VideoLogic Vivid!

With the release of the new Vivid! card, VideoLogic hopes to recapture the budget market and, based on the evidence we've seen, it might just succeed. VideoLogic uses PowerVR chips - the second-generation version is in Sega's Dreamcast. This card features series three, known as the Kyro.

The secret to the chip's success is tile-based rendering - in layman's terms, the Kyro doesn't bother rendering anything you can't see. VideoLogic claims this removes the need to use the fastest, most expensive memory, and to an extent our performance results bear this claim out.

The card also supports environment bump mapping and eight-layer multitexturing for extra detail. However, there's no Transform and Lighting (TandL) support due to the extra cost.

There's 32Mb of SDR SGRAM on the card, clocked at the same speed as the chip, 115Mhz. This may not sound impressive but it seems to do the job.

The Vivid! is a direct competitor to nVidia's own GeForce2 MX cards and, compared to the Asus V7100 (a card based on the MX chip), the Vivid! fares very well. At both 1024 x 768 and 1280 x 1024, the MX-based card had the edge when it came to 16bit colour.

Turn on 32bit colour, though, and the Vivid! runs away with the prize for the fastest card, only dropping a few frames per second on its 16bit colour score. Given the choice, we would much prefer to play a game in 32bit colour, and on that basis, Vivid! is recommended.

Contact
VideoLogic 01923 277 488 www.videologic.com