PROS
I'll start with the good things about the AOpen PA70. Below is a list, along with a brief explanation, plus substantiation for my claims.
Fast D3D Performance - Anand's Video Accelerator Round-up benchmarks speak for themselves
Good OpenGL Performance - While Quake2 performance isn't the best available, the Savage3D is definitely all you need if you play Quake2 @ 800x600.
High Resolution Support - 1600x1200 3D resolution available, though it isn't really suitable for games (too slow)
Price? - I have to verify this, since I could not find pricing information regarding the AOpen PA70, I am estimating $100 street price, but I could be wrong. As soon as I receive response from AOpen regarding price, I'll let you know.
Texture Compression - Increases bandwidth substantially, barely noticeable image quality decrease.
Runs Extremely Cool - 0.25 micron process
2D & RAMDAC - I really don't consider 2D an issue nowadays; which is why I did not discuss it in the review. The 2D of all the cards I have tested seems to be nearly identical. The only 2D related item which is important is RAMDAC. The Savage3D based AOpen PA70 features a 250mhz RAMDAC; which makes it suitable for 17" and above monitors; running at high resolutions, with high refresh rates. I didn't see a difference between this and the Matrox G200 in terms of image quality at 1024x768; however, this may be due to my monitor.
CONS
Poor OpenGL drivers - ICD is pathetically slow; Requires special miniGL wrapper for Quake2 based games to get good speed.
Glitches in OpenGL Games - Noticeable glitches in OpenGL games like Quake2, Half life, and Unreal.
Inconsistent Frame Rate - Check out Vsync discussion on previous page
Registry Settings - Better drivers should do this for us.. Adding 'AA' = "On" to your registry is required for better performance (and AGP usage). AOpen / (actually S3, since AOpen uses reference drivers) should have added a little line in their driver install code to add this to the registry. This is a very careless thing to leave out.
Overall Driver Quality / Maturity - Frequent crashes in 3D applications, some applications may sometimes refuse to run; or crash.
Ratings
Performance | 85% |
Drivers/Quality | 60% |
Installation | 95% |
Image Quality | -- % |
Price | 90% (*MSRP not known yet*) |
Software Bundle | 80% |
Value | 88% |
Overall Impression | 80% |
Bottom Line
I would recommend waiting until the Savage3D based boards and drivers (not just the PA70 reviewed) mature before considering this board as a high performance board. If you want a fast board for around $100, there really isn't another option...'
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