BX-133 Video Guide

The Results- NVIDIA Based Cards Continued

TNT2 M64 based cards

The only M64 based card that we have, the Guillemot Maxi Gamer Cougar, came with SBA disabled and had no problem performing in the overclocked systems.

TNT2 Pro based cards

Once again, we only have one test card for this TNT2 core derivative The Gigabyte GA-660 provided this system. With SBA enabled, the card had some problems, as shown below.

One more time we see how disabling SBA allows for reduced noise in the signal and thus higher bus speeds to be used at no loss of performance.

TNT2 Ultra based cards

Once again, as we turn back the clock we find that more and more cards come with SBA enabled. Take a look at what our TNT2 Ultra test showed.

Allowing SBA to be enabled in TNT2 Ultra systems seems to be disastrous. Every card tested had this feature enabled and every card failed our overclocking test. It was not until SBA was disabled did we begin to see some respectable performance, with some cards still not being able to work on our 98 MHz AGP bus.

The most likely cause of the high failure rate seen in these cards when compared to GeForce cards is due to the fact that these cards were produced somewhat early in the game. Time has only refined the video card manufacturing process and card manufacturers have become more aware of people using these cards at AGP bus speeds in excess of 66 MHz.

TNT Based cards

Reaching into the back of our shelves, we were able to find a card based on the final NVIDIA chipset tested: the Creative Labs Graphics Blaster TNT. Not surprisingly, this card had some problems running in our overclocked system.