NVIDIA TNT2 Roundup (July 99)

When NVIDIA first started the hype wagon with the TNT2 (don't worry, all manufacturers do it) everyone thought the solution would be available in an amazing 175MHz core frequency with 200MHz memory.  In an ideal world that would be the case, but the reality is that NVIDIA had no way of guaranteeing boards and memory at those frequencies, and thus came the death of the 175/200 TNT2 and the birth of the 150/183 TNT2 Ultra.

By suggesting a standard clock frequency for the TNT2 and TNT2 Ultra parts, NVIDIA removes themselves from the blame if anything should happen if their chip happens to fail at a higher than rated clock speed.  From the point of view of NVIDIA, this is the best avenue for protection, shift the blame to the manufacturers if they want to ship their boards at a higher frequency.  The two biggest retail manufacturers of TNT2 based cards, Diamond and Creative Labs, both ship their cards at the standard TNT2 and TNT2 Ultra frequencies.  The reason behind this is simple, most people don't overclock their video cards, and even more people don't know it's possible when they walk into a computer store and pick up a Viper V770 or a 3D Blaster TNT2 Ultra.  Smaller manufacturers don't have this luxury as they need to work much harder in order to compete with the big boys, mainly Diamond and Creative.  How do they compete?  Simple, they ship their cards at overclocked frequencies.

Although NVIDIA isn't willing to deal with sorting what chips qualify at speeds greater than 150MHz and what chips don't, some smaller manufacturers have no choice but to deal with that sorting in order to hold some sort of an advantage over the dominating retail forces.  What these companies will do is they will test their products, prior to shipping, at a higher frequency and if they pass, they will ship them in this overclocked state.  A trained ear will know to worry when you hear talk of shipping overclocked products, however every manufacturer that ships a TNT2 based product at a speed greater than what NVIDIA's specification calls for guarantees that it will work at that frequency.   From the perspective of the end user, this is great, you get guaranteed performance greater than what the big retail boys are willing to offer you.  From the perspective of the vendor, things aren't as simple. 

A vendor attempting to sell one of these overclocked boards is generally pushed into buying a little more than they bargained for.  Instead of asking a manufacturer for x amount of parts running at these guaranteed overclocked speeds and getting them, that vendor will most likely have to buy in a ratio.  Meaning that for every x amount of overclocked parts, the vendor will have to purchase 2x or more of the regular parts.  This will generally force the vendor to up the price on the high frequency boards, and make the price of the regular parts more attractive.  Basic laws of supply and demand in action.

What's the catch?  You could spend the extra money on a TNT2 that is, by default, clocked higher than NVIDIA's specification and get guaranteed reliability and stability, as well as sweet performance.  Or, you could save a few of your hard earned dollars and buy a standard TNT2 or TNT2 Ultra (non overclocked) and try to overclock it yourself using a utility such as PowerStrip.