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Review: Power Color evilQUEEN. 2.8.99
In the midst of high speed internet access and 400 MHz processors, there stands something that will revolutionize the way computing is done. That something is 3D, and it's quickly becoming an integral part of our lives. People now enjoy the blistering speed and vivid colors that computer graphics have been renowned to produce for entertainment, and CAD and design technicians sit in the lap of luxury with high-resolution images that rival reality. But all of this didn't happen all at once, however. Without the deluge of companies involved in the engineering and production process -- all vying to make a superior product -- the technological curve that takes into account the progression towards rendering a complete world inside of a computer would be nearly as flat as the planet was believed to be in the 1400's. One of the many companies pushing the envelope on speed and performance is the Taiwanese based establishment, Power Color. Recently, Power Color has garnered a respected role in the computer graphics industry by releasing several graphics accelerators that are more than capable of meeting the demands of today's high-end software. One of the newest additions to the expanding Power Color product line is the evilQUEEN, a 2D/3D graphics solution based on the 3Dfx Banshee chipset. Forged of some of the fastest silicon available, the evilQUEEN comes equipped with such an impressive set of features and niceties that they could only be described as copious. Standing in the spotlight is the ability for the evilQUEEN to run all Glide (A 3Dfx proprietary programming language) enhanced games and applications with little to no problems. Other items of interest include a full 16 megabytes of RAM, and unrivaled 2D performance. Once the box was received, an evilQUEEN, installation disk, and an instruction manual were found inside. The manual is well written and concise, explaining the installation process in detail. Any partially competent owner of a PC should have no trouble installing the card. The installation disk that was received contained the drivers for the evilQUEEN; however, it also contained every other card made by Power Color, as well. Needless to say, finding the correct driver file was not the easiest task. The evilQUEEN itself is an AGP part (A PCI version is available); a heatsink and fan is located on the processor to keep things cool, and, to top things off, you'll find the RAM located at the tail-end of the board. 2D performance of the evilQUEEN is outstanding; you will be hard pressed to find anything faster. Not even the venerable Matrox G200 could match the speed and alacrity the card displayed. If 2D is your main priority, the EQ will certainly deliver performance that's suitable for any purist. Delving into the world of 3D, the scene changes, somewhat. When 3Dfx set out to create the
Banshee, they decided to exclude a second texture unit in favor of a lower price. In theory, they
brutally handicapped the performance by doing this. In practice, though, the Banshee, and thus,
the evilQUEEN, performs admirably.
The lack of the second texture unit really stands out in games like Quake II. While the
performance isn't bad at all, a Voodoo 2 based accelerator would have have been faster.
Another notable occlusion that hinders game speed is the lack of a working K6-2 optimized
driver. Assuming AMD releases one soon, expect the framerate to increase considerably.
Even though Forsaken isn't the best, nor the most used, benchmark available, it is still a viable
candidate for our testing purposes. The end results speak for themselves: the evilQUEEN
delivered framerates that were truly impressive. At times, the game ran as high as 190 frames
per second, which is phenomenal. 3DMark '99
3DMark is probably one of the most accurate ways to gauge the performance of a 3D accelerator, and, once again, the evilQUEEN flexes its royal muscles. Some of the demo's ran in this program are absolutely stunning, and for a sub-one-hundred dollar graphics accelerator to be able to deliver framerates this impressive, the design and implementation of a lot of good ideas have to be put in place. The evilQUEEN has certainly proved its worth in the price/performance category. Power Color's evilQUEEN has certainly had an auspicious review thus far, but, as we all know, all good things must come to an end. For some strange reason, certain games display irregular behavior. Madden '99 (one of my favorite games) for instance, refuses to play under any circumstances. How annoying is this? Annoying enough to almost throw the card in the trash. There were also some problems running the Aliens vs. Predator demo; it, too, was plagued with the dreaded frozen screen. The infirmities of the evilQUEEN don't stop there, however, as there are more than a few games which have displayed the same symptoms. Interested in testing the performance of Unreal, a game was started. Unfortunately, I was quick to find out that it only ran in software mode; 3D acceleration refused to kick in. Klingon Honor Guard testing yielded the same results. For some reason, any game using the Unreal engine simply would not run on the test system -- a very a demoralizing experience. Be leery of these flaws if your interested in purchasing an evilQUEEN. Spending one-hundred dollars on a paper weight isn't exactly fun. Also, keep in mind that the incidents aren't isolated, and you could be subjected to the same heinous and debilitating -- systematically speaking -- problems. The question burning in your mind now is "Is it worth buying?" Well, if you avidly play any of the games mentioned above, no. If you don't, then sure. Although there are some obvious flaws, it doesn't necessarily mean that they will be present in your configuration. Even if they do rear their ugly head, a majority of games will work trouble free. In Closing: Although the evilQUEEN isn't on the bleeding edge of technology or performance, for the price, no card can match the capabilities and functionality that Power Color has stuffed into this product. If you have $100.00 to spend on a graphics accelerator, look no further than this one. Pro's: A street price of $99; good performance; Glide support Con's: No bundled software; Not as fast as the newer accelerators; compatibility issues Final Thought:
CI Rating: 85%
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