    4 Elsa Gladiac MX 68/100
    5 Herc Prophet II MX 57.2/100
    6 Leadtek GeForce2 MX 56.8/100 ** tie
    7 MSI 816 56.8/100 ** tie 
    8 3dfx Voodoo4 4500 56/100

    So if you want the best GeForce2 MX chipset based card...take the ELSA version. This seems to line up better with the tone of the reviewer's subjective comments. Ever wonder why Matrox has such a following...look no futher than this modified table....but the Radeon cards stand a shoulder above the rest and this explains why it is presently the best selling aftermarket upgrade graphics card. Summary of Shimmering:

    1) The following is a rough summary of guidelines to help people sort out 2D shimmer. 95% of systems are fine but some system exhibit a slight shimmer. Thanks to Eman for beta testing (as well as others on this forum), Ichneumon for the GIF, and Gia for the coding the original beta patch. Some users have seen immense improvements and others have seen little. In those cases, I have to look elsewhere for the problem. Some hints are suggested below.

    2) 2D artifacts can be due to a combination of system issues and/or interaction of power supply noise,motherboard regulation, crosstalk between separate guns,cable mismatch between the cable itself and the monitor termination. BNC cables can help in two of the areas.

    3) The current driver D7.16 release of drives have a facility to alter the characteristic of the DAC.

    Driver Locations: ftp://ftp.microsoft.com/services/whql/drivers/winme/disply/a256651.exe http://www.microsoft.com/hcl ul TYPE=SQUARE>

  • ->set search string to "radeon"
  • ->English Ver. D7.16-1114M-102C-ATI


    4) There are also 7041 "leaked" drivers floating around whose build and origin is of unknown quallity. They are reputed to be the same or similar to the D7.16 drivers. Use at your own risk. You can check the file information by doing the following:

    My Computer->properties(right click)->Device Manger->Display Adapter ->Radeon->Driver-Driver File Details.

    It should say something like:

    D7.16xxxxxxxxxxxxx


    5) Add registry:


    1. Run regedit and expand the folders starting from HKEY_LOCAL.
    2. Go to the DAL folder and double click it, then add the following
      registry key called

      HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\ATI Technologies\
      Driver\xxxx\DAL\GCOOPTION_SlowerEdge

      and make a new variable of type DWORD called
      GCOOPTION_SLowerEdge with a value of "1".
      xxxx represents adapter "number" which is assigned by Windows.

    3. To add a registry key,first, click the edit menu, click on the
      "new" icon. You will be queried
      for the type of the variable you are creating.Choose DWORD value.

    4. Fill in GCOOPTION_SlowerEdge. Give a value 1.

      If you have correctly edited the registry
      it should look like the following

      Registry

    5. Reboot and tell me if the 2D looks better.
    6. Fill in GCOOPTION_SlowerEdge. Give a value 0.
    7. Reboot and tell me if the 2D looks worse.

    8. Keep the value that makes your 2D look best.


    2.0 Comparison of 3rd Generation Video Chipsets

    As much as I would love ATI to be the the hardware that everyone uses, there are other companies out there that compete for your dollar. I have included the actual html code of Johnathan Greenberg's Greenberg's editorial here for archival reasons as these pages tend to dissapear.


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