DOS Days
Old PC Computing Resource
ATi Technologies
Advanced Technology Information Systems (ATI) was one of the largest manufacturers of graphics expansion cards for the IBM PC and its compatibles. The 'Wonder' series of cards was introduced in 1987, and was superceded by the 'Mach' range with the introduction of the Mach8 in 1990. Taking 3D acceleration to the next level was the 'Rage', that began in 1996.
Product Lines:
- The "Wonder" series (EGA Wonder, VGA Wonder, Small Wonder) - 1987-1991
- The "Mach" series (Mach8, Mach32, Mach64) - 1990 - 1996
- The "Rage" series (Rage, Rage II, Rage III) 1996 - 2000
- The "Radeon" series - 2000 - Present
ATI Technologies was acquired by AMD in 2006, who continued with the Radeon line.
Mach 8 Series
The mach8 chip was ATi's first graphics accelerator chip, and was effectively a clone of IBM's 8514/A XGA chip found on some of their high-end PS/2 computer series, though they implemented it on the ISA bus rather the Micro-Channel Architecture (MCA). Launched in 1991, mach8 was used on the Graphics Ultra and Graphics Vantage cards.
Mach 32 Series
The mach32 chip (ATI68800) is the immediate predecessor to the mach64 family. The mach32 was register compatible with both the IBM 8514/A and the mach8. The mach32 also contained a VGA controller on the chip that was compatible with the VGAWONDER so a separate VGA controller was not needed. The memory on the mach32 board was shared between the VGA controller and the mach32 accelerator. The mach32 improved upon the mach8 by providing a linear aperture to allow fast image data transfer by mapping the video memory to the system memory address space. Later revisions of the mach32 also were able to memory map the mach32 registers to overcome the performance penalty incurred in going through I/O port-mapped registers. Finally, the mach32 contained a hardware cursor. mach32-based boards were produced in five bus types: ISA, EISA, VESA Local Bus, Microchannel, and PCI.
Mach 64 Series
The mach64 represented a departure from the mach32 in that it was no longer register
compatible with previous ATI graphics accelerators or the 8514/A. (VGA register
compatibility was retained, however.) This departure was necessary to resolve some
design limitations that were a legacy of the older generation chips. Fortunately, almost all
the functionality that was in the mach32 was preserved in the mach64 design, and some
useful additions and enhancements were incorporated.
As indicated on the table below, the mach64 can be divided into two major types, the GX
family and the CT family. While applications that use the mach64 should run on both
types with little or no modification, there are some important differences between the two families that are highlighted in the following sections.
Boards based on mach64 are produced in ISA, VESA Local Bus and PCI bus versions.
The mach64 family was further split into mach64GX, mach64CT, and mach64VT:
Mach 64GX
The mach64GX family encompasses the mach64GX (ATI888GX00) and mach64CX
(ATI888CX00) variants. The major distinguishing characteristics of this family are the use of an external DAC and external clock synthesizer, support for VRAM, VGA controller is ATI VGAWONDER-compatible and is independently programmable from the accelerator controller. From a very rough architectural perspective, the mach64GX family more resembles the
mach32 than it does the mach64CT family. However, from a functionality and register
level perspective, the mach64GX is almost identical to the mach64CT.
Mach 64CT
The mach64CT family encompasses the mach64CT (ATI264CT), mach64VT (ATI264VT) and mach64GT (3D RAGE) variants. The major distinguishing characteristics of this family are integrated DAC and clock synthesizer, no VRAM support, the VGA controller is "pure" VGA (not VGAWONDER-compatible) and the VGA controller is not independently programmable from the accelerator controller.
Mach 64VT
The mach64VT family of chips is built upon the previously mentioned CT. They have the
same feature set as the CT, plus some additional video features such as back end hardware overlay and back end hardware scaler.
RAGE Series
Mach 64GT (3D RAGE, RAGE ii, ii+, IIc, RAGE PRO)
The mach64GT (commonly known as the 3D RAGE) introduced hardware support for 3D operations. The 3D RAGE included all mach64VT features with the addition of hardware 3D acceleration, improved video filtering, and integrated motion compensation (RAGE PRO only).
