Specifications

3D Graphics Accelerators
923
The following manufacturers’ products are not included in Table 15.20 for the reasons listed:
■ 3Dfx Interactive. Out of business; obtain last-available official and third-party drivers from
www.voodoofiles.com.
■ 3Dlabs. Now manufacturers Open GL–compatible workstation cards only.
■ Intel. No longer manufactures graphics boards.
■ Micron. No longer manufactures chipsets.
■ VideoLogic. No longer manufactures graphics boards.
■ PowerVR/ST Microelectronics. Now makes graphics cores for mobile and embedded applications.
Note
See Chapter 15 in both Upgrading and Repairing PCs, 12th Edition and 13th Edition on this book’s disc for more informa-
tion about these companies’ products and other older chipsets.
Note
Table 15.20 is designed to be a reference to recent and current GPUs (and graphics cards) from current vendors. In most
cases, only GPUs that meet fourth-generation (DirectX 7) or newer standards are included; a few third-generation GPUs still in
wide use are listed. Refer to Table 15.19 for the criteria I use to describe each 3D generation. Because most graphics card
vendors now use the GPU name as part of the product name, Table 15.20 does not include product examples. See
Upgrading and Repairing PCs, 15th Anniversary Edition, available in electronic form on the disc packaged with this book,
for a table matching older graphics card GPUs and product names.
Be sure to use this information in conjunction with application-specific and game-specific tests to help you choose the best
card/chipset solution for your needs. Consult the chipset vendors’ Web sites for the latest information about third-party video
card sources using a specific chipset.
Table 15.20 3D Video Chipset Manufacturers and Products
Manufacturer: ATI
Program-
mable
Hard- Vertex
GPU DirectX ware Rendering Shader Memory Mfr.
(Codename) Version T&L Pipelines Pipelines Bus Process Notes
RADEON (R100/ 7 Yes 2 N/A 128-bit .18 micron —
Rage 6C)
RADEON VE, 6 No 1 N/A 64-bit .18 micron VE features
7000 (RV100) dual-display;
AGP 4x
RADEON 7500, 7 Yes 2 N/A 128-bit .15 micron AIW (7500);
7200 (RV200) AGP 4x
RADEON 8500 8.1 Yes 4 2 128-bit .15 micron Dual-display;
(R200) AIW; AGP 4x
RADEON 9700 9 Yes 8 4 256-bit .15 micron Dual-display;
PRO, 9700 (R300) AIW; AGP 8x
RADEON 9500 9 Yes 8 4 128-bit .15 micron Based on 9700
PRO Pro; AGP 8x
Chapter 15
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