A late entry into the roundup comes from a somewhat unlikely source, Canadian graphic specialists Matrox. Long known for their virtual supremacy in 2D graphic excellence, Matrox's newest part is an absolute Godzilla, bristling with high-end graphic features and high levels of raw performance.

The video accelerator market has never been so crowded with capable products as it is currently, yet only one can wear the 1st place prize ribbon from the Sharky Extreme staff.

Silicon Valley locals S3 have been making quite a splash with their new Savage4 video accelerator chips of late. Several card manufacturers including Diamond, Creative and Number Nine have opted to produce boards based on the low cost Savage4 graphics processor.

Since "value" is stressed by all of the 110 and 125MHz Savage4-based cards (most of them are debuting with MSRPs of less than $120) to put them against cards like the Matrox G400 MAX and Hercules Dynamite TNT2 Ultra which cost over $100 more and operate at much higher MHz frequencies would be inappropriate.

Instead, Sharky Extreme will produce a separate value/performance video card shootout, which will pit the Voodoo3 2000 against various lower priced TNT2s and Savage4 products.

For today's piece we're concerned with the "price is no object" segment of the video card market, the true Ferraris and Lamborghinis of the 3D Indianapolis 500 world.

One fast card that isn't included in this roundup is the upcoming ATi Rage128PRO. Clocked at 143MHz, this new version of the Rage128GL chip is targeted at the demands of power users, and promises a large performance improvement versus the previous 100MHz Rage128GL. ATi is still working on the Rage128PRO, hence it wasn't available yet for inclusion in this article. Another three weeks is a good bet before we produce a preview article on ATi's latest part, including benchmarks.

Similarly, the announced but as of yet undelivered 3dfx Voodoo3-3500 is also not a part of this particular comparison. The V3-3500, like the ATi Rage128PRO, is simply not ready to be evaluated by the media at this time. Another three to four weeks in the oven for the 3500 should be enough, expect to see it on store shelves at that time.