In order of performance for gaming desktops, the Rage series looks like this (from slowest to fastest):
3D Rage (slowest)
Rage II+ DVD
Rage Pro
Rage IIc
Rage Pro Turbo
Rage 128 Ultra
Rage 128 Pro
Rage Fury
Rage Fury MAXX (fastest)
Mach 64LB (RAGE LT-PRO)
The mach64LB (commonly known as the RAGE LT-PRO) provides the mach64GT core hardware support for 3D operations. The RAGE LT-PRO includes all mach64GT features with the addition of an integrated TV-Encoder, LVDS, and Dual CRT Controllers, plus the graphics subsystem power.
Mach 64GM (RAGE XL)
The mach64GM (commonly known as the RAGE XL) provides the mach64GT core hardware support for 3D operations. The RAGE XL includes all mach64GT features with the addition of an integrated TMDS for flat panels and integrated motion compensation.
Mach 64LM (RAGE MOBILITY M/P/M1)
The mach64LM (commonly known as the RAGE MOBILITY) provides the mach64GT core hardware support for 3D operations. The RAGE MOBILITY includes all mach64GT features with the addition of very low graphics subsystem power, integrated TMDS for flat panels and hardware DVD decode via integrated iDCT.
Products are listed in chronological order based on their release date.
Graphics Cards
EGA Wonder
Its adverts touted its ability to run on a wide variety of monitor types, including EGA, NEC Multisync, standard RGB, those that supported 25-Khz colour, TTL monochrome and composite. In text modes, it could also display up to 132 columns, making Lotus 1-2-3 and Symphony users able to view a year of data on a single screen. WordStar and WordPerfect also had built-in support for 132-column mode. ATI even offered a $99 interface to allow the EGA Wonder to fit inside the Compaq Portable, replacing its own internal display controller. This interface connected to EGA Wonder's 'feature connector' along the top. "A half-slot display board designed to reduce the expense of high-grade graphics, ATI's EGA Wonder attempts to produce EGA-quality images on a standard color display.
The EGA Wonder can emulate four graphics boards, including IBM's Monochrome Display Adapter (MDA) and CGA, as well as the Hercules Graphics Card (HGC). As with IBM's EGA, the EGA Wonder's enhanced color mode supports a resolution of 650 by 350 pixels with 16 simultaneous colors from a palette of 64. In this mode, the EGA Wonder can drive either an enhanced color display or a monochrome monitor (with 16 shades of gray); but the real hook is the way the board tries to trick a CGA-compatible color monitor into delivering enhanced color performance. The EGA Wonder accomplishes this feat with interlaced scanning. Ordinarily, the electron gun in a CGA monitor scans the screen in a single sweep, leaving spaces bettween the scan lines. The EGA Wonder uses interlaced scanning to sweep the screen in two stages: one pass to produce CGA-like resolution, and a second to fill in the spaces between the lines. Unfortunately, interlaced scanning has its drawbacks, the most obvious of which is flicker. When the EGA Wonder is hooked up to a CGA monitor, both text and graphics flitter like an old-time nickelodeon. Another problem is "blooming," which occurs when the board drives a monochrome monitor. When the screen changes in MDA mode, the image starts off about two-thirds size and expands to full screen over a period of several seconds. When operating in text mode on a monochrome monitor, the EGA Wonder exhibits another annoying habit: producing "ghosties," or random, blinking characters on the screen. The EGA Wonder's ghosties are generally transitory, appearing and disappearing at irregular intervals, but sometimes the little phantoms accumulate, especially when the board is driven by Microsoft Word. In addition, colors sometimes streak when the EGA Wonder is used with a CGA monitor in CGA mode. As with the Paradise Auto-switch EGA (see From the Hardware Shelf, PCW, December 1986), the EGA Wonder automatically switches between modes. The mode-switching worked well during testing, even with unruly programs like Flight Simulator and Jet. The main problem with the EGA Wonder is that it tries to do too much.,In doubling the resolution of a standard color monitor, it pushes a mediocre piece of hardware beyond its limits, yielding a predictably mediocre result. Couple this inherent weakness with in -consistent CGA and MDA emulation, and the EGA Wonder can't live up to the demands of increasingly sophisticated users." PC World, May 1987
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EGA Wonder 800
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EGA Wonder VIP
It could run in 800 x 560 resolutions as well as VGA 640 x 480 and 732 x 410 on a Multisync monitor. |
EGA Wonder 800+
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Small Wonder v1
Released: 1988 The Small Wonder (full name "Small Wonder Graphics Solution") was a Hercules clone also able to support extended CGA modes like 640 x 200 in 16 colours as well as 132-column text. The Small Wonder has three fonts, but its third font isn't the same as the IBM 'thin' font. It has narrower characters (5 pixels wide rather than 7) and I think it gets used in some of the extended modes.
