How creative did the king of the multimedia world get with the Graphics Blaster TNT?  Well, if you're looking for a sleek new design, TV-Output, and a helpful little on-board fan to cool the TNT chipset, you're probably looking for Canopus' Spectra 2500.  The Creative Labs Graphics Blaster TNT is a no frills, bare bones, TNT based video card.  Packaged with nothing more than the driver utilities and one of the millions of copies of Forsaken that you probably already have from other recently purchased components (c'mon guys, isn't it about time to stop packaging Forsaken with every little peripheral?), the Graphics Blaster TNT sticks to the nVidia TNT reference design down to the last solder point. 

The uninteresting rectangular card brought much attention to itself when it became the most overclockable member of the TNT family with the use of Fujitsu SDRAM, unfortunately since then, it seems as if Creative has gone the path of their predecessors with the memory selection for their TNT boards and opted for the much more available and cheaper (in quality) Samsung SDRAM.  The SEC modules on the AGP version of the Graphics Blaster TNT wouldn't even make the jump to 115MHz reliably, up from the standard 110MHz clock frequency whereas the PCI TNT which AnandTech received right after its release could be taken up to 130MHz reliably.  The unfortunate truth which is present in today's profit driven world, quality is quite often the sacrifice for cost.

Bringing us to the next and final point, the reason the Graphics Blaster TNT still holds its charm, in spite of the poor software bundle, and in spite of the lower quality SDRAM now used on the boards, is its rock bottom price.  Retailing for well under the $149 estimated retail price for a TNT based graphics card, the Graphics Blaster TNT can be found for an affordable $125, and even lower (a little net searching can turn up prices in the $115 range!) depending on the vendor.  If all you're looking for is a TNT based video card, Creative has your answer.  But be sure first, that you do in fact want a TNT card, take a look at the October 1998 Slot-1 and Super7 Video Comparisons here on AnandTech to see if you are making the right decision...and if so, happy gaming with your new investment.

Click here to find lowest prices on this product.

The Test
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