                             Wizard 9000VL
                             Graphics Board

                             by Tony Curro


    Recently, I acquired a VESA Local Bus motherboard. Over the next
    several months I will be doing reviews on several VL-Bus video
    cards.

    The first card I had the opportunity to look at is the, Wizard
    9000VL from SixGraph Computing. The card does live up to the press
    it has received, not to mention various magazine awards.

    Wizard 9000VL is a 32-bit card that is made for the Local Bus slot.
    It comes with drivers for: Windows 3.1, AutoDesk, Lotus 1-2-3, MS
    Word, WordPerfect and GEM/Ventura Publisher. Since I only wanted to
    install the Windows drivers, I chose Quick Installation and was done
    in no time.

    Based on the Weitek Power 9000 accelerator, and coupled with the
    Weitek W5186, Wizard can run software in all video modes. It runs
    everything with great speed.

    Features include:

    * Register & BIOS level compatible with IBM VGA adapter.


    * Extended graphics resolution modes from 640x480 up to 1280x1024.

    * 2 MB of VRAM 70ns on board.

    * Hi- and True-color RAMDAC 135Mhz.

    * BIOS fully supports VESA standard.

    * Ergonomic non-interlaced vertical refresh rates up to 74Hz.

    * Extended text mode up to 132x60.

    Resolutions     Colors
    640x480         up to 16.7 Million
    800x600         up to 16.7 Million
    1024x768        up to 65,536
    1280x1024       up to 256

    All possible in non-interlaced mode.

    Using ZD Labs WinBench v3.11 I achieved Graphic WinMarks of over 35
    million. I am testing other cards, but this is one of the fastest.
    The card is designed and manufactured in Canada, and comes with a
    5-year warranty.


                          Product Information

                             Wizard 9000VL
                             Graphics Board

                        List Price -- $565 (US)

                        SixGraph Computing, Ltd.
                       2035 Cote-de-Liesse, #200
                     Montreal Quebec Canada H4N 2M5
                              514-332-1331
                           514-956-1032 (FAX)