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Small Wonder v2
Released: 1988 A minor update on Small Wonder version 1. In "Mono monitor" mode, it uses the 720x350 mode (even for CGA simulation), but it may use 8x8 font mode in CGA monitor/composite mode. DIP switch settings are the same as for the Small Wonder v1.
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VGA Wonder
It uses an onboard EEPROM chip to store its configuration settings, and has monitor auto-sensing (so no DIP switches).  "I've always liked ATI video adapters and have used several of their cards for years. Now, their VGA Wonder comes along and reaches extended VGA modes.Using its 9-pin digital port with EGA, RGB or TTL monochrome monitors, VGA Wonder handles conventional EGA, CGA, MDA and Hercules Graphics modes. Using its 15-pin analog port with a multifrequency monitor, VGA Wonder handles all those plus 16-color 640x480, 800x600 and 1024x 768 resolutions or 256-color 320x200, 640x400, 640x480 and 800x600 resolutions. However, a 512K VGA Wonder is needed for 256 colors at 640x480 or 800x600 resolutions. PS/2 8514, PS/2 color and PS/2 monochrome monitors display subsets of the multifrequency monitor's modes. VGA Wonder has no jumpers or switches, so installation is simple. It fits an 8-bit or 16-bit computer expansion slot, for which the card automatically configures itself An 8-bit slot is appropriate for PC or PC-XT computers, but a 16-bit slot and data path provide faster displays for PC-AT or 286/386 computers. VGA Wonder configures itself to the connected monitor when powered up the first time, but the configuration is determined by connector pin arrange- ments and may not always be ideal for a particular monitor. An old NEC Multi- Sync configured as a PS/2 color monitor, while a new Princeton Ultra 14 monitor configured as a PS/2 8514. Neither provided a full range of display modes, but ATI software let me reconfigure each monitor manually as though it was a MultiSync or MultiSync Plus to access all possible reso-lutions and colors. I used VGA Wonder's 9-pin digital port only long enough to see that it worked. Other users may appreciate the digital capability as a first step while upgrading hardware, but I wanted the card's highest capabilities immediately and switched to the 15-pin analog port quickly. This card uses "interlacing" like IBM's 8514 system for 1024x768 displays and does an excellent job of it. However, not all display modes are available on all monitors. The better the monitor, the better the card's performance. My old NEC MultiSync (not a MultiSync II or MultiSync XL) could get at all modes, but I had to readjust size, position and vertical hold controls whenever display modes changed. While not unusual, that was enough trouble to make me replace the monitor. A Princeton Ultra-14 monitor worked beautifully, in part because it had a frequency range wide enough to ac- commodate the VGA Wonder's top 35.5-kHz horizontal and 87-Hz vertical sync signals for analog monitors. And this particular monitor's automatic display adjustments eliminated fiddling with monitor controls for mode changes. The 512K VGA Wonder is fast. Under ideal conditions, ATI claims it's up to 800 percent faster than an IBM VGA card in a 16-bit slot and up to 400 percent faster in an 8-bit slot. Testing programs I use report operation at 1.96 to 2.8 times faster than a regular PC-AT video card, but other adapters have tested at only a small fraction of the nominal PC-AT video speed. ATI says VGA Wonder is totally compatible with IBM's VGA hardware architecture at the register level. One test program I tried found no incorrect register values and confirmed full com- patibility. Incidentally, the same program said ATI's older VIP card had 136 "incorrect" BIOS register values and wasn't register-level compatible. I found only one program that didn't like the VGA Wonder. But Sir-Tech's "Seven Spirits