Bob's Review:
Canopus Pure3D (with TV-Out)
Friday, July 31, 1998
(Update: After 3Dfx went proprietary and left them hanging out to dry,
Canopus no longer makes these or any other game cards;
they also no longer seem to support these cards,
though I'm sure a diligent search on
Google
would yield results...
I was impressed with the
Canopus Pure3D
right from the start.
Upon just opening the package I was pleased with the contents,
the way in which they were packaged and especially the fact that
everything I needed to operate the product as advertised (other than
the computer, of course) was supplied with the card. Provided along with
the card itself was a cable to connect the existing video card to the Pure3D,
two separate TV-Out cables (S-Video and RCA, depending on which you
either needed or wanted to use) plus a cable for connecting your sound
card to the TV, VCR or stereo.
Of all the included components, the inclusion of this latter cable
both surprised and impressed me the most, since it didn't directly have
anything to do with the Pure3D itself. Other companies I've
bought peripherals from would have had me running down to Radio
Shaft to pick up the cable they neglected to include. I realize
that in the grand scheme of things this was a small gesture, but
in my eyes it is this sort of attention to customer satisfaction
that seperates a superb company from a mediocre one.
Also included was a manual and a CD-ROM, the latter of which contained both
the card's driver and utility software. Though I did not need to read
it, the manual was both simple and easy to read, but yet included
a nicely written, step by step set of instructions with plenty of
illustrations that I believe even a non-computer literate person could follow. It's nice to know that there are companies out there that realize not everyone's
a computer professional.
The card itself was was a breeze to install. It fit easily yet smartly
into my expansion slot, easily enough I didn't feel like I was forcing
it into the motherboard yet solidly enough I felt it was making good
connection.
The driver and utility software were both exceptionally easy to install. Windows 98
made this a bit easier in a way, yet more difficult in another. Windows 95 won't do
this, but Win98 indeed recognized the card as a
3Dfx card but,
despite the fact that it had the correct Canopus driver available, it suggested
a "generic" 3Dfx driver for the card. When I explained to it the error of its ways,
it insisted that the Canopus Pure3D driver I had chosen might not be the best driver
for the card. I insisted back that it was, and that was that. In my humble opinion,
this glitch was in no way a failure on Canopus' part. After that, the
utility software installed without a hitch. Though I figure that the utility
software for Pure3D is similar (or simular, as they say in Indiana) to other 3Dfx card's
utility software, I really liked the fact that it installed itself as
another tab in the Display Properties dialog box. Another nice thing is
that part of the utility dialog is an incredibly easy to use dialog to overclock
the card, anywhere from the default 50Mhz up to 60Mhz (though I have not
found the need or the guts to crank it up over 50Mhz - yet).
And at that, I was done, easy as pie! I was instantly able to load up
Quake II in 3D accelerated mode. I have since tried Unreal and Hexen II in
3D accelerated mode as well, and both work wonderfully. I haven't performed any
frame rate benchmarks with either of these latter games, but Quake II gave me rates
of just over 25 frames per second. Pretty decent for only having a $35 video card
with only 2MB!!!
I can't, of course, speak as to their customer support, because I haven't needed it,
though their web site posts updated drivers and information about the card, and as
of this writing they've already posted a new Win98 driver.
In short, I HIGHLY recommend Pure3D by Canopus. Its quality of construction, the
thoughtfulness of it's designers, and the ease of installation make
this card, and the company behind it, one I would recommend to anyone.
Street price for the Canopus Pure3D should be, at the time of this writing, between $120 to
$140 U.S.
For anyone who wants to know, my system is as follows:
- Microsoft Windows 98 operating system
- Eurone "Top Gun" motherboard with 1MB cache
- AMD-K6 233 @ 233Mhz
- 64 MB S-DRAM
- Cirrus Logic chipset PCI 2MB video card
- 5.4 GB UltraDMA IDE drive
- Sound Blaster 32 ISA (OEM Version)
Other items in my system which are probably of little consequence regarding the
Pure3D, but could possibly affect the card's performance by their mere presence
in the machine:
- Hauppauge WinCastTV PCI card
- USR 56K modem ISA
- 3COM Multi-Type ISA NIC
- Adaptec SCSI card PCI
- NEC 1.2 GB SCSI drive
- Western Digital 0.5 GB SCSI drive
- iomega zip 100 external SCSI drive
- QuickCam VC USB
- MS Intellimouse USB
- Altec Lansing Model 31 speakers
- Quick Shot microphone
- PC Concepts "Win95" Keyboard
