Nvidia RIVA TNT2 GPU

The Riva TNT2 was a 3D graphics chip manufactured by NVIDIA starting in early 1999.

Most of its features are identical to its predecessor, the Riva TNT, with the improvements being support for AGP 4X, support for up to 32MB of VRAM, and a die shrink from a 0.35 micrometre to a 0.25 micrometre process, allowing for higher clock speeds which translated into dramatically higher performance.

The TNT2 now offered comparable performance to the 3dfx Voodoo3, which meant that consumers could now focus on the additional features of the TNT family, such as Truecolor in 3D. Although competition in the GPU market was still fierce at this time, this was when NVIDIA began to be considered the market leader. The failure of 3dfx and many other competitors to release new products in late 1999 to compete with the subsequent GeForce 256 would result in a dramatic shakeout in the graphics industry.