of RA" has given me trouble with many video adapters, so I blame the software, not the VGA Wonder card. New video adapters, especially extended-VGA types, suffer from shortages of software support for their highest displays. It takes time for soft- ware developers to provide drivers for new cards, and hardware developers rarely have enough drivers. VGA Won- der is no exception. It handles conventional resolutions up to 640x480 and 16 colors without special considerations, but few commercial programs have drivers in extended VGA modes yet. ATI's own drivers give specific modes for Autodesk programs, Lotus programs, Ventura Publisher, the Windows environment and the GEM environment. For example, ATI has 800x 600 16-color and 1024x768 4-color drivers for Windows but no 1024x768 16-color driver, which hampers many Windows-based graphics products. I had trouble with ATI's driver installation routine for Ventura Publisher. ATI personnel say it works for them, but I was unsuccessful in ten attempts to install 1024x768 Ventura drivers (800x600 Ventura installations worked). I eventually installed drivers manually, but I only got a 1024x768 noncolor mode to work for Ventura Publisher 2.0. On the other hand, many programs have 800x560 drivers for ATI's VIP card. Although not recom-mended by ATI, those often are usable with the VGA Wonder. With a quality monitor, 800x600 displays are magnificent for Windows and Ventura Publisher. The displays are sharp and free of distortion or flicker. VGA Wonder is a powerful video adapter. Although not compatible with extended VGA software drivers for Orchid, Tseng or Paradise cards, it won't be long before program developers provide full VGA Wonder support as they've done for other ATI products. That makes the VGA Wonder a product to grow into instead of outgrowing." Online Today, June 1989
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VGA Wonder 16
It came with a Bus mouse connector and a VGA pass-through connector. A cost-reduced version of the VGA Wonder 16 (256 KB variant) was released called the VGA Edge 16. This lacked the bus mouse connector and the digital TTL output. More Images
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Prism VGA / Prism Elite
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VGA Wonder +
In 1990, the VGA Wonder + was launched, based on their new 28800 chipset which claimed to offer speeds rivalling VRAM-based cards. Dual page mode memory access, and dynamic CPU/CRT interleaving.
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VGA Integra
Also launched in 1990, the Integra was a cost-reduced version of the VGA Wonder+ and shared the same new 28800 chipset. It has a much smaller PCB with surface-mounted BIOS and RAMDAC chips. It lacks the bus mouse connector. This card supports SVGA 72 Hz refresh rates, and comes with 512 KB DRAM as standard.
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VGA Basic 16
The VGA Basic 16 was designed to be the budget offering while still suing the latest 28800 chipset. Its PCB layout is similar to the VGA Integra but it uses a cheaper RAMDAC. It only supports the basic 60 Hz refresh rate VGA modes (same as IBM VGA standard from 1987), and came with only 256 KB DRAM which was not upgradable.
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VGA Charger
Similar to VGA Basic 16, but memory was doubled to 512 KB. |
VGA Wonder XL
The VGA Wonder XL got the Sierra HiColor RAMDAC which adds support for 15-bit colour in 640x480 @ 72 Hz and 800x600 @ 60 Hz. Cards tend to come with 256 KB 80ns DRAM soldered-in with a further 768 KB capacity in DRAM sockets. These accept 70ns DRAMs. "With menu-driven hardware and software driver installation, the ATI VGA Wonder XL is the easiest board to install and configure. Furthermore, it comes with a mouse port and a three-button mouse yet sells for a mere $259 on the street with 512K of RAM making it a clear Best Buy.
