Image quality observations
Whilst perusing the web for basic information about the card, I came across a couple of articles from well-respected websites claiming that SiS were being a little underhand in their driver approach. The issue centred around SiS not giving the user any control over the quality settings for basic, in-game play. We see a slider from both NVIDIA and ATi, usually with performance and quality on opposite sides of the scale. After looking at this article, it appears as if the standard SiS 3D games setting isn't up to its rivals' basic, untweaked setting. Delving around in the registry (something that one should not have to do), we found the same TexTurbo rating of 3.
This setting effectively reduces the level of detail and thereby increases performance. Using a blow-up from a section of Quake 3, here it is with the TexTurbo at the default 3.
Now here is the same scene below with a modified TexTurbo rating of 0.
Although the pictures do look similar on first glance, have a look at the wires on the right of the picture. Notice how they're not at all defined in the first picture but do resemble blue and red wires in the second. The pipes and components have a cleaner, crisper look to them with TexTurbo set to 0. Also have a look at the numbers on the left-hand wall. They're clear in the second picture (TexTurbo 0) but a blur in the first.
Using the comparison Radeon 9000 at its default video card setting produced the following image.
The image produced by the Radeon resembles the TexTurbo 0 image far more closely. Individual wires and components can be made out on the above picture, something that is difficult in TexTurbo 0. We can also comfortably see the numbers on the top-left, something that looks more like a blur in TexTurbo 0. If we're to compare apples to apples, I'd say the Radeon 9000's default image is on a par than TexTurbo 0. The lighter image makes it look just a little worse. You'd probably find it hard to notice the difference between TexTurbo 0 and TexTurbo 3 in fast-paced games, but reviews should compare like with like.
