X-bit labs

Diamond Viper V770 Review

Category: Video

by FastSite

[ 05/02/1999 | 12:00 AM ]

Since we have already tried to satisfy your violent interest to non-Ultra version of Riva TNT2, thespecial features of this review are overclocking and setting off Riva TNT2 to Voodoo3 3000.

Table of contents:

It's only just now that individual Internet-shops have started to cautiously announce such stillrare occasions as Riva TNT2-based graphics cards sales. And in the meanwhile we managed to dig upa couple of interesting test samples of analogous cards. That's why we are able to offer yousomething new now.

Unfortunately, it is very hard to describe all the advantages of the new cards and their goodfor the users because the drivers development is still in progress and those ones we've got arejust an unfinished working version. They are beneath criticism and often provide a considerablylow performance of the card. Therefore to test the cards on Riva TNT2 we used reference driversv.1.20 (Detonator).

But let's get down to the point. To our disappointment, the ASUS V3800 graphics card, which wehave already reviewed, didn't strike us as extremely fast compared to the cards based on Riva TNT.Taking into consideration that we used the same v.1.20 drivers for Riva TNT card, a low speedincrease shown by ASUS V3800 can be the result of its relatively low core and memory frequencies(140 and 150MHz correspondingly). From time to time you can come across a bit different values,for example: 175/200MHz or 150/183MHz. Although nVidia never made any sharp distinctions betweenRiva TNT2 versions, some manufacturers have already added the word "Ultra" to the names of theirgraphics cards if the chipsets work at higher frequencies mentioned.

We wish we had an Ultra graphics card but unfortunately, they are still on the way to Russia.And as for ASUS V3800 it won't overclock that good because of its 143MHz SGRAM. Our violentefforts to make it work properly at 155MHz and up were in vain. We actually managed to get someresults with the frequency set to 155MHz but there already appeared some unpleasant side effects.So, we arrived at the conclusion that it makes absolutely no sense to set the frequency more than150MHz. And the default frequency by ASUS V3800 chipset is equal to 125MHZ, which is actually thelowest value by Riva TNT2.

While testing V3800 almost the only suitable way to overclock it was PowerStrip. The utilityversion (2.41.02) available at that time didn't allow to set the frequency over 140MHz. The onlylogical explanation we could think of was that the program seemed to be able to recognize chipsetversions and to restrict its overclocking. We even tried to lift this restriction in system registryand configuration files but we failed. A bit later we got a newer version of ASUS drivers (which stillwere far behind Detonator 1.20) and Tweak 2.0 utility. They let overclock the graphics card core andmemory frequency up to 200MHz. But this program dissipated all even slightest doubts that V3800 couldbe able of providing higher core and memory frequency values than those we were testing at (140/150MHz).

Almost at the same time we were lucky to get a Diamond Viper V770 sample, which was not overloadedwith such things as TV-in/out and stereoscopic glasses support. However, V770 has a very weightyadvantage - a faster memory - that's why the testing was expected to be rather promising.

By the way, we had two samples of V770 received from different sources but they proved to performabsolutely identically in all benchmarks.

So, let's start. Diamond Viper V770 graphics card has an AGP 2.0 constructive (it supports AGP x2, AGP x4)and 32MB SDRAM 6ns memory:

The memory modules are placed on both sides of the card. The card is equipped with a BIOS microchipand corresponding logic. There is also a black radiator stuck to the chipset.

Of course, we can hardly say anything concerning the package set because in both cases the graphicscards came to us absolutely "naked". All the drivers were downloaded from Internet.

And now about the testing conditions. The system was assembled as follows:

• ASUS P2B-B (440BX) mainboard;
• Intel Pentium II 450 CPU;
• 128 Mb PC100 system memory;
• Nokia 447Xav (17") monitor;
• Windows 98.

From the very beginning we installed Viper V770 own drivers downloaded from the Internet. Theinstallation ran without any trouble but unfortunately, we didn't get any additional properties pages for3D. However, we found out that the drivers were based on reference drivers v.1.13. Having carried out threepreliminary tests we assured ourselves that the performance was much higher due to the last public referencedrivers version 1.20. So, we won't dwell on the features of nVidia drivers v. 1.20. The only thing, which isworth mentioning is the fact that they allow to change MIP-mapping settings (and to choose the filtering type),to enable anti-aliasing effect and to control Vsync.