The VGA Wonder XL is the only board in this roundup to provide flicker-free 72-Hz screen refresh at all resolutions, even with a large, expensive, flicker-free monitor. If you use PowerPoint or AutoCAD, however, you might want to consider a faster board. In our PowerPoint speed tests, the VGA Wonder XL fell far back in the field. In the AutoCAD benchmarks, it consistently ran in the middle of the pack. The ATI VGA Wonder XL is an excellent board to have around as flicker-free high-resolution monitors get cheaper. It's a truly switchless board and has the smoothest driver installation of the bunch — a boon for those who frequently switch between DOS applications. It's a distinct Best Buy, especially if you don't already have a mouse." PC World, August 1991
Technical Reference Manual More Images
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VGA Wonder XL24
The RAMDAC adds support for hi and true colour graphics modes. |
VGA Wonder 1024D
The XL24 and 1024 were a series of cost-reduced versions of several VGA Wonder models. They typically lack the bus mouse connector and/or the digital TTL output. More Images
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VGA Stereo F/X
The Stereo F/X basically combined a VGA Wonder XL with a Sound Blaster 1.5 onto a single 16-bit ISA card. It features "fake" stereo sound when playing back mono sound files, believed to be by separating frequencies and playing different ones back on left and right channels. The 512 KB version gives you 640 x 480 and 800 x 600 resolutions in 256 colours and 1024 x 768 in 16 colours. The 1 MB version gives you 1024 x 768 in 256 colours. At the lower resolutions of 640 x 480 and 800 x 600 this card supports 32,768 simutaneous colours with its use of the Sierra Hi-Color RAMDAC chip. The Stereo F/X supports up to 72 Hz refresh rates but you needed the full 1MB DRAM version for this to work in SVGA modes. It has a real OPL2 chip but can also use Creative's CMS chips, making it CMS-/Game Blaster-compatible if you install these. All settings such as Base address, IRQ and DMA channel are stored in an EPROM chip, so there are no jumpers to configure on this board. The utility disk contains a config program. It's a very loud sound card (audibly), as all sound is output through an onboard amplifier. Summing Up: A decent SVGA graphics card with very good FM audio output, but suffers from less-than 100% compatibility. More Images:
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Graphics Ultra
The mach8 (ATI38800) was ATI's first true Graphics Accelerator, providing hardware assisted drawing capabilities for 2D primitives like lines, rectangles and polygons. It was register compatible with the IBM 8514/A Display Adapter. Thus any applications or drivers that supported the 8514/A would run on a mach8 without any modification. The mach8 also extended on the 8514/A specification. The mach8 did not have any VGA compatibility so a separate VGA controller was required for standard text and VGA modes. Some mach8 boards, like the GRAPHICS VANTAGE and GRAPHICS ULTRA included a VGAWONDER controller on the same board as the mach8 to provide this VGA support. The VGA controller had its own memory, completely separate from the mach8 accelerator's memory. mach8-based boards were produced in both ISA and Microchannel versions. "At $899 for the 1-MB VRAM version, ATI's Graphics Ultra commands the highest price of the tested accelerators. Based on performance and bundled extras, the Ultra makes a strong case for justifying its price tag.
For example, the Ultra leads the field in two of the three performance tests. It ran six times faster than the ProDesigner II in the NotePad and PageMaker comparisons, and it boosted Ami Pro screen scrolls two times faster than the baseline board. The Ultra teams a proprietary Mach 8 coprocessor, an 8514/A clone, with an on-board VGA controller for compatibility across the range of low and high resolutions up to 1024 by 768 pixels by 256 colors noninterlaced at 72 Hz. A mouse port and Microsoft-compatible mouse come standard with the board. Unique among the tested products are the scalable screen fonts that ATI bundles with the accelerator. Like Adobe Type Manager and similar products, these fonts, called Crystal Fonts, produce high-resolution letters to make proofing and reading of small text easier. Apparent resolution increases, thanks to the antialiasing algorithm that adds shades of gray to smooth jagged edges of letters. ATI plans to offer a package of 35 additional Crystal Fonts and support for TrueType and Bitstream and Adobe font converters. As I've already mentioned, the Ultra placed at or near the top in each of the performance tests. In addition, selected menus and repositioned windows appeared instantaneously after my mouse clicks. Less impressive, however, was the screen display. The board provided noticeable improvement in display quality over the ProDesigner II, but compared to other contenders in this review, the Ultra's display was lacking. Icons in Ami Pro were recognizable, but the scissors and other toolbox items looked blurry. Also, the boldfaced main menu text looked muddy, while the Roman fonts identifying applications in the Windows Program Manager were fuzzy." Byte, January 1992
