ATI Rage Fury 32Mb AGP graphic card

Wednesday, March 10, 1999

Introduction

The ATI Rage Fury graphic card is based on the newest ATI graphic chipset named Rage 128. Supporting a combination of 2D and 3D graphic capabilities, this chipset is said to support a 32-bit color depth without sacrificing the frame rate performance. Even more surprising, this graphic card as an onboard hardware DVD acceleration capabilities. The Rage 128 uses a 128-bit memory path width for faster performance. Full support for OpenGL is also a feature of this graphic card. With is 32Mb of factory installed memory, a RAMDAC of 250Mhz and an incredibly fast 32-bit color mode performance, the ATI Rage Fury is not a graphic card that will pass its way unnoticed. Let's see together how is performing this graphic card in the following review we did of it for your reading pleasure.



       

Features

The ATI Rage 128 graphic chipset is among one of the first 0.25 micron graphic chipset to appear on the market. The use of a 0.25 micron core has solved an enormous heat problem encountered by many high performance 2D/3D graphic chipsets in the past. The ATI Rage 128 graphic engine has may buil-in special features like:

  • SuperScalar Rendering (SSR) achieved through dual texture pipelines which function like the twin engines of 3D graphics rendering. These operate completely simultaneously enabling the processing of two pixels per clock, providing a doubling of rendering performance

  • Single-Pass Multitexturing to process multiple textures to create special effects, the concept being that you would render both an object and its shadow, or an object and a lighting map to enhance the image.

  • Twin-Cache Architecture to achieve maximum performance. This architecture allows the efficient use of the cache resources on chip to deliver the maximum performance in all situations. The benefits of this cache are not limited to 3D operations but also attain optimal 2D and video performance.



    Installation

    To install this graphic card you have the to choice to use the easy install from the installation CDROM or to go for a manual installation. In both case, you will have to correctly uninstall your existing graphic card and replace it by Windows default PCI VGA display drivers. If you chose the manual installation you will have to go to the display configuration panel, click on settings/advanced/adapter/change/next and click on display all drivers/next and "Have disk" where you will choose the Win9x path for Win95/98 then click on ATIDRIVE and Win9xaa.


    The Software Bundle.

    The software bundle of this graphic card is including: the ATI DVD player, Half-Life day one, Moto Racer 2 and Expandable light version.


    The performances

    All tests were performed with the following system setup:

    Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-6BXE
    CPU: Intel Pentium II 350mhz
    Memory: 64mb PC100 SDram (LGS)
    IDE first channel Primary port: Wester Digital 4.3gig UDMA66
    IDE second channel Primary port: Kenwood 52X True X
    AGP slot: ATI Rage Fury 128
    ISA slot number 2: Ensoniq Soundscape soundcard
    ISA slot number 1: US Robotic 56k X2 modem
    OS: Win98 4.10
    DirectX 6.0


    All tests were performed with the VSYNC disabled unless otherwise specified.


    The 2D results

    Wintune97 Results


    The performance observed here are just a little bit better than the Matrox Mystique G200 and Riva TNT based graphic card. As we can see, this graphic card is a really good 2D performer by outperforming all these cards. This test has been performed by using ATI drivers version 4.11.6060



    Winbench99 Business Graphic Winmark

    Unfortunately, this Benchmark is used for the very first time. Theretofore, the results obtained here can't be compared to any other graphic card tested on this web site because all of them were tested with the previous version of this Benchmark. This test has been performed by using ATI drivers version 4.11.6060



    The 3D results

    Forsaken + Intel PII-350mhz
    Graphic card 640 X 480 - 75hz 16-bit 800 X 600 - 75hz 16-bit
    Diamnond Viper V550 16Mb AGP 150.32 fps 119.40 fps
    ATI Rage Fury 128 GL 32Mb AGP 142.13 fps 127.08 fps

