DOS Days

Diamond Monster Fusion

The Monster Fusion is based on the 3dfx Voodoo Banshee which is a combined 2D/3D accelerator card.

  Released Dec 1998
Bus PCI or AGP 1x
Chipset 3dfx Voodoo Banshee
Standards (none)
Memory 16 MB SDRAM (PCI) or 16 MB SGRAM (AGP)
Ports 15-pin DSUB (video out)
RAMDAC 250 MHz
Part #  
FCC ID  
Price At launch: $150 (PCI) or $160 (AGP) street price
See Also  

The DirectX 6.0-compatible Monster Fusion was available in both PCI and AGP interface form. The AGP variant only supported AGP 1x, meaning the maximum data transfer rate was 264 Mbps.

The PCI variant used SDRAM for its video memory, while the AGP variant used the faster SGRAM.

Both offered the same video quality and resolutions, with the highest 2D non-interlaced resolution of 1920 x 1440 at 60 Hz horizontal refresh rate. At 1600 x 1200 it could output in TrueColor (16.7 million colours).

The highest 3D resolution was 1600 x 1200.

 

Board Revisions

 

Competition

The Banshee went up against nVidia's new RIVA TNT chipset as well as 3dfx' own Voodoo2 and S3's Savage3D.

 

In the Media

"Diamond Multimedia has done it again: The Diamond Monster Fusion and Viper V550 were among the fastest cards we examined in this roundup, and should satisfy any users who want the best 2D and 3D performance. Diamond covers all the bases, bundling its products with a robust array of software extras and offering both AGP and PCI versions of the hottest chips around. These cards should be on your short list.

Note that the chip and memory clocks on the Monster Fusion are faster than any other Banshee-based card, giving it an edge in benchmark testing. Diamond reworked the chip vendors' reference designs to minimize trace lengths and reduce heat that could cause system crashes. Diamond backs its products, however, with a generous five-year warranty for users skittish about reliability.

Installation and utilities for all Diamond cards are among the best in the industry. A unified process installs the drivers, DirectX 6.0 (if necessary), and the vendor's InControl Tools.


In our labs, the Monster Fusion trailed slightly behind the top-performing Viper V550 while staying within the very top tier of performers on all measures. Quality tests showed errors in MIP mapping, alpha blending, cylindrical wrapping, and fogging. The Monster Fusion also proved incapable of some MIP-mapping and other geometry features. But like the Viper, it sailed through D3D gaming apps.

For comparison, we also looked at the 12 MB version of the popular Diamond Monster 3D II ($250 street), a 3D-only PCI card that works with existing 2D hardware. The card's 3Dfx Voodoo2 chip doesn't support the triple-buffered mode used in our tests, but its double-buffered performance was respectable. Under 3Dfx's GLiDE API, it was more reliable than other Banshee-based cards. For GLiDE support, this is a good though pricey option.

On balance, the Viper [V550] may offer a skosh more performance than the Monster Fusion - but at a price premium. Almost any user would be well off with either."     
PC Magazine, December 1998

 

Setting it Up


Downloads

Operation Manual
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Original Utility Disk
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