Rough theoretical performance of this card is 10 MPixel/s pixel rate, and 0 MTexel/s texture rate. Memory performance is 40 MB/s. It blew away its competitors performance-wise upon its release in early 1992. |
Graphics Ultra Plus
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Graphics Vantage
Identical to the Graphics Ultra, but used DRAM instead of the faster VRAM. The Graphics Vantage was a high-end graphics card by ATI, launched in January 1992. Built on the 800nm process, and based on the Mach8 graphics processor, in its 38800-1 variant, the card does not support DirectX. The Mach8 graphics processor is a relatively small chip with a die area of only 90 mm². It features 1 pixel shader and 0 vertex shaders, 0 texture mapping units and 1 ROP. Due to the lack of unified shaders you will not be able to run recent games at all (which require unified shader/DX10+ support). ATi has placed 1 MB DRAM memory on the card, which are connected using a 32-bit memory interface. The GPU is operating at a frequency of 10 MHz, memory is running at 10 MHz. Display outputs include: 1x VGA.
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Graphics Ultra Pro (ISA)
The Graphics Ultra Pro ISA was a enthusiast-class graphics card by ATI, launched in January 1992. Built on the 700nm process, and based on the Mach32 graphics processor, in its Mach32-03 variant, the card does not support DirectX. The Mach32 graphics processor is a relatively small chip with a die area of only 90 mm². It features 1 pixel shaders and 0 vertex shaders, 0 texture mapping units and 1 ROPs. Due to the lack of unified shaders you will not be able to run recent games at all (which require unified shader/DX10+ support). ATI has placed 2 MB DRAM memory on the card, which are connected using a 64-bit memory interface. The GPU is operating at a frequency of 10 MHz, memory is running at 10 MHz. "For sheer speed in the EISA department, the ATI Mach 32-based ATI Graphics Ultra Pro, EISA Version, is still a leader on our tests; it scored 15.34 megapixels per second in 256-color Super VGA mode. Also, its AutoCAD total time of 54.15 seconds made it the third-fastest board we tested for this story [out of 32].
The EISA version of the Ultra Pro does not suffer from the memory aperture driver problems that beset the ISA version we tested in our issue of January 12, 1993. With 128MB of memory address space available for the EISA version, finding four contiguous megabytes for a linear-addressed display memory space isn't a likely problem. If you don't expect to move beyond 1,024-by-768 with 256 colors, you may want to look at the ATI Graphics Ultra Pro, ISA Version. ATI claims that this board offers performance comparablto that of the EISA version, at these lower resolutions and color depths, and costs about $100 less." PC Magazine, April 1993
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Graphics Ultra Pro (PCI)
The Graphics Ultra Pro PCI was a graphics card by ATI, launched in January 1993. Built on the 700 nm process, and based on the Mach32 graphics processor, in its Mach32 AX variant, the card does not support DirectX. The Mach32 graphics processor is a relatively small chip with a die area of only 90 mm². It features 1 pixel shader and 0 vertex shaders, 0 texture mapping units and 1 ROPs. Due to the lack of unified shaders you will not be able to run recent games at all (which require unified shader/DX10+ support). ATI has placed 1 MB DRAM memory on the card, which are connected using a 64-bit memory interface. The GPU is operating at a frequency of 66 MHz, memory is running at 83 MHz. |
Mach64
Mach64 Software Development Kit
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WinCharger
The WinCharger was a cost-reduced version of the mach64 with an integrated RAMDAC. The WinCharger was a performance graphics card by ATI, launched in November 1995. Built on the 600 nm process, and based on the Mach64 graphics processor, in its Mach64 CT variant, the card does not support DirectX. The Mach64 graphics processor is a relatively small chip with a die area of only 90 mm² and 1 million transistors. It features 1 pixel shaders and 0 vertex shaders, 0 texture mapping units and 1 ROPs. Due to the lack of unified shaders you will not be able to run recent games at all (which require unified shader/DX10+ support). ATI has placed 2 MB EDO memory on the card, which are connected using a 64-bit memory interface. The GPU is operating at a frequency of 40 MHz, memory is running at 40 MHz. Rough theoretical performance of this card is 40 MPixel/s pixel rate, and 0 MTexel/s texture rate. Memory bandwidth is approximately 320 MB/s.
