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S3. S3 missed last year's generation of 3D chipsets after 1996's flop, the Virge. Now S3 seeks to make up for their mistakes with their Savage3D. This chipset is on par, if not a bit faster, than a Voodoo 2 under most applications. In addition, the Savage3D natively handles S3TC, S3's impressive texture compression technology. Visually, a game that correctly utilizes S3TC is stunning. Textures as large as 2000x2000 are easily compressed and displayed with minimal visual degradation. The technology is still young though, and has a tendency to jerk movement during texture load times.
Matrox. Before last year, Matrox was the undisputed king in the land of graphical chipsets. However, like S3, they missed the boat last year without a 3D offering. Like S3, they seek to make amends with a new chipset, the MGA-G200. Like S3, they've fallen a bit short. The G200 was originally hyped to be another Voodoo 2 killer, with unbelievable Direct3D performance, stellar visual quality and resolutions never before attempted. The G200 delivers on many of its promises, and is a perfect entry level card, however under no circumstances does it outperform a Voodoo 2.
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