Trio of Diamond Multimedia Video Boards

Late last week Diamond Multimedia visited the GameSpot office and lifted the shroud of secrecy surrounding its upcoming Viper V770 and Stealth III S540 series of video cards. Prior to that point, little else was known beyond the products' names. Today, GameSpot News details the exact processor speeds, bundles, pricing, and availability of the video-card trio.

Diamond's three newest boards are tuned to appeal to the entire spectrum of gamers. The Stealth III S540 is the ideal card for the casual user. Powered by S3's Savage4 Pro 143 chipset (Diamond's internal name is Savage4 Pro Plus), the S540 is clocked at 125MHz at the core and 143MHz for the memory. It is a 4X AGP solution and will ship with 32MB of SDRAM. Diamond will also ship a 16MB S540 into the OEM channel. This card will also support 4X AGP, but it is powered by the lesser Savage4 Pro, resulting in an internal clock speed of 110MHz and 125MHz for the memory.

For the Stealth III S540, Diamond is introducing a new method for distributing bundled software. Instead of shipping mandatory games with the card, Diamond will let gamers choose any two of the following games for a nominal shipping fee of US$12.95: Sin from Activision, Shogo from Monolith, Heretic II from Activision, Asteroids from Activision, Star Siege Tribes from Sierra, and Fighter Squadron from Activision. Customers will be able to make their decision by logging onto Diamond's GameZone, an online program developed in conjunction with Chumbo.com.

For the more serious gamer, Diamond offers the Viper V770, an nVidia TNT2-based product with 32MB of SDRAM, 4X AGP support, and a sizeable heatsink to keep the card cool under what would otherwise be extreme operating temperatures. Customers will be given the same bundle option as the S540, as well as four hours of Need for Speed III play through Diamond's Channelware program.

Lastly, the extreme gamer will want to get their hands on Diamond's TNT2 Ultra product. Aptly called the V770 Ultra, the card will be clocked at 150MHz internally and 183MHz at the memoryand ship with 32MB. It will also support full 4X AGP. Those with a taste for maximum processing power will enjoy making full use of the V770 Ultra's Turbo Gauge, an overclocking slider bar that will allow for core and memory speeds up to 175 and 200MHz, respectively. Keeping all this raw throughput safely cool is a fan that sits above the V770 Ultra's chipset.

In addition to the GameZone and Channelware bundles mentioned above, the V770 Ultra will also come with Gremlin's Wild Metal Country and EA's Superbike in the box.

The Viper V770 will ship to retailers and OEM channels this week for US$199.95, with the Stealth III S540 ($129.95) shipping next week, and the Viper V770 Ultra ($249.95) bringing up the rear in late-May.