And now about the main goals of our testing. First of all we wanted to see the new card in real workingconditions. However, the main aim was to try this card at higher frequencies, close to Riva TNT2 Ultra versions,in order to estimate the chipset potential and to find out if graphics cards on Riva TNT2 Ultra were really worthpurchasing.

Well, let's view everything step by step. Though we don't feel like omitting the discussion of 2D performancewe still have to do it because there is not much to be proud of. Both: speed and quality of V770 are absolutelythe same as those of Riva TNT and ASUS V3800. Though the image quality at 1024x768 is perfect, as soon as you seta higher resolution you get the typical blurring effect. But this drawback is noticeable only on large monitors. Asa purely gaming card V770 is a good choice for 15" and 17" monitor owners in terms of 2D speeds and quality.

And now about the 3D-graphics. If compare Diamond Viper V770 performance to ASUS V3800 in its nominalnon-overclocked regime (140/150MHz), it will turn out the same in both cases. The core and memory frequencies,which are the first to influence the speed, remain on the same level for both cards.

But as it has been mentioned above we aimed at getting the maximally high performance from the graphicscard. By a lucky coincidence a new utility version of PowerStrip 2.42.08 appeared by the time the presentreview came into the world. This version doesn't have any chipset overclocking restrictions. That's why inthe additional testing the 125MHz chipset proved to be incapable of working at the frequency exceeding 140MHz.The problems already start occurring at 145MHz. So, all the results of the overclocked Diamond Viper V770 postedbelow were obtained at 140MHz core and 200MHz memory frequency (as we have already stated Viper's memory appearedto be so fast that it easily coped with higher frequencies).

As far as speed is concerned we will compare Viper V770 with its most powerful competitor - 3dfx Voodoo3 3000(working at 166/166MHz), and in case of 32-bits color depth - with ATI Rage Fury.

The charts below represent the results obtained with Intel Pentium II 450 for various resolutions in 16-bit color:

In 32-bits Voodoo3 naturally falls out but its place doesn't remain free. Here ATI Rage Fury replaces it:

The next chart is reflects 3D Mark99 MAX results at different Intel Pentium II processor frequencies equalto 450, 300, and 233MHz for 1024x768 (16-bit color):

Now you can estimate Diamond Viper V770 performance for a CPU working at 500 and 560MHz. Thefollowing table contains V770 values obtained for Intel Pentium III (SEE off):

What will the conclusions look like now? Let's start with 16-bit color. The first thing that catches your eyeis a comparison of V770 and Voodoo3 3000. Though V770 proved its indisputable leadership in Incoming, the resultsof Quake2 leave much to be desired. Despite its high memory frequency - 200MHz - V770 seriously lags behindVoodoo3 3000 working at its standard frequency (166MHz) and is even second to Voodoo3 2000 (143MHz) at 640x480and 800x600! What's the matter? As is known Quake2 supports multitexturing and Incoming doesn't. In our previousreviews we have already touched upon the difference between graphics cards in terms of multitexturing realization.3dfx cards (voodoo2 and Voodoo3) activate a special multitexturing algorithm if it may be of any use in someparticular case. Note that the fill rate is the same by Voodoo3 and Voodoo2 no matter if the multitexturing ison or off. You can almost double the performance of Voodoo3 and Voodoo2 if you activate one more TMU-module.And as for Riva TNT and TNT2 they are totally different. They provide high performance without multitexturing.When their both TMUs are on, both rendering pipelines are involved in operation. Multitexturing prevents Riva TNT2from treating two pixels per time step, so the speed significantly drops. This is what we drive from our example(Quake2 was run with the enabled multitexturing).

By the way, 3D Mark99 MAX (which includes a benchmark with multitexturing) has indirectly confirmed theseconclusions having vividly demonstrated the superiority of Voodoo3 3000 over Viper V770. Besides, the resultsof this test show almost equal performance of all the participants at the resolutions under 1024x768. As we havestated before the CPU capacity - 400-450MHz - is not enough for putting into practice the present graphics cardspotential.