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Mach64 VT2
This was ATi's last 2D card.
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3D Rage
The 3D Rage was the first "3D accelerator" graphics card by ATi, launched in April 1996. Built on the 500 nm process, and based on the Mach64 GT graphics processor, in its 215GT1NA21 variant, the card supports DirectX 5.0. The Mach64 GT graphics processor is a relatively small chip with a die area of only 90 mm² and 5 million transistors. It features 1 pixel shader and 0 vertex shaders, 1 texture mapping unit and 1 ROP. Due to the lack of unified shaders you will not be able to run recent games at all (which require unified shader/DX10+ support). ATI has placed 2 MB EDO memory on the card, which are connected using a 64-bit memory interface. The GPU is operating at a frequency of 44 MHz, memory is running at 57 MHz. This card suffered from slow EDO RAM compared to its competitor, the S3 ViRGE, which was first to the 3D market - the Rage only had a 32-bit memory path compared to the ViRGE's 64-bit wide path.
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3D Xpression
The 3D Xpression card was the first to sport ATi's new 3D chip, 3D Rage. It retained the Mach64 architecture with integrated DAC and clock synthesizer, and added a 3D engine into the same chip. Key features:
As a first-generATion 3D chip it proved about as useless as offerings from Matrox and nVidia. Very low feature set and not fully DirectX- and Direct3D-compatible. |
3D Rage II
ATi launched their second generation 3D chip, the Rage II, with the Mach64 GT. This corrected all the mistakes made with the 3D Rage chip - with all critical 3D features now present and working. It redesigned its Mach64 core and added MPEG2 playback (DVD). Z-buffering was now implemented in hardware, as this was now a requirement of many Direct3D games. Cards with the original Rage II chip were usually named 3D Xpression+. The GPU operated at a frequency of 60 MHz, memory was running at 83 MHz. Rough theoretical performance of this card is 60 MPixel/s pixel rate, and 60 MTexel/s texture rate. Memory bandwidth is approximately 664 MB/s. "The 3D Rage I chips have shown up on just about as many motherboards as the ViRGE, including the Sony PC. But not content to rest on their laurels, ATI has already released a second generation, the 3D Rage II. Besides increased 3D performance, the Rage II pairs itself with ATI's ImpactTV chip, allowing for television output of all graphics modes 800x600 and less.
The Rage II supports all the 3D features called for by Direct3D including anti-aliasing. Also, the Rage provides the best video acceleration we have ever seen. X and Y interpolation is done flawlessly in hardware, allowing MPEG movies to be scaled to any size without problem. Using the TV output to display an MPEG stream full-screen onto a TV resulted in a picture indistinguishable from VHS. For just $129 more, you can add a TV tuner/video capture card to create a very inexpensive multimedia station. The 2D DOS and Windows performance of the Rage 2 is on par with the ViRGE, and the 3D has a slight leg up, but it is not in the same league as the Rendition- or 3Dfx-powered cards. But if you're interested in exploring video in/out applications, nothing else deals with it as well as the 3D Rage." NEXT Generation, February '97
Key features:
3D gaming with a 2 MB card is very limiting. For it's time Rage II was feature-rich, but all members of the Rage II family suffer from perspective problems - some surfaces appear wavy instead of straight. Similar performance to S3 ViRGE/GX (released around same time) in average framerates on the 2 MB card - 4 MB should be better. AST shipped the 3D Rage II in their MS 51xx, 52xx, 62xx and 63xx desktop computers in 1997, as did IBM for their Aptiva range and Toshiba in their shortlived desktop ranges: Infinia and Equium. Cards that used the 3D Rage II include:
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All-In-WonderPrice: $250 (mid-1997)
"ATI All-IN-WONDER is the 7-in-1 graphics, TV and multimedia solution for PC, delivering 3D, 2D and video acceleration with an intelligent TV tuner, video capture and TV display. It is designed exclusively for Microsoft Windows95(tm)**. You'll enjoy outstanding 3D performance while playing games or adding 3D elements to design or multimedia projects. Plus get awesome 2D performance, ultra-high resolution, full-motion video and the ability to play games or do presentations on a big screen TV. The TV tuner lets you zoom in on the action, capture video from your TV or camcorder, watch PC video clips while still offering fast graphics. ALL-IN-WONDER will even watch TV for you, unattended."
