Permedia 3 Create!

The Permedia 3 Create! from

3Dlabs is positioned as a graphics card, but can also be used for gaming.

The card is not available in India, so we ordered it directly from the

source. It’s an AGP card with 32 MB of on-board video RAM and built around

an integrated 300 MHz RAMDAC. A fast RAMDAC ensures higher refresh rates at

any screen resolution. The card can drive resolutions of up to 2,048x1,536

dpi in 32-bit color, which is quite high. This is, of course, achievable

only if your monitor supports such high resolutions. We were able to check

its resolutions from 640x480 dpi to 1,280x1,024 dpi in 16-bit true colors.

To

test the card’s performance, we used a PIII/500 with 128 MB RAM at a

resolution of 1,024x768 dpi with 16-bit color and 75 Hz refresh rate. We

compared its performance in graphics and gaming against the GeForce–the

latest graphics card from Creative with 32 MB of video RAM.

Overall, the Permedia 3

Create! didn’t perform as well as the GeForce. This is because the

graphics card market is evolving at a very fast pace today. The GeForce was

launched around six months after the Permedia, which is sufficient time for

technologies to change completely. The GeForce has 350 MHz RAMDAC, and

supports AGP 2x with fast writes, which makes it perform much faster.

We used Indy 3D benchmarks to

test the card’s graphics performance. This checks out the card’s frame

rates for various graphics applications, and uses the OpenGL capabilities of

the card. The card gave 16.4 fps for animation and a good 39.4 fps in the

simulation tests. The GeForce, on the other hand, was way ahead in both,

scoring 36 fps and 100 fps for animation and simulation tests respectively.

The Permedia scored 11 fps in

MCAD 40–a technical design tool–while the GeForce (which costs

approximately double) gave 38 fps. It couldn’t do very well in the

high-end design application–MCAD 150. The score was 3 fps as compared to

GeForce’s 12 fps. The card did pretty well in high-end business

applications though, and scored 29.3 units in the High-end Winstone 99

benchmark. This uses applications like FrontPage, SoundForge, Microstation

Graphics, etc, to test the graphics capabilities of the card. So, we found

the card to be useful for high-end graphics designers, but not very good for

intensive engineering design applications.

Permedia 3 Create!

Features: AGP card with 32 MB

onboard RAM; 300 MHz RAMDAC.

Pros: Can be optimized as per

application; good for high-end business applications.

Cons: Didn’t perform too well

in high-end engineering design applications.

Source: Not available in India.

Can be ordered online from www.3dlabs.com. An order can also be sent

to ExxactPat@aol.com.

The card is an average

performer when it comes to gaming. The GeForce superseded it by almost 100

percent in 3D Winbench 99 scores, which tests a card for its DirectX API

support. It scrounged 527 3D Winmarks, while the GeForce scored 998.

We also ran 3DMark99 Max,

another gaming benchmark, and this time, the scores for both were nearly

equal. This means that the type of performance you get from the card depends

on the game you’re playing.

The card is shipped with

Cyberlink PowerDVD—a utility for hardware accelerated DVD playback—and

Colorific utility for color calibration and matching. Another advantage is

that you can optimize the card for the application you’re using it for.

The 3D control panel allows you to select the application that you want to

optimize the card for.

The card’s Website lists a

price of $289 for the card, which amounts to about Rs 13,000. For this kind

of a price, the card is a good buy.