All right, after that multitude of benchmarks (including the unexpected guest appearance by the overclocked Voodoo 3500…now didn’t that come as a surprise?), it’s time for recommendations and concluding remarks. 

Recommendations
 

If you’re a purist, demanding the very best in performance and aren’t fussy about prices, software bundles and other such mere material considerations, then the Hercules Dynamite TNT2 Ultra is definitely for you. It’s not cheap (list price $249), has no software bundle worth speaking of, and outperforms any other Ultra TNT2 card you can name. High-end gamers and graphics enthusiasts would most likely fall in this category. Don’t let that stop you from reading the other recommendations if you’re a high-end gamer or graphics enthusiast, though- who knows, maybe you don’t fit the stereotype and would be happier with one of the other possibilities. If you’re worried about the price, one such alternative is the cheaper edition of the Hercules Dynamite TNT2 Ultra that omits the TV-out, with a list price of $229. 

What if the price still bothers you? And you don’t want to opt for the cheaper edition of the Dynamite because you want a TV-out? Then we move on to our second recommendation, the Guillemot Maxi Gamer Xentor 32, which has a list price of $229 with a mail-in rebate for $30 if you’re buying directly through their website. This card is second only to the Hercules Dynamite in terms of performance, so for that price you’re getting a very good deal. The downside- and inevitably, there must be a downside- is that Guillemot have not, for some strange and unfathomable reason of their own, implemented AGP 4x support. 

Those are the formal recommendations, but that’s not all. One problem that both the Dynamite and the Maxi Gamer Xentor might have is availability- these cards may not be available everywhere. If availability is your problem, you would probably already know that you can generally expect the Creative and Diamond cards to be available most anywhere. You can also find these boards quite cheap- they can both be found in the range of $200-210. If it comes down to a choice between these two, we recommend the Diamond Viper V770, which is a well-rounded card and only lacks TV-out, which is not all that important if the idea is playing games. As for the ASUS card, the biggest obstacle in the way of this card is it’s high price tag, but that should be expected since this card is practically dripping with extras and features, such as the 3D glasses & video features. Of course you'll have to get through the installation process and get all the features to work properly, which I found to be a bit of a pain. 

OK, so that basically covers all the Ultra TNT2 cards. By the way, we’ve just implemented a new feature- an announcement list that will notify you by email when we publish new articles. If you’d like to be notified when Review Zone is updated with new articles, please follow this link and enter your email address. This last sentence has nothing to do with Ultra TNT2 cards, by the way, it’s just a new feature we’ve put up for your convenience. Have a nice day.............
 
 

Table of contents
Introduction	Hercules Dynamite TNT2
Side by Side Comparison	Tweaking & Overclocking
What we looked for in the cards	Performance
ASUS AGP-V3800 Ultra Deluxe	CPU Scaling
Creative 3D Blaster Riva TNT2 Ultra	TNT2 Ultra Vs. Voodoo3 3500
Diamond Viper V770 Ultra	Conclusion
Guillemot Maxi Gamer Xentor 32