Taking a glance at the specs, the first thing that grabs our attention is the 64MB of memory on board the card. While definitely impressive, it doesn't mean that you'll suddenly have more texture memory available. Rather, it is divided between the two processors, similar to having two complete boards on the same card.

Secondly, we see the 500 Mpixel/sec fill rate, topping the current leader, the GeForce 256's fillrate by 20 Mpixels/sec. Basically, ATi is pushing the limit of graphics technology, making faster framerates and higher resolutions attainable. We will be testing the real world application of this fill rate in just a little bit.

Next, we see that hardware DVD playback is fully supported. This means that owners of older CPU's such as early Pentium IIs will be able to watch DVD titles on their computer without dropping frames. In order to accomplish this, ATi has incorporated hardware motion compensation, seen on GeForce-based boards, as well as iDCT (inverse discrete cosine transfer), which further reduces the burden put on the CPU. These two performance features coupled with ATi's DVD player (based on the Ravisent engine) have solidified ATi as the DVD leader.

As the Rage Fury MAXX is meant for gamers, ATi has written drivers for Windows 98 only. While we'd agree that most gamers don't run NT4, it will be interesting to see the impact Windows 2000 has on the gaming community. Other then that, Linux users will have to look elsewhere and Win 3.x users should definitely think about upgrading.

Finally, while very few people run 3D applications above 1600x1200, some do run above that in 2D. If you are lucky enough to own a large monitor and run it above 1600x1200, note that the MAXX won't go higher then that.