NVIDIA GeForce3 Roundup - July 2001

PowerColor Chameleon

PowerColor Chameleon Specifications
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Memory	64MB EliteMT DDR SDRAM 3.8ns
Cooling - Core	Fan/heatsink combo
Cooling - Memory	20 fin RAMsinks
Temperature - Core	127 F / 52.8 C
Temperature - Memory	114 F / 45.6 C
TV-Out	S- Video and Composite Conexant/Brooktree Bt869
Video-In	N/A
Drivers	NVIDIA Reference
Highest Overclock	240/515MHz
Overclocking Utility	None
2D Image Quality	5 (worst)
Software/Gaming Bundle	Unreal Tournament, WinDVD 2000
Average Online Price	$315.00

The PowerColor Chameleon rang in as the least expensive GeForce3 card included in this roundup. At $315.00, the card was $5 less expensive than the next cheapest card: the Gainward GeForce3. Even at this low price, the card includes features now considered standard on GeForce3 cards, including both a DVI-out port as well as TV-out port.

Cooling on the PowerColor Chameleon is taken care of by a slightly modified heatsink/fan combination attached to the GeForce3's surface with thermal grease, our attachment method of choice. Holding the memory heatsinks in place was the typical thermal tape, although the placement of the RAMsinks on our card was somewhat questionable, as the top heatsink did not really cover the surface of the memory but was offset some.

We were able to get our Chameleon to a rather high core speed when overclocked: 240MHz to be exact. This was the second fastest core speed we were able to achieve and does make a statement about the cooling of the PowerColor Chameleon. On the memory side, the PowerColor Chameleon hit the average speed of 515MHz; a speed below the 3.8ns (526MHz) speced speed but average among the GeForce3 cards included in this roundup.

The PowerColor Chameleon tied with the MSI StarForce 822 for last place when it came to 2D image quality. Like the MSI card, we noted that the PowerColor card provided blurry but readable images at both 1600x1200x32 at 85Hz as well as at 1800x1440x32 at 70Hz. It is possible that PowerColor was able to get the price of the Chameleon so low by using lesser quality filters on the card, a fact that would explain the sub par 2D image quality at high resolutions.

The PowerColor Chameleon is available at quite a few sites on-line, making it a tempting purchase for many. The software bundle with the card is not very strong, including WinDVD 2000 (useful when paired with the video-out of the card) and Unreal Tournament. This does help keep the price low, however, making it a trade off between price and extras.