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Fast, high-resolution, million-polygon gaming action requires a sophisticated 3D graphics board. High-end boards with an abundance of processing power, such as those based on NVidia's GeForce2 GTS and GeForce2 Ultra chips, bring out the best in today's demanding 3D games, with astronomical frame rates and stunning graphics.

The most expensive boards, such as Creative Labs' 3D Blaster Annihilator 2 Ultra card, can hit a blistering 94 frames per second in Quake III at 1024 by 768 resolution at a color depth of 32 bits. At an even more difficult 1600 by 1200 resolution, the Annihilator managed 55 fps. But that level of performance carries a steep price: Be prepared to drop an average of $300 to $550 on a high-end card.

Still, an impressively quick graphics board needn't cost an arm and a leg. The proof? We put 14 of the latest boards through our grueling battery of tests, and six cards priced at under $150 performed well enough to make our Top 10 chart. Inexpensive boards based on ATI's Radeon chip and NVidia's GeForce2 MX chip offer reasonable 3D speed at much more palatable prices than their costly siblings.

Speed to Spare

The sweet spot for most people running current games is at 1024 by 768 resolution in 32-bit color. Most monitors today support that resolution at a comfortable refresh rate of 75 Hz or higher, and in our tests most of the boards we looked at achieved a silky-smooth 60 fps at those settings. Though most people can't tell the difference once frame rates exceed about 60 fps, boards that can produce faster frame rates at a midrange resolution will typically sustain playable frame rates at higher resolutions.

For the casual gamer, any of the budget cards listed on our Top 10 chart will adequately run today's games. But for power-hungry gamers burdened with wads of cash, the latest $500 NVidia GeForce2 Ultra-based graphics boards can provide double or triple the frame rates of the budget cards at some settings.

New technologies are pushing frame rates to new heights. The first time that we tested graphics boards supporting hardware transform and lighting processing (T&L) was during last year's roundup. Now most boards support it. T&L improves performance by relieving the CPU of some of the number-crunching required for processing 3D effects. As a result, you see more-detailed 3D images yet still get high frame rates.

Computers draw 3D scenes using polygons, and they must render vast numbers of them to draw a realistic scene. That takes a lot of computing power. Before hardware T&L came along, your system's CPU did all this work using software. Graphics chips designed to accelerate the rendering of transform and lighting polygons can process those calculations faster than your CPU can, boosting frame rates. Our tests show that cards with T&L have an advantage over those that don't.

Some cards offer an option called full-scene anti-aliasing (FSAA) that smooths the jagged edges of 3D polygons. Unfortunately, enabling this feature may lower frame rates. We recommend that you experiment with settings to achieve a balance between frame rate and image quality.

The Board Exams

We tested each board using several 3D games: Unreal Tournament, a Direct3D test; Quake III Arena, an OpenGL game; MDK2, an OpenGL game that takes advantage of T&L acceleration; and Test Drive 6, a T&L-enabled Direct3D game. TrueSpace 4.2, a professional 3D rendering program, rounds out our test suite (see "Gamer's Glossary"). The chart shows test results for the boards at 1024 by 768 resolution, but we also ran tests at resolutions up to 1600 by 1200.

Of the 14 boards we tested, 10 carried an NVidia Geforce2 MX, GeForce2 GTS, or GeForce2 Ultra graphics chip. We tested two boards based on ATI's Radeon chip and two based on 3dfx's VSA-100 chip. At press time, NVidia announced it had acquired 3dfx's "core graphics assets." That acquisition may affect the availability of cards based on 3dfx's technology.

Boards loaded with GeForce2 Ultra chips were by far the best performers in our tests, but they're costly upgrades--the least expensive Ultra board we tested, the 3D Blaster Annihilator 2 Ultra, costs $499. ATI's Radeon chip fills a variety of niches. Thanks to speedy double-data-rate (DDR) memory, the $299 All-In-Wonder Radeon is a top performer. And a different Radeon card fitted with single-data-rate (SDR) memory competed with GeForce2 MX-based boards for the best overall value. In the end, CardExpert's $129 GeForce2 MX earned our Best Buy, offering enough performance for casual gamers at a low price.

More Reviews

We tested four other graphics boards that scored too low to make the chart. See the capsule reviews:

• 3dfx Voodoo5 5500
  
  
• Asus AGP-V7700 Deluxe
  
  
• ELSA Gladiac GeForce2 Ultra
  
  
• Hercules 3D Prophet II Ultra