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September 1, 1998
by Brandon Miquel
SRP: $249
ATI Technologies
XClaim VR
Pros: fast, good value
Cons: resolution switching problems
As is evident by the ever expanding market for consumer level video cards, many Mac users are turning away from their Mac's built-in video to gain the graphics speed and video features of relatively inexpensive video cards. ATI was one of the catalysts in this movement when it unveiled it's 5-in-1 XClaim VR card almost two years ago. The company's XClaim VR Pro card is simply an updated version of the original card, utilizing a faster Rage Pro chipset in place of the Rage II, and doubling the standard VRAM from 2 MB to 4 MB.
Although the XClaim VR Pro supports up to 8 MB of VRAM, the 4 MB that it ships with are all you'll need to see millions of colors, 24-bit, at resolutions of up to 1152x870. Unlike your Mac's built-in video, though, you won't suffer a loss in performance when running your display at such a high setting since all the graphics operations are being taken care of by the speedy Rage Pro chip on the XClaim VR Pro. Everything from scrolling to redrawing the screen becomes noticeably faster, which one would expect from such a video card. As an added advantage of using a video card, you'll be able to hook up an additional monitor to your Mac.
When you replace your Mac's built-in video with the XClaim VR, you will enjoy the 32-bit color at any of the supported resolutions. Scrolling, opening windows, and other graphical tasks will speed up thanks to the cards speedy 2D capabilities, and your entire computer will speed up a bit because your processor will no longer handle graphics. Alternately, you can use it to add a second monitor to your Mac.
The XClaim VR's 3D capabilities proved to be quite fast, offering significant speed gains over my dated and Performa 6400's built-in video, especially with games that are optimized for RAVE cards. Nanosaur, one of the two games bundled with the iMac, went from an unplayable 4-6 frames per second, to a more than adequate 15-20 FPS the XClaim VR Pro. The RAVE version of Quake also displayed similar signs of improvement, averaging 14.2 FPS. Although avid game players will be quick to point out that the $99 gaming-only Power3D 3Dfx card from Techworks produces framerates of 25-30 FPS under 3Dfx optimized games, it's important to note that the human eye can't perceive much of a difference between then two. On the other hand, the XClaim VR Pro's 2D performance wasn't as impressive as the 3D portion, producing gains of about 20% for MDK.
For multimedia aficionados, the XClaim VR Pro features a standard video-in port that performed flawlessly. It easily achieved high framerates even when playing full-screen, and the reception was greater than on my TV. The video-capture mode was able to achieve acceptable framerates at 320x240, 24-bit, but it wasn't close to the broadcast-quality 29.97 frames per second, and without the optional TV Tuner, you won't have any sound.
The only problem I ran into with the XClaim VR is when a program tries to automatically change the resolution of the monitor. Sometimes it chooses a refresh rate that's not supported by your monitor, which causes the screen to get out of sync, producing a severely distorted image. The resolution can be changed back manually, although with much squinting and a bit of guesswork to figure out which of the three cursors on the flawed screen you should use. This problem can be fixed by manually changing the resolutions, although sometimes while doing this the background changes colors, windows disappear, or the menu bar disappears, and in these cases a restart is needed to rectify the problem.
The XClaim VR is an video card that anyone looking to give their Mac's graphics a boost or add greater multimedia features should consider. Unlike MicroConversion's VideoWizard, its main competition, the XClaim VR Pro lives up to features and delivers solid performance at the right price.
© 1998 The MacNN Review
