Creative Labs 3DB6815 3D Blaster RIVA TNT2 Ultra

For the current crop of games, this graphics card is the best of the best. It outperforms the Voodoo3 in both image quality and raw speed. It allows resolutions of 1600x1200 (which I haven't tried because my monitor can't stand that resolution) and runs Quake III smoothly at 1024x768@32-bit color on a PII-350 with 128M RAM. It even outperforms the newer GEForce256 chip in the current crop of games because it is run at a high clock rate than that chip. However, it lacks "Transform and Light" acceleration that the GEForce has, which is more for future games. I would recommend this card over all the other cards (even the GEForce), simply because it is cheaper, faster and that by the time games actually make use of the newer features of GEForce, the next-generation cards will have arrived.

I would not recommend this card for CAD and other 3D modelling though. Though it is competent in those tasks, it is nothing compared to the professional cards made by 3DLabs...Read more

The Creative Labs newest venture into the video card market has brought back impressive results. The 3D Blaster RIVA TNT2 Ultra is one of the fastest cards you can buy, and a gamer's dream come true. When paired with a top-notch processor, this little card can crunch through triangles like a hot knife through a jello jiggler. I tested it against Diamond Multimedia's and Herclues' TNT2 Ultra cards, and the Creative Labs held its own very well. All three cards are comparable in performance, and the Creative tends to be the lower priced one. A fantastic deal for what it does, and a glimpse of great things to come...

I'm currently using this card in two of my machines (Both using high speed AMD CPUs), and I have yet to see another machine significantly outclass the gaming performance of either one. Before installing the second card, I briefly tried a Diamond S540 (Savage 4 chipset), and while at high resolution (1280x1024, 1600x1200) was slightly faster in redrawing the Windows environment, the 3D Blaster killed it everywhere else. I don't even let ATI or Voodoo cards near my machines... :]

I did have some stability problems with the included drivers, but this has been fixed in the updated drivers. You can't go wrong with this card...