nVidia Riva128      07 Jul 1998

nVidia Riva128ZX. An update of the Riva128, with 30% faster 2D acceleration and 8 MB frame buffer. 3D performance same as the Riva128. Any card that has a Riva128ZX will have 8 MB memory on it, so if you want this chipset, get an 8 MB STB Velocity 128 or a Diamond Viper 330, and there you go.

The very impressive Riva128 chip is a 2D/3D solution, replacing your current graphics card.  It's 2D performance is setting records: it outshines the old standard for 2D, the Matrox Millenium II.  And the 3D performance is very close to the standard-setting Voodoo Graphics chipset.  In fact, in some systems (namely those running a fast Pentium2, especially those with an Advanced Graphics Port), the Riva128 sets the new standard in consumer 3D performance (check out Lars Anderson's report below).  Only the Obsidian series of professional cards will out perform the Riva at it's best.  The Riva also handles video very well.  The Canopus entry will also accept video input in addition to the standard video output.   The 230 MHz RAMDAC clock means you'll never want for higher refresh rates.

The current Riva cards have 4 MB frame-buffer memory and no on-board texture memory.  This means the maximum resolution in FS98 is 1152x864x16.  The card uses system RAM for texture storage, and the card downloads textures through the PCI or AGP bus as needed.  This is why the AGP configurations are much preferred for this card-much depends on the bus data rates, and the 66-100 MHz 64-bit AGP bus is 2-4 times faster than the 33 MHz 32-bit PCI-bus.

STB Systems Inc. Friday started shipping an 8MB version of its award- winning Velocity 128 multimedia accelerator based on NVIDIA's new RIVA 128ZX chipset. The new processor offers extended resolutions and color depths and AGP 2X support, while providing the same superior power for business applications and truly fast 3-D acceleration for gaming and entertainment found in the original Velocity 128.

Cards:

STB Velocity 128
Diamond Viper V330
Elsa Victory Erazor
Canopus Total3D 128V
Asus 3D Explorer 3000

Reviews:

CombatSim
Review of the Diamond Viper 330
RIVA 128 Benchmarks page
GameSpot review of STB Velocity 128 AGP
GLDojo review of the Canopus board (with TV input).

Fan Pages:

The RUG
RivaZone
Zone 128
FPS
The RIVA Users Group

Drivers:

STB as of 22 Oct 97. Diamond (24 Oct 97) has Win 95 and NT drivers. Diamond has even newer drivers (16Nov97). New drivers have been released since, but I don't have the info handy.   Surf the manufacturer sites.
Riva 128 FAQ

Notes:

At the moment it seems there are some unsolved driver problems. This situation will not likely continue for long.

To use the Velocity or the Viper cards you must have a motherboard capable of bus mastering. Both these cards use the system RAM for texture storage, and bus mastering is needed to move textures rapidly to the card. These cards are sold in AGP (Advance Graphics Port) versions which are faster than the PCI versions, but require an AGP-capable Pentium-II LX motherboard. Maximum resolution of 1152x864 for 3D acceleration. 3D in a window supported. Here's an AGP FAQ.

From Diamond: "Known Limitations: The NVidia Riva 128 chip used on the Diamond Viper V330 requires an IRQ to function correctly.  If no IRQ has been assigned to the card by the motherboard BIOS you may experience symptoms such as windows not booting, or extremely poor performance.  Some motherboard BIOS' allow for an option to force an IRQ to the VGA adapter.  Often times the latest BIOS will also resolve this problem. For further information please contact your motherboard manufacturer." This means you need a fairly recent PCI-bus version 2.1 to use the card.

If you are interested in playing GLquake or GLquake2, you need the D3D wrapper, which you can get here.  You also need the full version of Quake, and GLquake from www.idsoftware.com.

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