Canopus SPECTRA 2500 Riva TNT

Unpacking the Spectra 2500's familiar, Canopus-style, packaging revealed a fairly standard bundle including the 16MB AGP card itself, an internal pass-through cable, an external reverse pass-through cable, a set of RCA cables, a S-Video cable, Canopus' Spectra 2500 Drivers & Utilities CD-ROM, and to top everything off, the standard Canopus User's Manual and Installations Guide.

Starting with the aerodynamically shaped AGP card (just in case you feel like hurling it out the window to see it fly), Canopus didn't waste an inch of space with the Spectra 2500, making it an extremely efficient occupant of the printed circuit board real estate, keeping the price down to a semi-manageable level.   The board, when installed, hangs over the AGP slot by approximately 1/2" as did the older Riva 128 AGP cards and as do most newer AGP cards such as the Matrox Mystique G200.  On the board you will notice the presence of a fitted fan directly on top of the Riva TNT chipset.  While remaining clocked at 90MHz, this fan does take care of cooling the hot processor down to a more reasonable degree, it is doubtful that this fan will allow for stable operation at 100MHz without some additional cooling.   Thankfully, unlike the fan on the Pure3D-2, the Spectra 2500's fan is mounted atop a heatsink for better heat dissipation and cooling.

Using the well written User's Manual, the installation of the Spectra 2500 couldn't be made easier.  The Spectra 2500, following in the tradition of most Canopus video cards, allows for three different methods of installing the card in your system.  There is the standard installation which simply requires you to install the card into your AGP slot and connect your VGA cable to it externally.  If you happen to have a Canopus Pure3D-2 or a Pure3D-2 LX you can use the internal pass-through cable to avoid any loss of image quality when sending the video signal across the boards for 2D output.  By connecting your VGA cable directly into your Spectra 2500 you eliminate any degradation of 2D image quality as a result of sending the signal through the Voodoo2 card(s).  The third scenario takes into account that you may have a Voodoo or Voodoo2 accelerator that isn't manufactured by Canopus, using the excellent design of their reverse pass-through cable technology you can eliminate a considerable amount of the image degradation normally associated with conventional pass-through methods.  Regardless of which method you choose to install your card using, the installation process is as easy as they get and is aided completely by the well written User's Manual Canopus provides you with.

Starting up Windows 98 for the first time after the installation of the Spectra 2500 didn't provide the AnandTech test system with any problems, using the supplied Drivers & Utilities CD-ROM the newly detected hardware was installed without a hitch.  A quick reboot later, and the system was ready for testing.  The Canopus launcher bar was present at the top of the screen, and quick resolution switch utility also made its presence known in the Windows 98 Systray.  The settings for the Spectra 2500 itself weren't added to the Display Properties Control Panel directly, rather they were featured in the Advanced Settings of the adapter settings.  The settings for the Spectra 2500 include the ability to turn Wait for V-Sync on/off for both OpenGL and Direct3D.  The drivers Canopus shipped with the card include the OpenGL ICD drivers that allow for flawless operation of your favorite OpenGL accelerated games, such as Quake 2. 

The card, as are most Canopus products, is fully upgradable to a number of add-on peripherals from Canopus.  One of the most enticing offers is the ability to couple the Television Output with a $99 product from Canopus called the VideoPORT 600.  The VideoPORT 600 will occupy a 5 1/4" drive bay and provides inputs for video capture, audio, as well as inputs for still picture capture.  The VideoPORT 600 will be available in October of this year.

AnandTech received a final revision Spectra 2500 from Canopus, albeit packaged in a pictureless cardboard container, which will begin shipping in a total of three flavors.  The Spectra 2500, reviewed here, the Spectra 2550 (includes VideoPORT 600 - Video In), and the Spectra 3200 (no Video out).