Diamond Viper V550
The Viper V550 was based on the then new nVidia RIVA TNT chipset which is a combined 2D/3D accelerator card.
| Released | Late 1998 | |
| Bus | PCI or AGP 2x | |
| Chipset | nVidia RIVA TNT | |
| Standards | Hercules, CGA, EGA, VGA | |
| Memory | 16 MB SDRAM | |
| Ports | 15-pin DSUB (video out) VGA feature connector |
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| RAMDAC | 250 MHz | |
| Part # | ||
| FCC ID | ||
| Price | Dec 1998: $200 (street price) | |
| See Also |
It supported resolutions up to 1920 x 1200 at 85 Hz horizontal refresh rate.
On the 3D side, its RIVA TNT chipset supported the latest Direct3D and OpenGL features including as trilinear MIP-mapping, 24-bit Z-buffering, a triangle setup engine, edge anti-aliasing and per-pixel anti-aliasing, perspective correction, anistropic filtering, MPEG video textures and bump mapping.
The card came with a TV out socket, and a TV tuner option was also available for the Viper V550 at a cost of $129.
Board Revisions
Competition
The RIVA TNT competed directly with 3dfx' Voodoo2 and Banshee, as well as S3's Savage3D.
In the Media
Note that the chip and memory clocks on the Monster Fusion are faster than any other Banshee-based card, giving it an edge in benchmark testing. Diamond reworked the chip vendors' reference designs to minimize trace lengths and reduce heat that could cause system crashes. Diamond backs its products, however, with a generous five-year warranty for users skittish about reliability.
Installation and utilities for all Diamond cards are among the best in the industry. A unified process installs the drivers, DirectX 6.0 (if necessary), and the vendor's InControl Tools.
In our labs, the Monster Fusion trailed slightly behind the top-performing Viper V550 while staying within the very top tier of performers on all measures. Quality tests showed errors in MIP mapping, alpha blending, cylindrical wrapping, and fogging. The Monster Fusion also proved incapable of some MIP-mapping and other geometry features. But like the Viper, it sailed through D3D gaming apps.
For comparison, we also looked at the 12 MB version of the popular Diamond Monster 3D II ($250 street), a 3D-only PCI card that works with existing 2D hardware. The card's 3Dfx Voodoo2 chip doesn't support the triple-buffered mode used in our tests, but its double-buffered performance was respectable. Under 3Dfx's GLiDE API, it was more reliable than other Banshee-based cards. For GLiDE support, this is a good though pricey option.
On balance, the Viper [V550] may offer a skosh more performance than the Monster Fusion - but at a price premium. Almost any user would be well off with either."
PC Magazine, December 1998
Setting it Up
Downloads
Operation Manual Get in touch if you can provide this missing item! |
Original Utility Disk Get in touch if you can provide this missing item! |
VGA BIOS ROM Get in touch if you can provide this missing item! |
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