ATI Rage Fury MAXX

As the CPU performance drops, so does the gap between the performance of the 11 cards compared here as the focus of performance turns to the limitation of the CPU rather than that of the video card.

Once again, the MAXX's 32-bit performance is able to eclipse the SDR GeForce, but can't quite catch the Savage 2000 or the DDR GeForce. Interestingly, the Voodoo3 3500 almost catches the MAXX in 16-bit color.

Although the DDR GeForce is still on top, it's 16-bit color performance advantage is no where near as large as it was in the past two performance tests with the 600 and 700MHz CPUs. The only reason the DDR GeForce would make for a good buy in this case is for future performance with faster CPUs as well as 32-bit color performance since, at 1024 x 768 x 32, it still offers close to that magical 60 fps mark.

The SDR GeForce starts to choke in 32-bit color, especially in comparison to the Savage 2000 which brings forth very promising performance. The history of S3's driver support as well as the previous entries into the Savage line of graphics chipsets makes a purchase here a very weary one at best. S3's history has come back to haunt them and it will take a lot of proof before this market accepts them as a viable alternative to the likes of NVIDIA and 3dfx who have been delivering, more or less, on their promises of performance in recent times.