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3D Rage II+ DVD
A minor refresh over the 3D Rage II, the Rage II+ featured MPEG2 support as well as better 3D (30% better triangle performance over Rage II was claimed by ATI). All cards from this point on carried the "A3D" logo. The 3D Rage II+ DVD was a graphics card by ATI, launched in September 1996. Built on the 500 nm process, and based on the Mach64 GT-B graphics processor, in its 215GT2UB24 variant, the card supports DirectX 5.0. The Mach64 GT-B graphics processor is a relatively small chip with a die area of only 90 mm² and 5 million transistors. It features 1 pixel shaders and 0 vertex shaders, 1 texture mapping units and 1 ROPs. Due to the lack of unified shaders you will not be able to run recent games at all (which require unified shader/DX10+ support). ATI has placed 4 MB SDR memory on the card, which are connected using a 64-bit memory interface. The GPU is operating at a frequency of 60 MHz, memory is running at 83 MHz. In reality, the claimed improvements in the 3D architecture are not evident when playing games, so the only benefit you're likely to see from the Rage II+ DVD over the Rage II is more video RAM.
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3D Rage IIC (AGP)
Cards sporting the original Rage II chip were usually named 3D Xpression+ and came with 2 to 4 MB SGRAM. The 3D Rage IIC AGP was a graphics card by ATI, launched in September 1996. Built on the 500 nm process, and based on the Rage 2 graphics processor, in its 215R2QZUA21 variant, the card supports DirectX 5.0. The Rage 2 graphics processor is a relatively small chip with a die area of only 90 mm² and 5 million transistors. It features 1 pixel shaders and 0 vertex shaders, 1 texture mapping units and 1 ROPs. Due to the lack of unified shaders you will not be able to run recent games at all (which require unified shader/DX10+ support). ATI has placed 4 MB SDR memory on the card, which are connected using a 64-bit memory interface. The GPU is operating at a frequency of 60 MHz, memory is running at 83 MHz. Rough theoretical performance of this card is 60 MPixel/s pixel rate, and 60 MTexel/s texture rate. Memory bandwidth is approximately 664 MB/s. Similar performance to S3 ViRGE/GX2, i.e. pretty poor! The core technology on this ATI card is better, but is let down by the slow core clock of 60 MHz and memory running at just 83 MHz. The Rage IIc's drivers eventually got nice and stable (not always the case with ATI's drivers - the earlier Rage II ones were poor). Rage II chipset can be considered a decent low-end architecture - insufficient fillrates for 640 x 480. Don't be fooled by how much ATI had of the 3D market in 1996-1997 - the Rage II chipset went out in droves, but was never considered a top performer.
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3D Charger
ATi launched the new Rage II+DVD chip on their new card, the 3D Charger which featured not only the new chipset but also MPEG-2 playback. The "+" part of the 3D chip was tweaked with ATi claiming 30% performance increase in small triangle rendering (over the Rage II chip). From this point on, all Rage chips carried the new "A3D" logo emblazened on the chip. Unfortunately, improvements in real gaming cannot be noticed over the Rage II chip. Key features:
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Video Xpression+ / Mach64 VT4
This was ATi's last 2D card. Key features:
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3D Rage Pro (AGP)
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3D Rage Pro Turbo (AGP)
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3D Rage XL
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Rage 128
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Rage 128
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Rage 128GL / Fury
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Radeon 7000-series
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Radeon 8000-series
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Sound Cards
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Stereo F/X-CDIntroduced: 1993. |
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