Graphic card anomaly?

[davidious]

I know its not a game burning question, but some one might be able to help.

Can anyone tell me why an ATI Expert Rage 128 (16mb sdram) card can play Mech Commander 2 easily and smoothly, but cannot render 3D CADKEY 98 or SOLIDWORKS 98 drawings.

When I upgrade to
GeForce 4 MX 440 (64mb ddr sdram)
or
Gigabyte ATI RADEON 7500 (64mb sdram)
the Mech Commander 2 will not play,it is slow and unplayable,but
the CADKEY 98 and SOLIDWORKS 98 will render 3D drawings.

Also Emporer Battle for Dune was slow with the ATI Expert Rage 128
as you might expect, but improved dramatically with Gigabyte ATI RADEON 7500 (have not yet tried with GeForce 4 MX 440 but expect it to be OK)

Thanks for any tips or advice.