RIVA TNT
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The RIVA TNT (For TwiN Texel), codenamed NV4, is a 2D, video, and 3D graphics accelerator chip for PCs that was manufactured by NVIDIA. It was released in late 1998 and cemented NVIDIA's reputation as a worthy rival within the developing consumer 3D graphics adapter industry.
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[edit] Overview
The TNT was designed as a follow up to the RIVA 128 and a response to 3Dfx's introduction of the Voodoo2. It added a second pixel pipeline, practically doubling rendering speed, and used considerably faster memory. Unlike the Voodoo2 (but like the slower Matrox G200) it also added support for a 32-bit (truecolor) pixel format and 24-bit Z-buffer in 3D mode. Improved texture filtering techniques, partially assisted by newly-added trilinear filtering, dramatically improved image quality compared to the TNT's predecessor. It also added support for up to 16 MiB of SDR SDRAM. TNT was a single chip solution.
The TNT shipped later than originally planned, ran quite hot, and was clocked lower than NVIDIA had planned (90 MHz instead of 110 MHz). Originally planned specifications would've put the card ahead of Voodoo2 in theoretical performance for Direct3D applications. At 90 MHz it didn't quite match Voodoo2. OpenGL games performed much better on Voodoo2, and Nvidia did not support the much faster Glide API. The TNT had 32bit color support while the Voodoo2 only supported 16bit colour, but the Voodoo2 had higher quality 16bit colour due to an internal color dithering system.
Unfortunately, TNT did not match the sales of the incredibly popular Voodoo 2. 3Dfx's customer mind share was at its peak during this time and NVIDIA was still a somewhat new player. Again, like with the RIVA 128, the lack of Glide API support hindered NVIDIA's opportunities for market share growth. Glide was still considered the best 3D gaming API available by both gamers and developers. However, TNT gained NVIDIA much attention and paved the way for the refreshed version called the RIVA TNT2. After all, unlike the rest of the competition, NVIDIA had come close to Voodoo2 in performance in some games, and beaten it in 32bit image quality.
In what would become standard industry practice on a massive scale in later years, NVIDIA released a budget version of TNT called Vanta. This board used the same TNT chip but lowered its clock speed and halved both memory data bus width (to 64-bit) and memory size (to 8 MiB). By doing this, NVIDIA was able to still sell somewhat defective TNT chips that couldn't reach the TNT's specified clock speeds, and cut board costs significantly by using a narrower bus and less RAM. The board proved popular with OEM computer builders because of its capable feature-set and low price. Vanta also was implemented as integrated graphics on some motherboards.
TNT itself was used on several popular cards, such as the Diamond Viper V550 and STB Velocity 4400, both of which managed OEM wins with the likes of Dell and Gateway, among others.
[edit] Competing chipsets
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- Press Release: NVIDIA and ABIT Announce Integrated Motherboard Graphic Solution
- Press Release: NVIDIA Broadens Market Reach with Vanta 3D Processor
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