In the eyes of computer enthusiasts, video cards fall into two categories: high-end gaming cards, and everything else. “Everything else” is comprised of the ho-hum “yeah, it’ll put a picture on the screen” cards generally included with brand-name computers, along with a small group of “niche” cards designed for specific applications. In the niche subcategory you will find everything from cards designed for serious graphics work, such as the NVIDIA Quadro or ATI FireGL series, which are aimed at the professional market, to server cards, to cards whose niche is less well defined. The card we’ll be discussing here, the Diamond BizView® BV200, falls into the last category. However, ever hardcore gamers may find this card fills a niche which may be of interest to them.

The BV200 is a PCI (not PCI-Express) card for users who want a significant upgrade for a seriously limited older computer, or anyone else who wants dual DVI output from a single PCI card.

Here are the general specifications:

• GPU: RV280
• PCI Bus architecture
• 128MB DDR
• Core Clock: 240 MHz
• RAMDACS: Dual 400 MHz
• Industry standard DMS-59 display connector for Dual Digital Display support

You can get the full specs from the manufacturer, including some nice pictures, at Diamond Multimedia.

This card clearly isn’t going to set any records for speed. With 128MB of memory (about a quarter – or less – of the current standard for high-end gaming cards), it also isn’t going to muscle its way onto any list of top cards. To give the casual computer user some perspective as to the gaming potential of this card, here is a nice datasheet (xls format) from online retailer Newegg. Near the bottom of the list you’ll spot the Radeon 9250, which is based on the same GPU as the the BV200. Indeed, Windows XP identified the card as a Radeon 9250 when I installed it in a test computer.

Who would buy this card?

Certainly not the serious gaming enthusiast who lives and dies by screen real estate and ultra-high frame rates.

Have you ever been forced to use one of these? It has a PCCHIPS motherboard capable of using either a Slot1 or Socket370 processor, onboard sound, network, dial-up modem, and built-in graphics which is limited to a maximum of 8MB shared video memory.

There are millions of office workers trapped in cubicles all over the world with a pathetic machine such as this, a collection of hardware saved from obsolescence solely by the fact that their company hasn’t bothered to update the office software they bought ten years ago when this computer was new. I know this to be true, because I have worked on hundreds of such machines. There ought to be a magnetic car ribbon to display as a sign of solidarity with the poor souls stuck with one of these relics.

Then one day an employee mentions to their boss that adding a second monitor would make it a whole lot easier to keep track of both the orders coming in by email and the spreadsheets they use to track inventory. The boss perks up his ears, remembering an article he read about a study showing that dual monitors can boost productivity dramatically. He also remembers the stack of perfectly good monitors leftover after the last round of layoffs and figures that if he can squeeze a little more work out of the employees he has now he might be able to avoid hiring some of the temporary workers he needs during his busy season. This could probably be done on the cheap, he thinks.

Then you open the case to see what potential exists for upgrading the computer to handle the extra monitor, only to be greeted by a sight like this:

The hopeful employee, already dreaming about how nice life would be with a second monitor, isn’t immediately aware that their hopes are about to be crushed. The boss is probably thinking about his golf date that weekend and trying to decide if he can get away with putting it on his expense account. It is left to you, the consultant, to break the news to them.

One lonely PCI slot.

No AGP slot, not even a pair of PCI slots for a dual card solution, just one lonely PCI slot. (Not to mention the ISA slot, which was probably included as some sort of a sick joke.) The limitations of the current motherboard are described to both the dejected employee and to the boss. The suggestion is made that maybe a new motherboard is the answer. After all, how much could an itty-bitty thing like that cost?

A new motherboard will also mean a new CPU, new RAM, a new Power Supply Unit, and a new case. In other words, a whole new computer. The boss snorts and turns to walk away. Suddenly, trumpets sound as the day is saved – by the Diamond BizView® BV200! (Trumpets not included). One card, twin digital monitors, and the improvement in efficiency made possible by all that added screen real estate. There may be a little life left in this old computer after all.

Even avid gamers could find use for this card. If you ever considered adding a second or third monitor to your gaming rig, you would be hard pressed to do better than a card with twin DVI output which could be obtained at the expense of but a single PCI slot. The fact that the card is designed for low power consumption and reduced heat (it’s able to be passively cooled fanlessly) is a big plus, too. Those features make it ideal for a small form factor computer such as a home theater rig as well.

How it stacks up

A typical video card review usually comes stocked with dozens of benchmarks comparing the hardware at hand with competing equipment. That’s fine if one is covering the latest offering in the gaming arena, where a couple of frames-per-second means the difference between owning bragging rights for having the fastest card available or being an also-ran. I’ll spare you the misleadingly-cropped bar graphs “proving” that this card is a statistically-insignificant one or two percent faster or slower than a competitor’s card. For business-type use it is enough to say that this card performs as well as any in its class.

The picture was crisp and clear on both monitors, and with a max resolution of 2048X1536 you shouldn’t have any trouble pushing your monitor(s) to the extreme. 3D gaming is going to run about as well as one might expect from a 9200-series card, but if you have a home office or a boss who doesn’t care what you do on your lunch hour, you will be able to play all but the latest and most demanding games. For the casual gamer who wouldn’t mind seeing their business computer pull double duty, this card is ideal.

I did have a little trouble with one of my research assistants, though. It involved her trying to hide under the table and nearly pulling the backdrop I used for the pictures onto the floor. I did not care to find out whether or not the two monitors I had positioned there would survive a 3’ fall to the floor (perhaps in another article), so a little disciplinary action was in order:

The Plain Dealer is a delightful name for a newspaper when used for obedience training.

The BV200 excels at the niche for which it was designed. It can be a true diamond in the rough under certain circumstances. Though I skipped the poorly-cropped performance graphs, I won’t disappoint in my finale. I leave you with the obligatory picture of a picture in a picture for your viewing enjoyment.