Judging video acceleration is significantly more difficult than 3D performance. Video 2000, the only available video benchmark, is not compatible with the RADEON because of ATI's advanced de-interlacing technique, so we are forced to do a subjective test. It was interesting to observe that the RADEON was the only card to correctly display the alpha menu highlights in the root menu of Face/Off (the crosshairs). For the purpose of resizing MPEG-2 video, the RADEON makes use of a 4-tap horizontal/4 tap vertical scalar while the GeForce2 has an integrated 5-tap horizontal/3 tap vertical scalar.

Without a doubt, the Video Acceleration category belongs to the RADEON. S3 was the only company to ever rival the video features that ATI has incorporated, but that is another story entirely. NVIDIA's GeForce2 takes second, mainly because both 3dfx and Matrox forgot to include any video acceleration features in their respective products. Whoops, maybe next time, guys.

Video Cards Tested
3dfx Voodoo4 4500 (1.03.00)
ATI RADEON 32MB DDR (4.0.3056)
ATI RADEON 32MB SDR (4.0.3056)
ELSA GLADIAC MX (6.31)
Hercules 3D Prophet II MX (6.31)
Leadtek Winfast GeForce2 MX (6.31)
Matrox G450 (6.04.029)
MSI MS-StarForce 816 (6.31)

AMD Value Test System
Processor: AMD Duron 700MHz
Heatsink: CoolerMaster DP5-6H51
Memory: 128 MB Micron PC133 CAS2 SDRAM
Motherboard: ASUS A7V
Hard-Drive: 30 gigabyte Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM ATA2 (ATA66)
Sound: Creative Labs Sound Blaster Live
CD/DVD: Toshiba CD-M1402
Power Supply: Sparkle 300 watt
Operating System: Windows 98 Second Edition

Software/Test settings
Windows 98 Second Edition, Direct-X 7.0A, V-Sync was disabled