Most PCs are sold with low-to-acceptable quality components and graphics cards are a common target for this economy. In due course you become aware of these things and buy high quality replacements.

Aztech has released the Riva TNT2 32T, a very fast graphics accelerator card, which will satisfy gamers and users of high-speed or high-resolution applications. The Riva TNT2 chip is supplied by Nvidia, which claims to make the world’s fastest 128-bit 3D graphics chips. Its 4X AGP capability supports data transfer at up to 900 MB per second

AGP stands for "advanced graphics port", which refers to the bus connection to the PC's motherboard. Your PC's memory is allocated for storing graphics textures. In practical terms you should know that an AGP card's pinouts are different from your usual plug-in card.

If your graphics card slot has a brownish colour, then this is probably the AGP slot, but always check your manual.

The Riva TNT2 delivers 2 pixels per clock cycle and single-pass multi-texturing. The 32 MB frame buffer, 32-bit color pipeline, and 32-bit Z/stencil buffer deliver high quality and performance. In addition to VGA, another model in the range offers digital flat panel support, whereas the one I tested supported TV output in composite and S-video formats.

Features

• nVIDIA Riva 128-bit TwiN-Texel (TNT) architecture
• 4X/2X/1X AGP interface with full sideband support
• Data transfer at up to 900 MB per second
• Triple 8-bit 300 MHz palette RAMDAC
• TV output (NTSC/PAL)
• Resolution of up to 2048 x 1536 pixels at 60 Hz
• True colour rendering
• 32 MB SDRAM

Games

Nvidia recommends third-party games that exploit its chips. I have not tried them, but they include:

• Re-Volt, by Acclaim
• HomeworId, by Sierra/Relic
• Drakan, by Psygnosis/Surreal
• Expendable, by Rage

There is more jargon describing the 32T at the Aztech Web site www.aztech.com.sg, which will interest graphics buffs. In simple words, the card is well suited for 3D games and full-screen, 30 fps DVD playback.

In Use 

Installation was easy -- remove the old card and slot in the new one. When I restarted the PC, the new hardware was detected and I loaded the drivers from the supplied CD-ROM. The immediate difference was a vast increase in speed. If you did not know this, a graphics card with more than the default 4 MB RAM makes a noticeable difference. I went from 4 MB to 32 MB and it was like I had upgraded my CPU by 100 MHz.

Not only do games run fast, but every program that uses the screen runs fast to reach the screen a lot faster. All in all, the Aztech RIVA TNT2 32T is a very worthwhile upgrade!

Requirements

Your PC should be running at least Microsoft Windows 95 OSR 2.0 and DirectX 6.0 or later. Windows NT 4.0 SP3 is also acceptable. A CD-ROM is required for installation of the drivers. An AGP card slot is also needed.

Availability  

The Aztech RIVA TNT2 32T sells for $282. To locate your nearest reseller, contact either of the two Aztech distributors below:

• Achieva Technology (02) 9742 3288
• NatComp Technology (02) 9712 0099