What will be the next move? This question arises when we start thinking about the games, which fullysupport the 32-bit color. Let's consider Diamond Viper V770 (and hence Riva TNT2 at 140/200MHz) in a 3D32-bit color regime. And here the results are perfectly cool. However, it performed not that great inIncoming but anyway: V770 is the leader here. Since we can't compare Viper with Voodoo3 in this regime wetook one of the latest generation coolest cards, which became pretty well-known due to its 32-bit color.It's ATI Rage Fury (Rage 128 also has 2 rendering pipelines). Well, that's why we may surely announce RivaTNT2 (140/200MHz) to be well prepared for nowadays situation. :)

However, there are no games supporting 32-bit color as their major. The only one looming in the distanceis Quake3… that's why we do not see any grave necessity to pay extra for a super performance in 32-bitcolor depth. Voodoo3 is most likely to remain more than enough for the coming out games in the nearfuture. 32MB memory are still unclaimed as well as AGP support.

Nevertheless, let's continue. We still have to comment upon V770 performance at various CPU frequencies.As you can see from the diagram there aren't any grave differences between V770 and non-overclocked RivaTNT2 (140/150MHz).

The conclusions will look as follows: a throw-down in terms of speed compared to Voodoo3 3000 Asmall victory in incoming can't make up for all the losses of Riva TNT2 (140/200MHZ). And note thatwe compared it to the non-overclocked Voodoo3 3000!

The next. V770 is an undoubted leader in 32-bit color. But is this advantage worth paying over $230since all the cheaper versions of the graphics cards are unlikely to be equipped with Riva TNT2 Ultra?

But our review would look incomplete if we didn't pay attention to the 3D quality. There is hardlyany difference from Riva TNT. However, since nVidia Riva TNT2 is the first chipset among all thenovelties supporting anti-aliasing we feel obliged to regard this feature in detail. As we have alreadytold you we utilized the drivers version 1.20, which are now widely used for Riva TNT. They do supportanti-aliasing that's why all we have to do is to have a close look at its practical value.

To illustrate this let's take a scene from the Incoming:

Anti-aliasing on

Anti-aliasing off

The difference is evident! But how much do you have to sacrifice to get all this stuff? Oh, itwill cost you a great lot: a triple speed drop! We dare to express a supposition that the newerdrivers developed especially for TNT2 will provide at least some kind of the anti-aliasing optimization.Otherwise, we don't need it any more.

In order to back up our remarks we offer you a couple of screenshots illustrating Riva TNT2 quality in 3D.

These are such games as:

Quake2 (larger textures level):

Daikatana (demo):

KingPin (demo):

All the screen shots are made at the resolution 800x600 in 32-bit color.

Though a popular game Need For Speed III is Glide-optimized it still needs some reworking (i.e. renamingd3da.dll into voodoo2a.dll and running it with the key -voodoo2) to provide a considerably good result on Riva TNT2:

This screenshot was obtained at 800x600 in 16-bit color.

The conclusions: the graphics quality is on a very high level. Especially in 32-bit color. However, it isreally hard to find some features univocally distinguishing Riva TNT2 from all the rest. Besides, we have todo justice to its 32-bit color support. And at the same time we can't deny a very high quality of Voodoo3 in16-bit color.

Summing up we would like to say the following. The overclocked V770 retained its leadership in 3D 32-bitcolor and provided beautiful graphics quality in 3D as well as in 2D at 1024x768 and less. However, theadditional cooling was strongly recommended in this case. In 16-bit color Riva TNT2 (overclocked to140/200MHz) failed to leave behind its competitor - Voodoo3 3000. This observation makes us think thateven Riva TNT2 Ultra (175/200MHz) will fail to catch up with the overclocked Voodoo3 3000. So, we assumethat it doesn't make much sense to pay the whole lot for 32MB video memory and a Riva TNT2 Ultra chipsetsince al the present games and those coming out in the near future do not require larger textures and 32-bitcolor depth support.

However, in case the prices for Riva TNT2 Ultra drop to the level of Voodoo3 3000 then we'll have everyright to admit Riva's superiority, while all the usual Riva TNT2 based graphics cards (125/150MHz) are outof the question here.