RIVA TNT2

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Image:NVIDIA logo.png The RIVA TNT2 was a 3D graphics chip manufactured by NVIDIA starting in early 1999.

1 TNT 2 core
2 Chipset table
3 Competing chipsets
4 See also
5 External links

TNT 2 core

The core is almost identical to its predecessor the RIVA TNT, however updates included AGP 4X support, up to 32MB of VRAM, and a die shrink from a 0.35 micrometre to a 0.25 micrometre manufacturing process. It was the process shrink that enabled improved clock speeds, which is where the substantial performance improvement came from. The TNT2 now offered performance equivalent to the 3dfx Voodoo3, while offering more substantial features pioneered by the TNT, such as 32-bit colour in 3D and support for larger 2048x2048 pixel textures. Among TNT2's competion, in addition to Voodoo3, was the Matrox G400 and ATI Rage 128.

A low-cost version known as the TNT2 M64 was produced with the memory interface reduced from 128-bit to 64-bit. This chipset outperformed the older RIVA TNT while costing less to produce, and proved extremely popular in the OEM market. The M64 replaced the Vanta, a core clock and bandwidth-reduced TNT-based card, as NVIDIA's high-volume budget chip.

The entire TNT2 line would be replaced in 2000 by the GeForce 256, although TNT2 chips were still produced until late 2001, and were integrated by third parties into motherboard solutions.

Although competition in the GPU market was still fierce at this time, the TNT2 chipset marks nVidia's transition to market leader. While the competition was able to offer parts with technological parity for this final DirectX 6 generation of cards, with the release of the GeForce 256 NVIDIA unarguably took the lead. There were substantial attempts at meeting NVIDIA on even ground, such as ATI's Rage Fury MAXX dual-chip board and the 3dfx Voodoo5, none of these parts were DirectX 7 compliant like the GeForce 256. Without feature equivalence they could not compete in quality, and their performance was also inferior, which resulted in poor mindshare and poor sales. As a result, the number of graphics chip makers thinned greatly and it was several years before ATI finally was able to step forward as a formidable opponent for NVIDIA (with Radeon 8500).

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Chipset table

Image:TNT2.jpg

Chipset	Core (MHz)	Memory Speed (MHz)	Pixels Per Second (Million)	Memory Bandwidth (GB/s)
VANTA	100+	150	185	1.2
M64	125+	150	230	1.2
TNT2	125+	150	230	2.4
PRO	143	166	284	2.65
ULTRA	150+	183	300	2.9

Note: nVidia apparently changed core clock guidelines, and manufacturers shipped a range of clock speeds, up to 25 MHz above base spec. This is why the nVidia website does not specify actual clock speeds for the range.

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