All pc users some time or the other would have played computer games. If you happen to be one who has experienced some of the new 3D first person shooters such as Quake II or Unreal, which boast of extra-ordinary graphics & special effects, & you like the games, you are surely to be benefitted by having a 3D graphics accelerator installed on your pc. But graphic accelerators are not merely for playing games. With decent 2D acceleration as well, they speed up your Powerpoint presentations dramatically. People who are involved in CAD, 3D modelling, animation etc, would be left high & dry without a fast high end 2D/3D graphics card.
Here we take a look at what type of card you could have depending on your needs & requirements.

Any graphics card, be it accelerated or (deccelerated!!!)not, performs the primary job of feeding analog signals to you monitor so that it can display images as required. Of course, you can get dedicated accelerators which require another primary card for running the monitor(more on this later). Likewise every card provides some kind of 2D acceleration(X,Y interpolation, fill rate etc). For regular day-to-day usage, typically involving spreadsheets, presentations etc, a good 2D accelerator with high refresh rates is more than sufficient. But if your daily routine involves a few levels of Quake II or Unreal, life without a decent 3D graphics card could be difficult.

Presently the fastest 2D accelerator in the industry is from Matrox(Do I have to tell this?!). Its Mystique & Millenium range of cards have carved a special place for themselves among professional DTPs. Its 220 series though boasting of superfast 2D, crawls on 3D; the reason being very few 3D features are supported. But recently Matrox released the Millenium & Msytique range based on their new G200 chip. This chip tries to & almost succeeds in clearing the cloud surrounding Matrox, which states in bold letters "STRICTLY NO GAMES".
It incorporates all of the required features for excellent 3D such as triple buffering, 24 bit Z-buffering, antialiasing, fogging... Its image quality is one of the best seen today. But it still lags behind the Voodoo2 in terms of raw performance. It comes in a choice of 8Mb or 16Mb versions.

The Voodoo2 is the successor to the Voodoo card, from 3Dfx, & llikewise is a 3D only card. It requires a primary 2D accelerator to carry out daily chores. The new Voodoo2 comes in 8Mb & 12Mb flavours, supports 800x600 Quake II resolution & is the card to beat in terms of performance & image quality. Coupled with the Millenium, provides the best 2D/3D combo setup. It is also highly scalable.
The other 2D/3D combo cards in the market are based on Inteli740, or Rendition V2x00, or 3D;abs Premedia, or theNvidia Riva 128. In terms of 2D acceleration, all the above cards except the Rendition V2x00, are quite capable. The Rendition chips are notable for their excellent 3D features, very good image quiality & average 2D. It however is the poor man's Voodoo as it is quite processor independent, & performs equally well on a Pnetium II 300 as on a Pentium 200MMX. For those with a sub 200 processor, this is the card to buy. If you have a Pentium II, I would recommend the Matrox MGA G200 based cards.

If you have a small monitor(14" or 15"), you could consider one with a TV out. This is helpful in making presentations on your TV, & also for playing games in all their glory!

One thing though.If you are not in a hurry & can wait till Christmas(or even begining of 99), there are new processors coming up, that aim to occupy the top slot. They are the Riva TNT, S3 Savage3D, & the Rendition V3300. If I were given the choice I would keep an eye on the V3300. It is officially called the RRedline, promises to be the only one capable of displacing the Voodoo2 from the throne of 3D. Also given Rendition's previous acts, you can hope that the V3300 will be priced competetively( You see I'm a Rendition fan, being the proud owner of a Stealth II(V2100). The Riva TNT comes next, but its price is too high for me.

Also keep a tab on the APIs supported by your card. OpenlGL & Directx are two main APIs, with Heidi also being supported on some.

Which is best?
If you need one now, go for the G200 if you have a P2+, a Rendition V2x00 if you have a sub 200.
If you can wait, keep a close watch on the RRedline V3300 & the TNT.

Next: Monitors