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ATi has been popular with the OEMs and
with the All-in-wonder Video editing card. This time, they are set to
make the real All-in-one-wonder with the Radeon 256 with all sorts of
power packed features.
I hope that by the time I publish this
preview, this board will be available on the shelves at SLS. From what
I have gather from the internet sources, I must say that ATi has finally
gotten their act together to produce the "Geforce2 GTS Killer" in terms
of Quality and Features.
I believe many previous ATi users would
try to stay away from its future product because of the
"crappy" drivers
and support that updates once in a year. This time, ATi has learned
their lesson the hard way and is actively revising their drivers to
counter the KX133 mainboard compatibility issue and 16bit colors flaws
of the Radeon 256. Solutions were provided within a month and they have
3 revised drivers for the Radeon 256 after the official launch. Now the latest driver
is w98_4_12_3054.
ATi Radeon 256 also has the best features
that are "Future-compatible" with DX8. Think of the Radeon as the Fantasy
card we have been dreaming of. A mixture of 3dfx, Nvidia, Matrox and
S3 plus ATi's own technology, the Radeon 256 is easily the most attractive
board out there.
Here is why. Take:
- 3dfx's FSAA & Motion Blur &
- Nvidia's Dot3/Cube Environmental bump
mapping and T&L &
- Matrox's EMBM (Environmental Map Bump
Mapping) &
- S3's DXTC (Texture Compression) &
- ATi's very own Pixel Tapestry, Charisma
Engine and the HyperZ.
And you get ATi's Radeon 256!!! Sounds wonderful
aren't it. Lets take a look at all these features one at a time. |
