They are both all but equal in DOS and 2D. The Virge/DX has the edge for being able to at least do DirectX 3D, but more so for its proprietary S3D games like Descent II, Croc, Tomb Raider, Terminal Velocity & more.

DOS:
https://gona.mactar.hu/DOS_TESTS/

3D APIs:
https://gona.mactar.hu/3D/

Indepth analysis of the Virge:
https://retro.swarm.cz/s3-virge-325-vx-dx-gx- … tors-deep-dive/
https://www.vgamuseum.info/index.php/componen … 367-s3-virge-dx
https://web.archive.org/web/19970607065248/ht … ucts.html#T64V2

My experience is that you just need to test S3 based cards yourself. There are difference in image quality even though Trios and Virges have intergrated RAMDAC (and RAMDAC speed depends on the Trio/Virge model). Then some have BIOS with incorrect black and some cards are clocked higher that others with same S3 chip.

The Virge chip is better in that it offers (early) 3D acceleration while the Trio does not, and it can be fun to experiment with DOS games which support the proprietary S3D API. Be advised that 3D performance is not great, but it can still be faster than software rendering on slower Pentium CPUs (166 MHz and below) at the same resolution. On the other hand, 2D performance is very good and compatibility with older DOS titles is excellent on both the Virge and the Trio.

Image quality is fairly decent on cards made by reputable manufacturers (e.g. Diamond, Hercules, STB, Elsa etc). In comparison, generic "no-name" cards usually have poor image quality and may also suffer from the aforementioned issue with black levels.

Whichever offers the sharper 2D image, as these cards have varying degrees of image quality ranging from washed out utter shitsmear to crystal clear.