Manufacturer: Diamond Multimedia Tech: AGP based i740 board with 8Mb SDRAM Bundle: Incoming (full-game) Fremont SE (3D data visualization software) and WorldView (Professional 3D animation package for PowerPointŪ) Price: $129.95 ($99 w/ mail in rebate) w/ 8Mb

How many Intel740s does it take to suffocate the 3D card market? Well I don't know but it's getting close. Still with all the current hype and hysteria surrounding the next generation 3D cards I thought I'd send you back down to Earth with a bump- the Diamond Stealth II G460. Don't get me wrong- I mean as far as Intel740s go your not going to do any wrong by opting for Diamond's own offering. It's just hard to get excited about 2D/3D card, which just doesn't cut it anymore. Still if you're a casual gamer or just want to sample some of the delights of 3D gaming then you might indeed find what you're after in the Diamond Stealth II G460. And if you're familiar with the Stealth series then you'll remember that they opted for S3's Virge and then later Rendition's Verite it has to be said that Diamond have indeed improved upon

Diamond has in all fairness taken the Intel740 as far as it will go. They've put together a slightly redesigned reference board with a sturdy heat sink and a full load of 8MB 100MHz SDRAM (which does do block writing). I've said it a thousand times- but I'll say it again, novices needn't worry about installing a board such as this. It's honestly a very easy procedure. Just locate your AGP slot and firmly place the card in it and then just let the tired and tested Diamond drivers do the rest. Incidentally it's good to see that Diamond haven't let the quality in their drivers wane for a low-end product such as this. As ever they are top notch and have everything from color compensation tool right down to monitor positioning. There are all sorts of resolutions you can opt for ranging from 640 x 480 to 1600 x 1200 in 8bit, or from 640 x 480 to 1280 x 1024 in 16bit. Then 640 x 480 and1024 x 768 in 24bit. And even though that's not too bad, those of you with larger monitors would of course have liked a greater color depth at the higher resolutions but that's only a minor gripe and doesn't apply to everyone. The screen refresh rates are slightly lower than the Hercules Terminator 2x/i as it uses 203RAMDAC as opposed to the faster 230RAMDAC. I'm not going to dig too deep in to 2D facts and figures here because this is a gaming site after all- and nobody plays Winstone so I'll just leave at that. Yes the 2D is good enough for your everyday needs and it only gets better with a Matrox G200, 3Dfx Voodoo Banshee or an nVIdia TNT. Then again all of those cards will chew up the Intel740 for breakfast so it's an unfair comparison.