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  News archives: September 2 - archives overview
Topics of the month:
TNT cards overview 

    18.10 - The test is coming: Erazor II vs. Viper V550

The first RIVA TNT card test at RIVA Station is coming. The ELSA Erazor II grapples with the  Diamond Viper V550. I hope to finish the testreport today. Iīll post the report as soon as it is translated. The German version is available later this evening or tomorrow morning.... so stay tuned!
    16.10 - FOGCITY 2

Michael Tirtasana released Fogcity 2. Thereīs new DirectX 6 support including AMDīs 3DNow!. Additional features are desktop rendering and extended settings like choosimg between 16bit and 32bit textures. More information at Michaelīs Webpage.
Download (3 MB): FOGCITY 2
    14.10 - Erazor II Details
preview retail packshot

There was only little information about ELSAīs  Erazor II on the web. So I give you some infos about that card with nVidiaīs RIVA TNT.

The card is equiped with 8 or 16 MB SGRAM. Other manufactorers use the slower SDRAM. The TNT chip runs at a clockspeed of 90MHz and at a memoryclock of 115 MHz. A cooling fan on the card cares for the health of the TNT chip.

Thereīs no Video I/O function yet. Rumors about a Video I/O add-on solution are not confirmed yet.
The German retail version is bundled with the games Need for Speed III (Electronic Arts) and Recoil (Virgin Interactive). The listprice of the retail version is DM 399,-.

ELSA wil release new version 2.0 drivers for the Erazor II early next week. Special features of these drivers are:

- Free choice of screen resolution (32-pixel steps) and refresh rates
- Higher performance
- Increased 3D-Settings with settings for AntiAliasing modes and more

Screenshot 3D Settings
    14.10 - Canopus Spectra 2500 Review

Tweak 3D did a review of the Canopus Spectra 2500 with nVidia RIVA TNT. He compared the benchmark results with a STB Velocity 4400.
    14.10 - RIVA 128 / TNT Linux XServer

At Dimension 128 you can download the newest Linux XServer with RIVA 128 and RIVA TNT support. Download: RIVA 128 / TNT XServer - Readme
    13.10 - NHL 99 - Demo
NHL 99 Demo
Infos - Download 1 - Download 2 (31 MB) - Developer: EA Sports

EA Sports NHL hockey series is back with NHL 99. The demo letīs you play the Washington Capitals versus the Detroit Red Wings. RIVA 128 / TNT is supported through Direct 3D.
    12.10 - Erazor II - Cooling fan remains on the board

ELSA informed me today that the cooling fan remains on the Erazor II with nVidia RIVA TNT till end of November.
    11.10 - HZ Tool

HZ Tool is a freeware tool for Windows 95/98 that lets you set the refreshrate for all resolutions, including the ones that Windows 9X normally don't let you use. You can also edit the properties of your monitor.

Download: HZ Tool v1.2 (178 KB) - Info: Homepage
    11.10 - Erazor II without cooler?
The german magazine PC Professionell reports that the cooling fan of the Erazor II was only for prototype cards. I got information from ELSA that the fan will stay till end of november. I try to get a comment of ELSA to that.
    09.10 - Cooler for TNT cards

macht Wind

TennMax offers a cooling fan for graphic cards with RIVA TNT. The also announce a cooler for the ELSA Erazor II and Canopus Spectra 2500. These cards are already equiped with a active cooling fan: Productinfo (Source Mike)
    09.10 - DIAMOND Update info service
Diamond offers a drivers update service for Diamond products. After registration in a list you get E-Mail information if new drivers are available for your Diamond product.
Drivers Update Service: Viper V330 - Viper V550 - other products
    08.10 - Winds of change at Tomīs
Tom, of Tomīs Hardware Guide made a new article with the title: 'Winds of change'. It takes a look on the current situation of graphics chipsets and compares the Nvidia RIVA TNT with 3Dfx Voodoo2 and Banshee. The result is a vote for Nvidia RIVa TNT. You find the article here.
    06.10 - STB drivers
STB offers new Win 9X drivers for the Velocity 128 with RIVA 128 / ZX. New beta drivers are available for the Velocity 4400 with RIVA TNT and also a new Bios for the european version.
 

STB Velocity 128 4/8 MB
v128_0182.exe 09-30-98 Windows 95/98 Display Drivers Release 1.82 (1.9MB) with OpenGL and TV out support.

STB Velocity 4400
nv44w137.zip 10-05-98 BETA Windows 95/98 Display Drivers BETA Release 1.37 (1.5MB) WARNING: This driver has not been fully tested and is not supported by STB Technical Support
agppal.exe 10-02-98 AGP PAL European Version 1.02 (341KB). Fixes Award motherboard BIOS issues. Place a blank formatted floppy diskette in the A: drive. Execute AGP16102.exe A: and it will write an image to the floppy. Then boot to the Floppy disk. FOR AGP CARDS ONLY!
pcipal.exe 10-02-98 PCI PAL European Version 1.02 (341KB). Fixes Award motherboard BIOS issues. Place a blank formatted floppy diskette in the A: drive. Execute AGP16102.exe A: and it will write an image to the floppy. Then boot to the Floppy disk. FOR PCI CARDS ONLY!
    06.10 - NVIDIA licenses VIP
NVIDIA has licensed the Video Interface Port (VIP) core from Innovative Semiconductors Inc.  for incorporation in its future 3D graphics chips. VIP, an open Video Electronics Standards Association (VESA) standard, specifies the interface between graphics controllers and video devices. VESA VIP has gained widespread industry support from both the graphics and video semiconductor vendors. (Pressrelease)
    05.10 - AGP Bus
How APG started and how important AGP may become in future can be read in this article from early this year at ZDNet. Not up to date but nevertheless still interresting is this article that cares about the updating problem.
    05.10 - ASUS P2L97 und RIVA TNT
It seems that the ASUS Mainboard P2L97 rev. 1.05 has problems with the RIVA TNT. The voltage of the AGP slot is not high enough for the TNT. As result you have system crashes. At the moment I donīt know if other Boards have the same problems too.
    04.10 - New Demos
New gamedemos are available:

DELTA FORCE - Info - Download 1 - Download 2 (20MB) - Developer: Novalogic
News from Voxel Space, without 3D acceleration

SHOGO - Info - Download (40MB) - Demo FAQ - Developer: Monolith
Game that looks like a Manga comic. 2 playable levels.
    02.10 - TNT cards
The first graphics cards with nVidiaīs RIVA TNT are available in Germany. For that reason I made a overview of the available TNT cards. Every link opens a new browser-window, so you can go offline and compare after the pages are loaded.

Canopus Spectra 2500
Overview - Data

Creative Graphics Blaster TNT
Overview   - Software - Data

Diamond Viper V550
Overview - Data - Images

ELSA Erazor II
Overview

STB Velocity 4400
Overview - Data

Other anounced cards are the ASUS AGP-V3400 TNT/TV and the Hercules Dynamite TNT. But I didīnt find any information about these cards in the web.
    30.09 - 3Dfx stickers
In some stores in USA, you can find games with the stickers '3Dfx required' on the package. The special thing with that is that some of these games are Direct 3D only games. The games Forsaken and Motocross Madness (Microsoft) have been seen with that sticker on them. More about that at RIVAZONE.
Itīs is misleading of customers. They give the  impression that games do only run with 3Dfx. At this point, take a look at the Interview with 3Dfx Co-founder Scott Sellers at GNN again. Some words get a new meaning.

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News archives- additional september news