Wave Issue 9734 1/22/98 Article 3-01

***Benchmarking

Mercury Research Publishes WinBench 98 and 3D WinBench 98 Benchmark
Results
(November 17)

Mercury Research, in its latest version of Accelerating PC Graphics '97,
a quarterly Market Strategy and Forecast Report, measures performance of
graphics add-in cards built around 32 popular graphics accelerators,
including 28 with hardware 3D capabilities. Six of the cards support
Accelerated Graphics Port, or AGP, interface and the rest are PCI cards.

Benchmark Results
The 10 highest-scoring PCI-based 3D graphics accelerators on Ziff-Davis'
3D WinBench 98 are, by ranking:

Riva 128, Nvidia;
3D Rage Pro, ATI Technologies;
Mpact2, Chromatic Research/Toshiba;
VooDoo, 3Dfx Interactive;
VooDoo Rush, 3Dfx Interactive;
V2100, Rendition;
Permedia II, 3Dlabs;
Warp 5, Oak Technology;
PowerVR PCX2, NEC; and
ViRGE/GX-2, S3.

Rankings for AGP-based 3D graphics accelerators were consistent with the
PCI results, with
Riva 128, Nvidia
3D Rage Pro, ATI Technologies;
Permedia II, 3Dlabs;
Ticket To Ride (Revolution 3D),Number Nine;
ViRGE/GX-2, S3; and
MGA2 (Millennium II), Matrox Graphics.

The 10 highest-scoring PCI-based accelerators for 2D performance, based
on Ziff-Davis' WinBench 98, are, by ranking:

Ticket To Ride (Revolution 3D), Number Nine;
Permedia II, 3Dlabs;
3D Rage Pro, ATI Technologies;
Mpact2, Chromatic Research/Toshiba;
MGA2 (Millennium II), Matrox Graphics;
MGA (Mystique), Matrox Graphics; V2200,
Rendition; Imagine 128/Series 2E,
Number Nine; ViRGE/GX-2, S3; and
V2100, Rendition.

Rankings for the AGP-based accelerators on WinBench 98 are:

Ticket To Ride (Revolution 3D), Number Nine;
3D Rage Pro, ATI Technologies;
MGA2 (Millennium II), Matrox Graphics;
Permedia II, 3Dlabs;
ViRGE/GX-2, S3; and
Riva 128, Nvidia.

All cards were tested using Microsoft's DirectX 5.0 on an ASUS P2L97
motherboard with an Intel 440LX system-logic chip set, a 300-MHz Pentium
II processor with MMX technology and 64 Mbytes of SDRAM.

A single copy of the report costs $1,995. An annual subscription is
$3,995.

www.mercury.org