Now since I've just been going on about NVIDIA's RIVA TNT2-chip again, it makes sense to address the fact that TNT2-cards will start shipping in the next 10-14 days. I've received a whole lot of them here and you certainly want me to tell you which is best.

Unfortunately this is not quite so easy. First of all, you can say that any TNT2-Ultra card is certainly worth considering, simply because the chip is a really good performer. Distinguishing between the cards is quite difficult, at least at this moment in time.

The Important Aspects For Choosing A TNT2-card

Chip Clock / Memory Clock

First of all it is quite obvious by now, that the core clock and memory clock of TNT2-cards directly translates into 3D-performance. The basic TNT2-cards run the chip at 125 MHz and the memory at 150 MHz. Some card makers sell TNT2 at higher chip clocks, as e.g. 133 or 140 MHz, the same is valid for the memory clock. Cards that call themselves 'Ultra' are running the TNT2-chip at 150 MHz and the memory at 183 MHz at least. You can overclock both versions, but don't expect any card to run faster than NVIDIA's specifications unless the manufacturer guaranties that the card can do it. Hercules is contemplating to sell their 'Ultra' at default clock speed of 175/200 MHz and Canopus is even going higher. Make sure that you can take the manufacturer's word for it, so that you're not left in the rain if your card only does the 150/183 MHz specified by NVIDIA.

Memory

I don't see that would be any significant difference if the card uses SDRAM vs. SGRAM, but it does make a difference what kind of speed rating the chips have. Most of the 'Ultra'-cards come at least with 6 ns SDRAM/SGRAM, some with 5.5 ns-rating. It's obvious, that you would prefer the cards with 5.5 ns-rating. The basic cards are shipping with 7 ns or with 6 ns SDRAM/SGRAM and again it's clear that you should go for the card with 6 ns-rating. The smaller the rating, the higher the memory can be clocked/overclocked, as most of you already know.

Features

Many or even most of the TNT2-cards come with nothing but a CRT-out and that's it. Some manufacturers added a video-out, which makes most sense for playing DVDs but less sense for 3D-gaming on the TV-screen. This is simply because the highest sensible resolution you can enjoy on a TV is 800x600, but TNT2 offers great 3D-performance at resolutions beyond that. The next interesting feature would be a digital video-out for flat panels, which may be more interesting for the European than for the US-market, where flat panels are not selling too well. Some cards have got a video-in as well, which is a pretty interesting feature for camcorder owners and such, especially when it goes hand-in-hand with software that can capture 25/30 fps at TV-resolution. Some cards can store those videos in motion-JPEG, some even in MPEG2-format, and as long as you can edit those videos as well, it is a very welcome feature indeed. A few manufacturers supply their TNT2-cards with stereo-glasses, which is a great feature indeed, for me it's the most exiting one of all the possible features. Playing a 3D-game with stereo-glasses and having some realistic 3D-experience is something that can change your anticipation of 3D-games. It's obvious that you should look around to see which feature suits you. So don't go for a featureless TNT2-card, only to get it quickly. You may regret that later on.

Driver

Well, here we've got a few issues to address. First of all, the performance should be most interesting to the majority of you. However, once NVIDIA has released final reference drivers that are a valid base to pass WHQL-certification, the basic driver of each TNT2-card will be pretty much the same, offering close to identical performance as well. Right now NVIDIA has not yet released a new driver that's stable enough for all platforms, which is why only Hercules has equipped their card with the 0173-release driver from NVIDIA. This driver is not officially released by NVIDIA for shipping. I've heard from many card-makers that the current 017x and 018x-version drivers could not pass their internal QT. That is why the cards from Asus, Aopen, Creative, Diamond, Elsa, Guillemot, LeadTek, ... are sent out to the press with drivers that are based on the older and slower 012x-versions. I can't make a comment on the drivers of the current card makers right now, but you have to understand that the drivers do not only need to be fast, they need to be reliable too. Each card-maker has its own way of doing reliable quality testing. We'll see which one's best here.

Another issue is the set of features built into the driver. Some drivers let you calibrate the card for your monitor very well, others don't. Many drivers would let you overclock TNT2, but each driver has a different philosophy. The same is valid for other tweak-functions. I wouldn't bother too much about the overclocking-feature in the driver, because you can always use Powerstrip .

I will evaluate the TNT2-cards as soon as NVIDIA's final release drivers are ready and they have been included into the drivers of the card-makers. Any testing before that is a complete waste of time. If you want to get a TNT2-card as soon as possible though, I would recommend to have a close look at the features list, at the promises about clock speeds and at the memory speed rating. Finally, you may just want to get what's available in the shop down the road. I can recommend any TNT2-card for owners of PCs based on an Intel-P6-platform, I still need to test TNT2's Socket7-compatibility, but Socket7-platform owners may consider Voodoo3 in the first place, since it's probably still the better card for 3DNow!-support.

Intel Released Pentium III 550

Well, of course I wouldn't forget to announce that too. Intel made the next logical step and released the new fastest x86-processor. Pentium III 550 will offer a 3-8% performance boost in most applications over Pentium III 500. There's still quite a while until the Camino-chipset will be released and with it the Pentium III 533 and Pentium III 600, both running at 133 MHz front side bus clock. What you hear from Intel is that the new 018 micron parts are coming along really well, some people claim that Intel could realize Coppermine-CPUs running at 1 GHz this year already ... if it made sense to Intel to do so.

OK, so far about this long delayed Monday Blurb.