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A Blisteringly Fast Graphics Card From ATI
by Grace Aquino
Graphics Board
Product Information
ATI Rage Fury
PRO: Scorchingly fast; produces rich, colorful images; offers a TV-out port and integrated DVD support.
CON: Poorly rendered 3D graphics.
VALUE: Assuming its driver problems are resolved, this is a well-priced choice for gamers and users of business graphics.
$199
ATI Technologies
905/882-2600
www.atitech.ca
Product information from manufacturer
Based on its impressive technical résumé, ATI's new Rage Fury graphics board seems perfect for 3D gaming and high-end graphics applications. Equipped with a whopping 32MB of SDRAM, this power-pumped card supports monitor resolutions up to 1920 by 1200. It also offers comfortable refresh rates of up to 85 Hz--great news for users who work regularly with large spreadsheets or diagrams.
Thanks to Rage Fury's full-screen, hardware-integrated DVD support, you no longer need an additional MPEG-2 decoder board to view DVD movies on your PC, which saves you a valuable slot space. And with its included video-out connector, you can view those DVD movies and 3D games on your television.
Unfortunately, the preproduction board I tested with its beta software drivers suffered from some rendering and visual-quality gaffes. For instance, it crashed our system when running a PowerPoint test that uses 3D clip art. When we played 3D games such as Turok Dinosaur Hunter, fog effects and transparencies appeared banded and too thick. Similar problems occurred with Redline Racer, in which the background sky and a motorcycle's headlights looked banded and dithered.
So what's causing all those problems in such a powerful graphics card? Buggy drivers appear to be the main culprit. ATI promises to have them fixed by the time you read this review. For more peace of mind, consider that the vendor offers a five-year warranty.
Preproduction problems aside, the Rage Fury's future looks promising. It costs $199, a good price for the power and features you get. Whether it'll smoke other graphics cards on our Top 10 Graphics Boards chart remains to be seen, but based on the speed results from our tests here, it looks like a strong contender.
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A Blisteringly Fast Graphics Card From ATI
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