NVIDIA GeForce 2 GTS 64MB

The Card

Click here to enlarge.

The first 64 MB GeForce 2 GTS card to enter the AnandTech lab also appears to be the first 64 MB GeForce 2 GTS card on the market. Not long after the Guillemot/Hercules 3D Prophet II GTS 64MB entered the lab, it was well on its way to store shelves across America. While we will feature a review of this card in the coming week, this section serves as an introduction to the card in order to familiarize the reader with the test system.

Besides all the visible eye candy created with the RAM heatsinks and blue PCB, the 3D Prophet II GTS closely resembles the reference design for the GeForce 2 GTS with one noteworthy exception: the use of DDR SDRAM. Every single 32 MB DDR GeForce line card we have seen in the lab has used Infineon SGRAM chips for storage. However, just as we saw on the 64 MB GeForce, the 3D Prophet II GTS 64MB uses Hyundai 6 ns DDR SDRAM chips to power the memory subsystem. It is well known that SGRAM chips perform slightly better in video cards, so why do the 64 MB cards opt for SDRAM? Well, it seems that 64 MB card designers have no other choice. The current memory that the only manufacturer of DDR SGRAM chips for use in video cards, Infineon, is currently making are not high enough density to pack 64 MB onto a single card. With this limitation, Guillemot/Hercules was forced to choose the slower performing DDR SDRAM chips to power the 3D Prophet II GTS 64MB.

Outfitted with 64MB of DDR SDRAM, the 3D Prophet II GTS was ready to take its position in the testbed system and serve as a model for all 64 MB GeForce 2 GTS cards to come. It should be noted that the first batch of 3D Prophet II GTS 64MB cards were clocked at 220/366 (core/memory), including our evaluation sample. Later versions of the card feature a new BIOS that puts the clock back at 200/333 (core/memory) like all other GeForce 2 GTS cards and is the speed that we tested at for this review.