Plain Vanilla V770

Regular Speed, Please

Diamond was not only quick to announce support for TNT2, they were also one of the first early adopters of TNT2 Ultra, higher clock-rate TNT2s which provide an extra performance boost for power-hungry users, much like 3dfx's tiered Voodoo3 2000/3000/3500 offerings.

The standard, or "plain vanilla" Viper V770 will ship with a core clock speed of 125Mhz and a memory clock speed of 150Mhz, closely following Nvidia's original spec for the TNT2. The original TNT was spec'd at 90Mhz, and in addition to a more efficient pipeline, the 30% increase in clockrate for the TNT2 should spell for some significant speed improvements.

Heat, or lack thereof

Running at a TNT2 standard 125Mhz, the V770 should be quite manageable in a thermal sense, and will ship with a passive heatsink, industry standard nowadays. The original TNT also shipped with a heatsink from most manufacturers (including Diamond), but proved to be a very hot chip. The TNT2 is manufactured on a smaller process (at .25 micron), and should run cooler than the TNT at identical clock speeds, but we've yet to see how the chip will perform without a fan.

The V770 will also be available in a system integrator/OEM version (which won't be available for retail sale, but will be generally available to those searching for the lowest prices) in a 16MB version. The OEM versions will also be passive-cooled by way of heatsink.

Diamond is planning to ship the V770 as early as May 6-7 to distributors, and you'll likely see it appearing on store shelves shortly after that. The suggested retail price of the V770 is $199.95.