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This is no official NVIDIA release! Use them on your own risk! ThanX for the many mails!

10DE = nVidia, 12D2 = ST ( SGS-T ), 121A = 3Dfx/STB

The Device ID is set by the cardīs Bios!

A supplement to the TNT2 - TNT2 Ultra differences posted on 19.06. The ULTRA letters are stamped on the chips and not burnt in by laser like the other marks. So the markup can be damaged if you remove a heatsink. There are also some real Ultras out there without a stamp. These chips have a number that begins with T3. Since T4 all Ultras are stamped with the ULTRA letters.

This is only for information! There is no reason to think that faked cards are on the market!! But you can check if the Ultra a friend brags with is really an Ultra... :-)

MATH 101
--------
All right... Enough already with email about the Quake3 stuttering and setting r_picmip. First of all, for all those losers on the web who talk about "See... NVIDIA can't render large textures fast... My XXX card does it fine", get a life. Your card cannot render large textures. Sucks for you. Oh yeah, and even if you bought one of those cards whose vendor lets you render larger textures through some software tricks, they're only 16-bits per pixel. Period. Now, onto a quick math lesson for the smart people who bought TNT or TNT2: In Quake3, the texture quality set- ting allows you to tell Quake3 how large you want the largest textures. Setting it to 0 (max texture size) can yield better quality, especially in higher resolutions. In low resolutions, the geometry is, in general, small enough that Quake wouldn't ever use the high detail texture maps. But, let's understand why there's an issue with always having the texture detail set to highest: Mehr im .plan file

ThanX to BXBoards

Beyond 3D:
5. Will companies such as Creative and others still be able to produce boards based on S3's chipsets?

Absolutely, S3 has substantial relations with add-in card makers worldwide and we will work with each of them to determine what's the best strategy for them. Savage4 and follow on products can offer them competitive advantages in the market and we will help them in any way we can.

PlanetRIVA:
Planet RIVA : Will Diamond Multimedia continue to promote NVIDIA products and if not, will Diamond Continue to support Viper V550 and Viper V770 owners?

Diamond Multimedia : While we are looking to sustain an ongoing relationship with NVIDIA the only thing that I can say as of today is that we will continue to support the current Viper line that features the NVIDIA chip.

More about this can be found at ZDNET in a analysis of the proposed Diamond Multimedia & S3 merger.

S3 Enters Internet Appliance and Home Networking Markets Through Acquisition of
Diamond Multimedia Systems Inc.

SANTA CLARA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 22, 1999---S3(R) Incorporated
(Nasdaq:SIII) today announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire
Diamond Multimedia Systems, Inc. (Nasdaq:DIMD), a leading supplier of PC Multimedia
and Internet connectivity solutions. In a strategic move to capitalize on high-growth areas,
S3 expects to emerge as a key player in the Internet appliance and home networking
markets. S3 also plans to maximize the two companies' multimedia strengths to become a
total solutions provider (silicon, software and PC boards) for its graphics business.

"Today's announcement represents a significant strategic shift for S3, which was focused
solely on the PC graphics market," said Ken Potashner, president and CEO of S3
Incorporated. "By merging the strengths of both companies, we intend to create a major
force in the industry for Internet appliances, broadband communications, home networking
and complete graphics solutions."

Added Potashner, "The acquisition is part of our ongoing strategic plan to return S3 to
profitability and diversify into related high-growth areas. We are extremely pleased with
the execution of our plan, which has included the successful launch of our Savage4 and
Savage MX graphics products resulting in design wins with volume OEMs including
Compaq, IBM, NEC/Packard Bell and Micron. We also are pleased with the company's
financial improvements and expect these to accelerate based on our volume shipments."

"We are excited about the opportunity that we see in combining S3's highly tuned
graphics engine and substantial financial resources with our strong graphics brand and
channels and our Internet appliance, Internet connectivity and home networking growth
businesses," said William J. Schroeder, president and CEO of Diamond Multimedia.

The company recently announced that it is scheduled to receive 252 million shares of
United Microelectronic Corporation (UMC) stock, which is valued today at approximately
$600 million based on current NT value and UMC trading price. This combined, with S3's
current cash position of approximately $130 million, has the prospective combined
company positioned to aggressively invest in new product opportunities.

Target product market growth areas include Internet appliances, where Diamond
Multimedia is an industry leader with its well-known Rio MP3 music player, and home
networking, where Diamond is a leader with its wireless and phoneline HomeFree product
line. In addition, S3 and Diamond Multimedia intend to continue to aggressively invest in
Diamond's DSL and cable modem programs.

ThanX to 3D Gaming!

Our Direct3D performance and stability have increased significantly since version 225. For the past few days, I've been swapping 3D cards in and out, tuning Unreal's Direct3D performance on all of them. I'm not in the benchmarking biz, so I'm just going to give my personal reaction from playing, and say that the Riva TNT, TNT2, Matrox G400, and ATI Rage 128 are all very nice for playing Unreal now!  (Don't ask about the Riva 128, Rage Pro, and Permedia 2, they are worse for gameplay than Unreal's software renderer).

Everyone's complaint with Direct3D support in past versions of Unreal, on good cards like the TNT, has been "the average frame rate and benchmark numbers are fine, but there is major hitching and pausing during gameplay". This was due to several factors, which I tracked down and fixed with help and advice from some driver writers. The key improvements are:

1.Dramatically less memory usage. My Direct3D code wasted tons of hidden, "behind the scenes" memory while swapping textures into video memory, leading to lots of virtual-memory swapping.

2.New texture management code, better optimized for Unreal's texture usage patterns. I had been relying on Direct3D's built-in texture manager, which is slowed down by its generality.

The next patch ("when it's done") will incorporate the new Direct3D code. This will be out before Unreal Tournament ships, and we'll be looking for feedback from players on its performance and stability.

I'd like to thank Ben de Waal, Sim Dietrich, and Doug Rogers at NVidia; Sameer Nene at Microsoft; and Eric Le at Matrox for providing cool advice and performance tips.

ThanX to Voodooextreme

NVIDIA TNT2	NVIDIA TNT2 Ultra

Other differences between normal TNT2 (125/150) and TNT2 Ultra cards (150/183 +) can be the power regulator. Ultra cards normaly have a more powerfull regulator because the high clockrates need a better power suply. ASUS for example is using a 5v fan with higher rpm instead of a 3,3v fan. In addition the Ultra is equiped with a better power regulator and faster 5,5ns SGRAM instead of 7ns the normal version is equiped with.

Download Wiring (347KB)

Caution: This may damage your glasses and graphics card. Use this on your own risk! RIVA Station and the author give absolutely no warranty for any damages!

3D ExerciZer is a free OpenGL testsoftware that alows you to influence the amount of loaded textures, lights and polygons in real time. In addition you can use your own OBJ objects and textures and change other parameters: 3D ExerciZer

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