Six Month Cycle

It's almost been a year since I purchased my current PC, which was originally equipped with the NVIDIA TNT based Diamond Viper V550. Since then, NVIDIA delivered their award winning TNT2 and TNT2 Ultra, and has now introduced their highly anticipated GeForce 256. These events mirror NVIDIA's production strategy of introducing a new graphics chip about every 6 months.

Upgrading from a TNT to the TNT2 Ultra (Diamond Viper V770 Ultra) brought with it many benefits. Overall 3D performance increased dramatically which allowed me to play games at higher resolutions with greater frame rates. Another benefit was making the transition from 16-bit to 32-bit color without the severe loss in performance that hampered the original TNT.

Timing Technology

Now that I've had the opportunity to put the GeForce 256 through it's paces, I will made the following statement (which applies to any piece of hardware you purchase for a system). I know you've heard this quote before:

"It's never a good time to purchase a PC."

Sooner or later you take the plunge, which is usually timed around a breakthrough in technology. I believe that now would be as good a time as any to take that plunge. I did, just about a year ago with the TNT.

If I were purchasing a new PC today, I would without a doubt, be sure to incude a graphics card based on NVIDIA's GeForce 256.