    The Forsaken FPS tests were performed 3 times each and the mean value obtained is the one indicated in the above results. While the Viper V550 Riva TNT card has a small advantage on the 640 480 graphic mode, this advantage goes to the ATI Rage Fury on the 800 600 graphic mode and we can suppose that the higher the resolution goes the higher this advantage is because while the Riva TNT card lost 30 frames per second on the highest resolution mode, the ATI Rage Fury lost only 15 framesper second on the same situation. Unfortunately no test have been conducted over 800 X 600. These test have been performed by using ATI drivers version 4.11.6107


    Quake 2 + Intel PII-350mhz using 640 X 480 X 75hz 16-bit
    Graphic card Demo 2 Timerefresh
    Diamond Viper V550 16Mb AGP 61.4.3 fps 114.38 fps
    ATI Rage Fury 128 GL 32Mb AGP 57.2 fps 116.56 fps

    Quake 2 + Intel PII-350mhz using 800 X 600 X 75hz 16-bit
    Graphic card Demo 2 Timerefresh
    Diamond Viper V550 16Mb AGP 54.63 fps 78.72 fps
    ATI Rage Fury 128 GL 32Mb AGP 55.3 fps 94.18 fps

    Quake 2 + Intel PII-350mhz using 800 X 600 X 75hz 32-bit
    Graphic card Demo 2 Timerefresh
    ATI Rage Fury 128 GL 32Mb AGP 54.8 fps not tested

    All the tests have been performed 3 times each and the mean value obtained is the value indicated in the above table. The rendering used was the Quake2 default OpenGL. Apparently, the ATI Rage Fury would be a better performer at the higher screen resolution as we can see here as well as in some other tests.

    See the last table where the color mode has been switched to 32-bit. As you can see, the performance decrease is below one frame per second and this is a very amazing performance for this color mode.                                       

    All the Quake2 tests were performed by using ATI drivers version 4.11.6107

    Timedemo testing procedure used:

  • The computer has been freshly booted
  • Quake 2 has been launched
  • The video console has been opened
  • The appropriate screen resolution has been selected
  • The game console as been opened by typing " ~ "
  • Once in the console I typed "Timedemo 1" and "Enter"
  • The command "demomap demoX.dm2" has been typed
  • Once that the demo was finished, I used to quit the game
  • The computer has been rebooted for the next test.

    Note: X stands for 1 or 2 depending if I wanted to use demo 1 or demo 2.

    Timerefresh testing procedure used:

  • The computer has been freshly booted
  • Quake 2 has been launched
  • The video console has been opened
  • The appropriate screen resolution has been selected
  • A new game has been started at the easy level
  • After the explosions, the game console has been opened by typing " ~ "
  • Once in the console I typed "Timerefresh"
  • Once the demo was finished, I used to quit the game
  • The computer has been rebooted for the next test.

    Unreal


    Unfortunately, it has been impossible to use Unreal with this graphic card because the original Unreal CD doesn't have any support for OpenGL and Direct 3D. So, I used to download patch 220 to update my version of Unreal and add support for OpenGL and Direct 2D but for some reasons I don't understand, the patching process can't complete and gives me an error message saying that I need to free up more space on my C: drive while I already have 615Mb available... So, if by chance, somebody reading this articles knows why I am having this problems to install Unreal patch 220, please let me know and if I can do it successfully, I will update this review with the results obtained.



    Final Reality


    The above values are the mean values obtained from 5 tests ran in a row by selecting the Advanced Benchmark option of Final Reality. The values obtained with the ATI Rage Fury 128 GL were compared against the STB Velocity 4400 Riva TNT graphic card results stored in the Final Reality benchmark data base. The Green lines are showing the performance of the Riva TNT based graphic card. As we can see, the ATI Rage Fury 128 GL is exhibiting a much better performances. Remember to bear in mind that the differences may look small in term of numbers but this is the way this Benchmark works as I've never observed a very important difference in the results displayed by this benchmark even between graphic cards with obvious performance differences. This test has been performed by using ATI drivers version 4.11.6107



    3D Mark 99


    3D Mark 99 is a new benchmark that I am using for th very first time. Unfortunately, as there are no there graphic card tested by me before on this benchmark, I am unable to offer any comparison to you. However, after I used to run this benchmark on this graphic card, I discovered that the results obtained were the top score among all the submissions entered on 3D Mark web site data base.



