Diamond Viper V330 Riva 128 Accelerator
by Anand Lal Shimpi on September 14, 1997 1:57 PM EST- Posted in
- GPUs
| WinBench 97 Version 1.1 Graphics Winmark Results | ||||
| Video Card | Diamond Viper V330 (PCI) | Matrox Millennium II (PCI) | ||
| Resolution | Business Graphics Winmark 97 | High End Graphics Winmark 97 | Business Graphics Winmark 97 | High End Graphics Winmark 97 |
| 800 x 600 x 8 bit Color (256 Colors) | 151 | No Result | 162 | No Result |
| 800 x 600 x 16 bit Color (65K Colors) | 144 | No Result | 146 | No Result |
| 800 x 600 x 24 bit Color (16.7M Colors) | Not Supported | Not Supported | 126 | No Result |
| 800 x 600 x 32 bit Color (4B Colors) | 129 | No Result | 116 | No Result |
| 1024 x 768 x 8 bit Color (256 Colors) | 135 | 55.8 | 154 | 68.4 |
| 1024 x 768 x 16 bit Color (65K Colors) | 109 | 58.4 | 118 | 57.0 |
| 1024 x 768 x 24 bit Color (16.7M Colors) | Not Supported | Not Supported | 104 | 52.1 |
| 1024 x 768 x 32 bit Color (4B Colors) | 78.4 | 45.1 | 71.4 | 47.6 |
Here the Diamond Viper is almost on par with the Matrox Millennium II, actually beating it in a few tests measuring the 2D or Windows acceleration of the video card. Unfortunately the Diamond Viper did not allow me to run in 24 bit color for one reason or another, therefore no scores at 24 bit color were posted. That could be a downside for some not wishing to migrate to 32 bit color just yet.
| Supported 3D Features | |||
| Feature | Diamond Viper V330 (PCI) | ATI 3D Rage Pro (AGP) | Matrox Millennium II (PCI) |
| 3D Quality/Fog Vertex | Capable | Capable | Not Capable |
| 3D Quality/Fog Table | Not Capable | Not Capable | Not Capable |
| 3D Quality/Specular Highlights | Capable | Capable | Not Capable |
| 3D Quality/Color Key Transparency | Capable | Capable | Not Capable |
| 3D Quality/Alpha Transparency | Capable | Capable | Not Capable |
| 3D Quality/Linear | Capable | Capable | Not Capable |
| 3D Quality/Mipmap Linear | Capable | Capable | Not Capable |
| 3D Quality/Dithering | Capable | Capable | Not Capable |
| 3D Quality/Perspective Correction | Capable | Capable | Not Capable |
| 3D Quality/Fog Vertex and Color Key | Capable | Capable | Not Capable |
| 3D Quality/Fog Vertex and Alpha | Capable | Capable | Not Capable |
| 3D Winbench 97 | |||
| Diamond Viper V330 (PCI) | ATI 3D Rage Pro (AGP) | Diamond Monster 3D | |
| 3D WinMark 97 | 280 | 191 | 210 |
Here we can see the Viper really shine with its outstanding 3D WinMark 97 score of 280 in comparison to the 210 by the Diamond Monster 3D and the 191 by the "superior" AGP ATI 3D Rage Pro card. However the Quake frame rate scores below are quite disappointing, so if you do decide to get the Viper and want to run Quake I strongly suggest you purchase a Monster 3D as well since it is still the ultimate gaming add-on.
| WinQuake Frame Rates | ||
| Resolution | Score (Frames per Second) | |
| Diamond Viper V330 (AGP) | Diamond Viper V330 (PCI) | |
| 320 x 200 | 63.0 fps | 67.0 fps |
| 320 x 240 | Not Run | 51.3 fps |
| 320 x 400 | Not Run | 36.0 fps |
| 400 x 300 | Not Run | 39.0 fps |
| 512 x 384 | 44.3 fps | 27.9 fps |
| 640 x 400 | Not Run | 23.1 fps |
| 640 x 480 | 34.8 fps | 20.0 fps |
| 800 x 600 | 26.2 fps | 13.9 fps |
| 1024 x 768 | Not Run | 9.0 fps |
Does the AGP version of the Diamond Viper show any improvement in unaccelerated WinQuake? Yes again. Using the Timedemo demo2 benchmark, the AGP Viper V330 constantly produced higher frame rates than the PCI version, except at 320 x 200 where the PCI version beat it out by 4 frames per second.
The Diamond Viper V330, coupled with NVidia's new alpha GL drivers forms an almost perfect combination of performance, compatibility, affordability and quality in a video accelerator...that can even run that beautiful GL Quake 2 at resolutions unheard of with most 3Dfx cards.
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tipoo - Friday, March 18, 2011 - link
This should be added to AT bench!slatanek - Friday, November 30, 2012 - link
It's amazing to see this review! this was my first video card and at that time its performance was awesome for the money. to think that this thing had 4MB of video memory is just mindblowing! Quake 2 indeed looked great on the Riva 128.AnandTech started at almost same time as my interest for PC. Now I got emotional... ;-)