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
Push the limits of 3D gaming with Diamond's Viper V770 Ultra! Viper lets you fly through high-intensity games with maximum quality 3D graphics, rapid-fire 2D speed, and breathtaking cinema-quality video. Based on the breakthrough NVIDIA RIVA TNT2 Ultra processor, Viper beats the competition with cutting-edge 3D features such as 32-bit rendering, 32-bit Z/stencil buffer and accelerates the most popular games with complete support for OpenGL ICD and Direct3D. With 32MB high-speed memory, up to AGP 4X support, and an extensive assortment of the hottest games, Viper is the ultimate solution for hard-core gaming action.
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