    3D Mark 99


    To show you with even more obviousness the repeatability of the performance of the ATI Rage Fury 128 GL, the above result is the mean value of 3 consecutive tests. All 3D Mark 99 tests were performed by using ATI drivers version 4.11.6107



    Conclusions

    As a conclusion, the ATI Rage Fury 128 GL 32Mb AGP graphic card is a really high-performance graphic card. The fact that there are almost no noticeable performance degradation between the 16-bit color mode and the 32-bit color mode is a good proof that this graphic card uses a very well designed graphic chipset. The image quality is reproachless on all the graphic mode below 1024 X 768 but the text is a bit more difficult to read at the highest graphic modes which is an indication of a poor quality filtration of the RAMDAC unit as it is the case with several other graphic cards. While this is not a big problem for most of the ordinary users like you and me it can rapidly become frustrating for the high end users and especially those working wit CAD programs on 21 inches monitor used on resolution of 1600 X 1200 or higher. All in all, this graphic card is a real beast when its time to play 3D games and it should satisfy most of the peoples using it for their homework and/or hobbies.


    Please visit ATI Web site for more information.


    Specifications

    System Requirements

    • Pentium III/II, Celeron or compatible with AGP 2X bus
    • AGP 1.0 compliant
    • Software requires CD-ROM drive
    • DVD requires DVD drive
    Graphics Controller
    • ATI RAGE 128GL, a high performance 128-bit graphics accelerator with superior 2D, 3D, and video support

    Operating Systems Support

    • Windows 98
    • Windows 95
    • Windows NT 4.0

    Monitor Support

    • CRT Monitor: 15 pin VGA connector
    • TV: S-Video and Composite (TV-output versions only)

    Multimedia Channel

    • AMC 2.0 compliant (TV-output versions only)
    • VIP 1.1 compliant (non TV-output versions only)

    Display Support

    • Register compatible with VGA
    • BIOS compatible with VESA for super VGA
    • DDC1/2b/2b+ monitor support
    • VESA Display Power Management support
    • Separate horiz & vert sync at TTL levels

    Memory Configurations

    • 16MB without TV-output
    • 32MB without TV-output
    • 32MB with TV-output

    TV-Out (TV-output versions only)

    • Windows 98, Windows 95
    • NTSC output (PAL versions available in some configurations)
    • Composite, S-Video connectors

    3D Acceleration Features

    • OpenGL ICD for NT 4.0 & Windows 98/95
    • DirectX 5.0, DirectX 6.0, Direct3D, DirectDraw
    • Triangle Setup Engine
    • Texture Cache
    • Bilinear/Trilinear Filtering
    • Line & Edge Anti-aliasing
    • Texture Compositing
    • Texture Decompression
    • Specular Highlights
    • Perspectively Correct Texture Mapping
    • Mip-Mapping
    • Z-buffering and Double-buffering
    • Bump Mapping
    • Fog effects, texture lighting, video textures, reflections, shadows, spotlights, LOD biasing and texture morphing

    Warranty

    • 5-year limited warranty

    2D Mode Support:
    Resolutions, Colors and Maximum Refresh Rates (HZ)

    Monitor Resolution 640x480 800x600 1024x768 1152x864 1280x1024 1600x1200 1920x1200
    256 colors
    200
    200
    180
    160
    125
    85
    76
    65K colors
    200
    200
    180
    160
    125
    85
    76
    16.7M colors
    200
    200
    180
    160
    125
    85
    76

    Maximum 3D Resolutions
    32MB
    16MB
    65K colors
    1920x1440
    1600x1200
    16.7M colors (32bpp)
    1920x1200
    1280x1024

    Footnote: Maximum 3D resolutions and colors supported with specified memory with double buffered setting, and 32 bit Z.

     

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