About The Card:
The California Graphics 3D Emotion is yet another
card using 3DFX's Voodoo Rush chipset, which uses
both Alliance Promotion's 128-bit AT25 chipset
for 2D and 3DFX's Voodoo Rush for 3D. The
hardware appears to be identical to Intergraph's
Intense3D Voodoo and Deltron's Flash AT3D Rush,
which is not a bad thing. The 3D Emotion is
available with six megabytes of EDO DRAM,
video-out, and support for stereoscopic glasses.
Just like every other Voodoo Rush on the planet,
two megabytes of RAM are dedicated to 3D, and the
other 4 megabytes are shared between the 3DFX
Rush and the AT25 2D chip. It is a full length
PCI card, and appears to be quite well made.
The
View
The 3D Emotion has an effective limit of
1280x1024 resolution with 16-bit color at a
refresh rate of 75Hz. You can run at a maximum of
1600x1200 with 16-bit color, but then are
restricted to a flickery 60Hz. Since the 3D
Emotion has four megabytes of frame buffer, it
can run games with a Z-buffer (like GLQuake) at
800x600 resolution.
Installation
The 3D Emotion was
a breeze to install. I followed my usual
procedure of telling Windows95 to use plain VGA
drivers, shut down my computer, popped open the
case, removed my trusty Matrox Millenium and
Monster3D, inserted the 3D Emotion in a free PCI
slot, and rebooted. Windows95 prompted me for
drivers, I inserted the disk, and all was well.
The 3D Emotion added three tabs to my display
properties. One for information about the card,
one to adjust the monitor's centering, and one to
control the TV-out. The 3D Emotion is unusual in
that they do not modify 3DFX's drivers at all! I
spoke to the head of the company about this
issue, and his response was that "3DFX's
drivers are so good that there's nothing to be
improved!". The benchmarks seem to hold up
with his opinion.
Ice
Cube
Speaking of
drivers, this board comes with a seriously cool
utilty called CGP Reality Pro. Their philosophy
is, "If you buy a state-of-the-art 3D
Accelerator, why not have a state-of-the-art 3D
interface?" I can't agree more! The
software's interface is implemented via a
rotating cube, with the surface of the cube
divided into squares of icons. It seems somewhat
non-intuitive to me, actually, but the "cool
factor" is certainly there. Definately worth
a look.
Big
Screen Gaming
The TV-Out is
quite good, and very clear with S-Video output,
although not nearly as good as the Canopus
Total3D card.
Benchmarks
I tested this card
in 1024x768 resolution at a refresh rate of 75Hz
in 16-bit color on Windows95b (OSR2), and the 2D
performance was identical to that of the other
Voodoo Rush's that I have come across. Again, the
2D isn't nearly as impressive as a Matrox
Millenium, but at 1024x768, you will never notice
the difference. The 3D Emotion passed all of the
3D Winbench97 tests, just like the other 3DFX
Voodoo Rush cards. The scores, again, were also
nearly identical. Scores on 3DBench97 with my AMD
K6 running at 250Mhz averaged 131.1 WinMarks. In
GLQuake, I received 33.8 frames per second on the
'timedemo demo2' with sound turned off at 640x480
resolution. Since all of these cards benchmark
essentially the same, the only real reason to
choose one over the other is added features,
bundled games, and price.
What
to do, What to do...
The 3D Emotion
comes with S-Video output, composite video
output, and a port for stereo glasses. It is
priced at $199 for the card with no games, and
$235 with the bundle. The price without the
bundle is competitive, but the Flash AT3D Rush's
list price of $179 has it beat. Speaking of the
bundle, the 3D Emotion's is the best yet. The
deluxe version comes with full versions of MDK,
Tomb Raider, Carmageddon, and Terracide.
Excepting Terracide, all of these games are
top-notch in every way. California Graphics
should be commended for their choice of games to
bundle. The 3D Emotion is available from mail
order from the manufacturor only. If you're
interested in any of the games included with the
deluxe version, this card simply cannot be beat.
If not, you'd be better off going with the Flash
AT3D Rush. |
|
Overall:
A Competitive Rush Player.
Bundle:
Deluxe version includes MDK, Tomb Raider,
Carmageddon, and Terracide, and a CD of game
demos. The normal version just includes the demo.
Value:
The deluxe version is an
excellent value, and the normal version is still
very competitive.
Tech Specs:
Alliance ProMotion AT3D 2D, 3DFX
Voodoo Rush 3D, 6MB EDO DRAM, PCI
Pros:
Well made, competitive
performance, great bundle.
Cons:
Normal version is slightly
overpriced. |
