Review: ATI Radeon VE (Page 8/8)

Posted: July 8th, 2001
Written by: Tuan "GTk2" Huynh

Analysis and Conclusion

Does the Radeon VE live up to its expectations? The answer to that question depends on your viewpoint. From a business perspective, it definitely lives up to its expectations. If you are a business user that requires dual displays for displaying multiple documents on screen at the same time, the Radeon VE is well suited for you. From a gamer’s perspective, it isn’t even close. If you are a gamer on a budget, I suggest you look at the Radeon SDR or GeForce 2MX because they will offer you better 3D gaming performance. The Radeon VE offers better 3D Performance then the Matrox Millennium G450, and the extended desktop is implemented very well, and it’s about the same price as the G450. If you’re more serious about dual displays more than any other feature on a video card, I suggest taking a look at Matrox’s G450 solution as its dual display implementation is the best in the industry.

With the release of the Radeon VE, ATI has made a smart business decision. It chose to cripple the 3D core to cut down on prices for businesses, and this also makes the VE less attractive to gamers so sales won’t interfere with ATI’s budget gaming offering -- the Radeon SDR AGP/PCI. With an MSRP of $129 ($99 after rebate) the Radeon VE will probably be a favorite among OEMs for budget Workstation PC’s such as Dell’s Optiplex line.

All in all, the Radeon VE is a great card no matter how many people criticize it. It isn’t going to offer you the best 3D performance, but if you’re in an office typing papers all day, you won’t need 100+ FPS Quake 3 performances. Even if you aren’t a business user you can use the VE with a cheap computer and have it be a DVD box since it supports full hardware DVD decoding with image quality matching the highly acclaimed Sigma Designs’ Hollywood Decoder. The Radeon VE deserves to be on top of your list if you’re looking for a Dual Display or a cheap card with excellent DVD playback and TV Out.

Overall Rating: [ 7.0/10.0 ]

First Page