Appropriately named after a dinosaur...
Proside Trinosaur PRS-MP6000.(Evaluation)
12/01/98
PC Magazine
Page 271(1)
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Chromatic Research Mpact-2; 8MB; 1,600 x 1,200 (85 Hz). AGP or PCI, $200 street. Somerset, NJ; 732-271-7395; www.proside.com
The now-defunct Mpact2 chip on the Proside Trinosaur PRS-MP6000 is outclassed by all the other offerings we tested in 3-D and 2-D performance, and the built-in MPEG and Dolby Digital support for DVD playback still doesn't justify this product's steep price.
The Trinosaur bristles with connectors, including outputs for Dolby Digital sound, S-Video, MPEG -2 video, and VGA. You also get cables for redirecting CD audio through the card. The only bundled software is Chromatic Research's MediaWare, including drivers for installing a DVD player and utilities for setting parameters and the like.
The Trinosaur made a less-than-impressive showing on our 3-D benchmark tests, posting a 3D WinMark score of 84; by contrast, the top-performing Diamond Monster Fusion scored 497. The Trinosaur also showed weaknesses on our 3-D quality tests, failing many of them. The unit lacks support for many standard 3-D fogging features, and it was unable to pass our anti-aliasing test and most of our MIP-mapping tests. Results were more acceptable on our 2-D tests yet still below average. Note, too, that the top resolution at true color is 1,024-by-768, so large-screen users will want to look elsewhere.
Unfortunately, there's little to recommend in the Trinosaur. If you want DVD capabilities, you're better off with a card such as the Matrox Millennium G200 ($130 street) with an $80 DVD daughtercard.
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