Diamond Viper V770 Ultra Graphics Accelerator

by SONICblue

Product Details

• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B00000JBBJ
• Item model number: 90230200
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #401,858 in Electronics (See Top 100 in Electronics)
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes
• Date first available at Amazon.com: September 4, 1973

Product Description

Amazon.com Review

Based on the NVIDIA RIVA TNT Ultra chip set, Diamond's Viper V770 Ultra steals the show with phenomenal frame rates, a 183 MHz memory clock, and 32-bit rendering. Rivaling the power and performance of the 3dfx Voodoo cards, Diamond's Viper V770 Ultra is a serious contender in the battle of the 3-D accelerators.

Stocking all the 3-D necessities, the Viper V770 Ultra's feature set includes alpha blending, anti-aliasing, bilinear filtering, bump mapping, environment mapping, fogging, gouraud shading, MIP mapping, stencil buffer, subpixel precision, texture mapping, transparency, trilinear filtering, and z-buffering. The card also supports hardware-assisted playback of DVD (MPEG-2) video, and ships with a nice selection of software.

As the only chip currently on the market that supports 32-bit rendering, the RIVA TNT Ultra has a leg up on the competition. Its easy installation, stunning graphics, and impressive frame rates in our testing impressed us.

We put the Viper V770 Ultra to work on a 333 MHz Celeron system running Windows 95 and DirectX 6.1 using the Quake II time-demo test. With optimized 32-bit color at a resolution of 800 x 600, the Viper managed 42.4 frames per second, and at 1024 x 768, the frames per second dropped to 36.2. With 16-bit color at 800 x 600, frames per second came in at 43.1, and at 1024 x 768, the Viper managed 40.7 frames per second. These figures are nowhere near Diamond's lofty claims of 100 frames per second; however, with our limited CPU speed, we took these numbers with a grain of salt. Also, our 14-inch monitor maxed out at 1024 x 768, and it's important to note that the Viper V770 Ultra can go far beyond that to resolutions of 2,048 x 1,536 with a 24-inch monitor.

For Quake III, which will support 32-bit rendering, and a number of other games that are beginning to use more sophisticated graphics, you may want to check out a card like the Viper V770 Ultra. This card has everything the hard-core gamer needs for the most intense, lifelike 3-D experience.

Pros:

• Only card to support 32-bit rendering
• High-resolution support
• Easy to install
• Supports most games
• 32 MB memory increases performance

Cons:

• Sacrifice in performance for increased resolutions

From the Manufacturer

NVIDIA RIVA TNT2 Ultra for the ultimate in raw graphics horsepower with 32 MB of SDRAM for AGP.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Quake 3 Support, December 5, 1999

By 

"voicesimh" (Illinois) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Diamond Viper V770 Ultra Graphics Accelerator (Personal Computers)

To hell with a Voodoo card! The TNT2 chipset on this card is the only chipset (with the exception of Nvidia's new GeForce chip which replaces the TNT2)capable of supporting the 32 bit textures in Quake 3 Arena. The game REQUIRES a card with FULL OPEN GL SUPPORT. Voodoo cards don't have it. THIS ONE DOES! I use this at home (and I sell it at work) and it is beautiful!

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Great card... 4 years ago., January 29, 2003

By 

maxxpwr "maxxpwr" (Virginia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Diamond Viper V770 Ultra Graphics Accelerator (Personal Computers)

Geezus, where did they find this one? Diamond isn't even an independent company anymore. The Viper V770 Ultra was based off of the nVidia Riva TNT Ultra chipset, this chipset was used before the original GeForce came out. They are now way beyond this chipset. I don't know any reason why anyone would want to buy this very old card.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars This antiquated card as a gold box???, January 29, 2003

By 

JEFFREY R FAIDLEY (ALLENTOWN, PA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Diamond Viper V770 Ultra Graphics Accelerator (Personal Computers)

Amazon has the audacity to hawk this as a "gold box" bargain for [money amount]on 01/29/03. This was a good graphics chip in 1998. Worth about [money amount]today for a basic system. Since this card, we've seen the TNT Ultra, then the Geforce, Geforce DDR, Geforce 2, Geforce 3, Geforce 4 and now Geforce 5 subsequent generations of cards. Bottom line? It's grossly inadequate for any newer games.

Let the buyer beware!!