Number Nine Revolution IV & Digital Flat Panel Solution Pack

As 1998 comes to an end, it's time for manufacturers around the world to rush to meet that holiday deadline for product releases.  With everyone looking to buy gifts either for themselves or the hardware junkies in their family, holiday shopping can be a huge burden with the incredible number of tempting deals and offers available in the market.  One of the most confusing decisions will, naturally, be choosing the right video card for your needs.

From a gaming perspective, choosing the right video card for your needs doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out.   Unfortunately, with the driving force behind a large portion of the PC hardware industry being games, often times you'll be put in the position that the best video card option for you is nothing more than a gamer's dream used in a corporate environment.  

Why should someone interested entirely in professional applications of a video accelerator be concerned with how many frames per second their video card can get under Half-Life or Quake 2?  Simply put, they shouldn't.  Even Matrox Graphics, a company once thought to be primarily a high-end professional 2D solution provider, has gone the route of the market and sacrificed that portion of the market in favor of the ability to play the latest 3D games.  Is there a company out there that still focuses on what the professional market wants?  Or has the hype surrounding the 3D-revolution truly engulfed the industry as a whole?

Matrox's arch rival, Number Nine, famous for their success in the early 90's with the Imagine 128 series of video accelerators has proven to the world once again that they know how to do 2D right with their latest concoction, the Number Nine Ticket to Ride IV chipset which can be found on the new #9 Revolution IV. 

While Matrox set out to produce the most balanced 2D/3D combo card in terms of quality, their counterpart, #9, refused to give up an ounce of 2D quality or speed in favor of 3D performance.  At the same time, #9 had to make sure that they didn't completely ignore the demands and needs of an increasingly 3D dependent world with the Revolution IV while refraining from walking down the gaming dominated path of their competitors.  The result?  A ticket to an unforgettable ride, let's take a look at those specs.