"The RIVA TNT2 sets a new standard for performance and quality by combining best-of-class 3D and 2D performance with 32-bit bit true color rendering, 32-bit Z/Stencil buffer and a 32MB frame buffer"

"The RIVA TNT architecture is the first integrated, 128-bit 3D Processor that processes 2 pixels-per-clock cycle which enables single-pass multi-texturing and delivers a mind-blowing 180 million pixels-per-second fill rate. RIVA TNT’s (twin-texel) 32-bit color pipeline, 24-bit Z, 8-bit stencil buffer and per-pixel precision delivers unsurpassed quality and performance allowing developers to write standards based applications with stunning visual effects and realism."

Those are two excerpts from NVIDIA's Product Info pages dealing with the TNT2 and TNT. We have the TNT2 setting "a new standard for performance", and the TNT delivering "unsurpassed quality and performance." At the same time AnandTech has always referred to the TNT2 as being a transitional product instead of one that offers a tremendous performance increase.

Now of course it would sound bad for NVIDIA to call their own product a "transitional" release, and tell everyone that they'll be wasting their money because in a few months the TNT2 will be slapped aside by their next product. At the same time, it would sound incredibly biased (and in poor taste) for AnandTech to praise the TNT2 as being the most revolutionary improvement in a graphics chipset AnandTech has ever seen, so where does the truth lie?

You have to first take into consideration that what the TNT2 is, happens to be no different that what the Voodoo3 is to the Voodoo2, and what the Savage4 is to the Savage3D. The video market is one in which a company can rise to the top and fall almost overnight. With new product releases occurring at unprecedented frequencies, sometimes pushing 6 month intervals, it's critical to the survival of a company to release as many products as the next best competitor in order to stay alive.

If 3dfx stuck to their Voodoo2 until the end of this year, there is no doubt about it that NVIDIA would have completely dominated the market until then. The same thing can be said if NVIDIA didn't release anything after the original TNT until the end of this year, 3dfx would have profited more than you can possibly imagine. The solution? It's the "keeping up with the Jones'" scenario, if 3dfx releases something, NVIDIA has to release a competing product, and if NVIDIA releases something 3dfx must do the same. It's what makes the competitive market go 'round, and unfortunately there seems to be a lot of misunderstanding as to exactly what the Voodoo3 and TNT2 offer us.

There's an equation you've all probably heard, the TNT2 is nothing more than a TNT at a higher clock speed. True or false? Well, it depends on how you look at the situation. Let's take Quake 2 as a starting point.

On a Pentium III 500, so the CPU won't be a bottleneck, the Riva TNT produced a frame rate of 63.1 fps at 800 x 600 x 16-bit color. The slowest of the TNT2s, clocked at 125MHz, produced a frame rate of 84.6 fps in the same situation, an improvement of 34% with a 38% improvement in clock speed. Sounds about right, no?

Take the same test system, and up the resolution to 1024 x 768 while keeping it at a 16-bit color rendering depth. The TNT's performance drops a good 35% while the TNT2 only yields a 19% drop in performance. Not bad for users that want to run at 1024 x 768 right? In this case, the TNT2 is obviously more than just a faster TNT, as its performance at 1024 x 768 doesn't come with the same penalty as the TNT did. This is proof that the TNT2 isn't the same core as the TNT, although we all should have known that, it must be proved and established before making the next jump.

After the release of the TNT at a somewhat disappointing 90MHz, NVIDIA proudly announced that in 6 months, the 125MHz barrier would be hit and surpassed by a 0.25 micron TNT product. With the release of the TNT2, and the lack of any other product releases between the time NVIDIA released the TNT and the present, is the TNT2 the 125MHz TNT NVIDIA promised a while ago?

AnandTech decided to fire up the good ol' TNT2 test bed, however instead of using the previously installed TNT2, AnandTech swapped it out for a trusty reference design 16MB AGP TNT. The result? The system booted into windows without even so much as a beckoning for updated drivers. The TNT2 drivers worked perfectly fine with the TNT, not too surprising, since the core has not changed all too much.

AnandTech experienced the same stability with the TNT running the TNT2 drivers as was experienced with the TNT2 running its own drivers, an indication that NVIDIA's revision 0172 drivers are not yet ready for mass deployment. The majority of crashes occurred under Direct3D applications, while the OpenGL stability was rock solid, an indication of a very mature OpenGL ICD on NVIDIA's part, something no other manufacture in their class has a claim to fame for.

So what's the point Anand? Well, there's some good news for you TNT users out there. Remember the performance boost the newly released "Detonator" drivers promised for TNT owners? Although they did improve performance under Direct3D, OpenGL performance seemed to suffer.

This time around, all you TNT users out there have something to look forward to once again, apparently the 0172 drivers for the TNT2 improve performance by a noticeable margin on the TNT. Need proof? Let's look at the benchmarks, the test system is the same one used in the AnandTech TNT2 Review.

The OpenGL performance of the TNT actually dropped using the TNT2 drivers, a situation similar to that which happened with the initial release of the Detonator drivers for the TNT which, by the way, work on the TNT2 as well, although yield a much lower performance score.

Here's where you see the greatest improvement in performance, the performance of the TNT with the updated drivers is considerably higher than with the older Detonator drivers. It looks like a little more than TNT2 support went into the latest 0172 drivers from NVIDIA. Unfortunately these drivers won't see the light of day until at least a little while longer, the drivers that shipped with AnandTech's Leadtek board did not perform as well as the 0172 revision from NVIDIA.

The TNT2 drivers show a performance increase here, even in the CPU intensive Descent3 Demo, the TNT using the TNT2 drivers provides a healthy 13% improvement in performance. Not bad for something that will eventually be released free of charge.

There you have it TNT owners, the TNT2 drivers, once they hit the web, will be a must have for all of you, especially if you want to tide yourself over until your next graphics card upgrade. Does this exposure of the driver enhancements change the view of the TNT2? Not really, since the TNT2 is still a fast performer, however in comparison to the original TNT, there are some gaps that have been somewhat shortened by the use of the TNT2 0172 drivers.

Just something to look forward to for all of you TNT owners out there, it's not something to discourage you from buying a TNT2 though, considering the performance improvement is not incredible to the point that it makes gameplay at higher resolutions any more playable.

It looks like the release of the TNT2 will have its benefits even for those not considering a purchase right away, thanks NVIDIA.