Number Nine Revolution 3D

Number Nine Revolution 3D

If you're looking for the best buttoned-down business performance in a graphics card, you want the Number Nine Revolution 3D. But if you're planning to grab a joystick after hours, forget about it. The Revolution 3D performed abominably on our 3D gaming tests.

Overall, the Revolution 3D topped our mixed-media business tests--it's a full 22 percent faster than the average PCI board. Most impressive were the results on our PowerPoint tests. Even though the Revolution isn't a strong 3D gaming board, it's one of the few cards that uses hardware to run 3D at 24-bit color. Our PowerPoint test includes a few 3D images, and most boards had to bump these out to software when we forced them to run in true color--which slowed them down considerably. In contrast, the Revolution 3D ran those images in hardware and aced the test.

The downside is that this board is a one-trick pony. While it will do everything you need during the nine-to-five workday, it's barely adequate at playtime, displaying poor image quality in the 3D games we played. It couldn't even run Redline Racer and Turok. And Number Nine doesn't offer any OpenGL drivers for Quake, which means game play isn't as fast as it would be and doesn't look as good as it could with hardware acceleration. To its credit, the Revolution 3D is such a powerful card that even when it was running Quake in software it was faster than our number-one board, the Velocity 128, was in hardware. But because it runs 3D games in software, it can't take advantage of all the special 3D features--like filtering and blending--that make a game look realistic.

Number Nine's HawkEye driver software is some of the best we've seen. It's easy to navigate and includes every imaginable feature, from virtual desktop to color calibration. We are a little disappointed with Number Nine's support policies: Though technicians are available 10 hours on weekdays, there's no support on weekends and you'll have to pay for the call.

SUMMARY

PRO: Best for business applications. CON: Terrible 3D $189; 8MB of WRAM; 220-MHz RAMDAC; Number Nine Ticket to Ride. Number Nine 800/438-6463 www.nine.com