Budget Video Comparison - November 1999

NVIDIA has taken a different approach to the value conscious market. Their TNT2 M64 chip has all the features of a regular TNT2, but cuts cost with the use of a 64-bit memory interface instead of the TNT2’s 128-bit. This comes into play mainly at higher resolutions and color depths. The fact that the 3D core is the same means you still get 32-bit rendering support, full AGP texturing support, and support for texture sizes up to 2048x2048. The chip itself even supports AGP 4X, although not every board manufacturer has implemented the feature.

At around $80 for a 16MB card and $95 for a 32MB card, the M64 comes in at the upper end of our price range. This puts it at a slight disadvantage, as other cards in this range simply have more raw power. The TNT2 M64 is generally only available in OEM "white box" packaging. However, nearly every manufacturer with a TNT2 in its line up also has the M64. The M64 is currently only available in AGP form.

Check out AnandTech’s complete TNT2 M64 review for further details.

Just like the Savage3D, the Savage 4 look to be a very promising part when it was announced. But once again, it was plagued by driver issues and performance that was lower than expected. Fortunately, S3 seems to have sorted out the majority of the issues and tweaked performance significantly with driver updates.

The Pro+ was the high-end of the Savage 4 line when it was released, but now is the most commonly used model. The Pro+ is clocked at 125/143, putting it very close to the TNT2 M64 in terms of raw power. All Savage 4’s feature a 64-bit memory bus, 32-bit rendering support, AGP texturing, and 2048x2048 texture support.

Don’t forget to read AnandTech’s complete Savage 4 review for the full story.

The Savage 4 Xtreme is the same chip as the Savage 4 Pro+ with a higher clock speed. Thanks to the Diamond/S3 merger, this chip is currently only available on the Diamond Stealth III S540 Xtreme. The Stealth III S540 Xtreme is one example where there is a substantial difference between retail and OEM cards. The retail is clocked at 166/166, while the OEM is 143/166.

Other manufacturers have talked about releasing a Savage4 Xtreme product of their own, but we have yet to see any. These cards are coming in right around $100 with 32MB onboard, making them the most expensive cards in this roundup. With a core clock of 166 MHz for the retail version, the Savage 4 Xtreme has the most raw power of the cards here.