The memory interface is 64-bit.

Agreed - that's an M64. 64-bit memory interface. But it gets called "128-bit" as many RIVA products did because of the "128-bit 2D engine."

Okay, that does help. That plus I finally found another couple of Vanta that are nv5. I'd been operating under a belief they were all nv6. I don't think I'm ever going to get the Vanta terminology straight, but this one at least seems sensible now. Thank you.

Is there a way to easily tell if a card is a regular TNT2 or Vanta if the heatsink is installed and there is no silkscreen. I presume the memory chips give them away, but I haven't figured out a pattern yet.

The 128-bit TNT and TNT2 cards have 8 or 16 memory chips.

Great. I'm back to completely-confused.

http://www.vgamuseum.info/index.php/component … -tnt2-m64-vanta

TNT2 128-bit must be pretty rare, because I usually just see the 4 chip variety.

swaaye wrote:

The 128-bit TNT and TNT2 cards have 8 or 16 memory chips.

I don't know if this entirely true...
I have a Diamond TNT with 8 memory chips but my Gigabyte GA-660 card that is based on "TNT2 Pro" chip only has 4 memory chips

All Vanta products I've seen use NV5 or NV6 chips and 64 bit bus. I don't think that vgamuseum card is 128 bit, the memory traces were usually on the front layer and it does not have enough.

Anonymous Coward wrote:

TNT2 128-bit must be pretty rare, because I usually just see the 4 chip variety.

I don't know that I'd say TNT2s are rare, as much as Vanta/M64 cards are probably among the most mass produced graphics cards ever made. They aren't awful cards, inasmuch as they're 2D/3D capable and generally don't need fans, but performance isn't fantastic compared to a lot of other things. Still though, if you get one free or cheap it isn't bad.

I find it difficult to find Original NV4's, there not as common as geforces let alone these M64\Vanta's
There are a few easy to get oem agp ones, but the others...
TNT2's arn't as bad but still, not as common compared to these M64\Vanta's.
Then there's that weird 16mb OEM pro model, that has odd performance, despite being a full tnt2... I think I need to test the pro again, I know it had odd issues going on might be specific to the card I have tho.

I had to pay more then I wanted to for the PCI TNT NV4 I wanted for my latest retro rig 😒, but I really wanted a original TNT 1 for that machine.

Putas wrote:

All Vanta products I've seen use NV5 or NV6 chips and 64 bit bus. I don't think that vgamuseum card is 128 bit, the memory traces were usually on the front layer and it does not have enough.

I think you are right.
https://web.archive.org/web/20000117122505/ht … ducts/vanta.htm

However, it uses the same HY57V161610D memory chips as the 16MB 128-bit STB Velocity 4400.

I think I've got it now, but need to risk asking what's a "Vanta LT"?

pewpewpew wrote:

I think I've got it now, but need to risk asking what's a "Vanta LT"?

You tell us. 😎

Oh, certainty didn't even last /that/ long. I thought Vanta was being used as another marketing term for the M64, but now that I'm trying to figure out the TNT2 family's Vanta LT, I'm finding benchmarks that place the Vanta a little behind the M64 (and the LT a whole lot behind both).

And at this point I think I've seen chips marked M64, M64 with Vanta, and as just Vanta. But now caution is making me want to recheck that all that was really TNT2. Yeah. Snowblind again.

Vanta LT looks like it came out later. It apparently uses NV6 "B5", a smaller chip than other TNT2/Vanta cards. I read that the chip is clocked around only 80 MHz and this would explain it being slower than the other TNT2 M64 and Vanta cards.

swaaye wrote:

Vanta LT looks like it came out later. It apparently uses NV6 "B5", a smaller chip than other TNT2/Vanta cards. I read that the chip is clocked around only 80 MHz and this would explain it being slower than the other TNT2 M64 and Vanta cards.

And it insanely overclocks without any heatsink 🤣