IntroductionX-Micro Technology Corporation are a relatively new and unknown company based in Taiwan who was formed in 1999. X-Micro design and distribute professional 3D graphics cards, for consumers all around the world. Interestingly enough, all X-Micro video cards feature nVidia chips and no other brands.
Back in 1999, X-Micro started their line of products with the release of the Impact 2 video card that was based on the nVidia TNT2 M64 GPU (Graphics Processing Unit), which at the time was designed for the value market. After this, X-Micro released another version of the Impact 2 that was based on the nVidia Riva TNT2 GPU. Yet another version of the Impact 2 was released, this one was based on the nVidia Riva TNT2 Ultra GPU.
Around this time the nVidia GeForce GPU was released, X-Micro released a new video card based on this GPU called the Impact 3. Continuing on from this, X-Micro released the Impact 3 DDR; this was based on the nVidia GeForce DDR GPU. Some months later, the nVidia GeForce2 GTS CPU was released and X-Micro (you guessed it) released the Impact 4 that used this GPU. Shortly after this, nVidia released the GeForce2 MX GPU, which was essentially a cut down version of the nVidia GeForce2 GTS GPU, X-Micro called this card the Hulk 5 - Certainly a pleasing change from the "Impact" series of video cards that was and still is becoming a predictable and somewhat boring naming method of the corporation. Maybe this is something the X-Micro R&D team should consider revising in the not-so-distant future.
After the release of the GeForce2 MX GPU, nVidia released the GeForce2 Ultra GPU, until only a matter of days ago this GPU was the fastest on the planet, now this award belongs to the new nVidia GeForce3 GPU. Back on track now, a couple months after the nVidia GeForce2 Ultra was released, nVidia released the nVidia GeForce2 GTS Pro GPU, this GPU was again a cut-down version of the nVidia GeForce2 Ultra, much the same as the nVidia GeForce2 MX was to the GeForce2 GTS. X-Micro kindly sent us along some of their GeForce2 cards to evaluate, in the lab today is the X-Micro Impact 4 PRO, which is based on the nVidia GeForce2 GTS Pro.
Specifications- NVIDIA 2nd-Generation 256-bit GPU with new 4x4 T&L Architecture
Fulfill NVIDIA QuadEngineTM Technology
Full acceleration for Microsoft DirectX 7 and OpenGL 1.2 ICD
Integrated 350MHz RAMDAC, resolution up to 2048x1536, True Color @ 75Hz
DirectX Texture Compression
Vivid NTSC/PAL TV-Output with flicker filter (Optional)
Enhanced Motion compensation for full speed DVD playback
- Features, Performance & Quality
256-bit graphics architecture
AGP 4X with Fast Writes and Execute Mode
2nd-generation T&L Engines
400Mhz Memory speed
1600 Mtexels Fill Rate
25 Mtriangles/sec through T&L
6.4 GB/sec Memory Bandwidth
Double Data Rate (DDR) Memory
32-bit color & 32-bit Z/Stencil
Cube Environment Mapping
Order Independent Full Scene Multisample Anti-aliasing
Integrated 720p, 1080i HDTV Playback
- High Quality HDTV/DVD Playback
Enhanced Motion Compensation for full-screen video playback of all DVD/HDTV resolutions
8:1 upscaling and downscaling
Multiple video windows with hardware color space conversion and filtering
Video acceleration for DirectShow, MPEG-1, MPEG-2, and Indeo
- Visually Stunning interactive 3D
Hi Performance 256-bit 2D acceleration
8 texture-mapped, filtered, lit texels per clock cycle
Single pass multi-texturing
32-bit Z/stencil buffer (floating point or integer)
Anti-aliasing: full scene, order independent
32-bit ARGB rendering with destination alpha
High Quality Texture Filtering, including Anisotropic
Advanced per-pixel, perspective-correct texturing
Optimized for multiple color depths including 32, 24, 16, 15, and 8-bits per pixel True-color hardware cursor
Multi-buffering (double, triple, quad buffering) for smooth animation and video playback
- Supported Drivers & APIs
Windows 95, 98, ME, NT4.0, Win2K, Linux
Support DirectDraw, Direct3D DirectVideo, ActiveX
OpenGL ICD for Win95, 98, ME, NT, Win2K and Linux
