Bij Maximum Hardware kun je een review vinden van de Guillemot Maxi Gamer Cougar met TNT2 M64 chip. In de review kom je een zooitje benchmarks tegen die weergeven dat vanwege de gecastreerde 64-bits memory bus de kaart alleen geschikt is voor gamen op een resolutie van 800 x 600 of lager.
Before I continue I'd like to say that I wish I could call this a review of NVidia's TNT2 M64 chip and not a review of Guillemot's Maxi Gamer Cougar. Why? Because Guillemot has done a fine job in delivering a well-constructed card with a decent heatsink at a decent price. In fact, Guillemot has earned itself quite a reputation in the past year or two in the 3D accelerator market and is now competing for a share of this highly-competitive arena alongside such huge contestants as S3/Diamond, Creative Labs and 3dfx.The cards weaknesses, that is, its difficulty with 32-bit color depths and resolutions above 800X600, is entirely the fault of the TNT2 M64 chip it uses and its 64-bit memory bus. To be perfectly honest, I have yet to consistently play a game in 32-bit color depth (Quake 3 with a GeForce being a possible exception) so to me the 32-bit issue is pretty much a non-issue. To some it will be important. I typically run games in 1024X768 and the Maxi Gamer Cougar fared ok at this resolution, although the performance drop from 800X600 to 1024X768 was generally considerable due largely to the overloaded 64-bit memory bus.
Taking into account that this card is geared towards a less hardcore, more budget-oriented audience, I have to say it delivers what it was intended to, so I wasn't dissapointed.
Is it worth getting a TNT2 M64 card today? I hit PriceWatch and I'll just lay the facts out. You can get a "true" TNT2 card with 16MB of memory (the Maxi Gamer Cougar has 32MB) for as low as $75 US or so. That is cheap. You can find a Maxi Gamer Cougar for around $85, but for that same price you can pick up a "true" TNT2 card (with 128-bit memory bus versus the M64's 64-bits) with 32MB of memory as well.
