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Unpacking the Spectra 2500's revealed a fairly standard bundle including the 16MB AGP card itself, an internal pass-through cable, an external reverse pass-through cable, a set of RCA cables, a S-Video cable, Canopus' Spectra 2500 Drivers & Utilities CD-ROM, and to top everything off, the standard Canopus User's Manual and Installations Guide.
Starting with the aerodynamically shaped AGP card, Canopus didn't waste an inch of space with the Spectra 2500. On the board you will notice the presence of a fitted fan directly on top of the Riva TNT chipset. While remaining clocked at 90 MHz, this fan does take care of cooling the hot processor down to a more reasonable degree, it is doubtful that this fan will allow for stable operation at 100 MHz without some additional cooling.
The Spectra 2500 allows for three different methods of installing the card in your system. There is the standard installation which simply requires you to install the card into your AGP slot and connect your VGA cable to it externally. If you happen to have a Canopus Pure 3D-2 or a Pure 3D-2 LX you can use the internal pass-through cable to avoid any loss of image quality when sending the video signal across the boards for 2D output. By connecting your VGA cable directly into your Spectra 2500 you eliminate any degradation of 2D image quality as a result of sending the signal through the Voodoo2 card(s). The third scenario takes into account that you may have a Voodoo or Voodoo2 accelerator that isn't manufactured by Canopus, using the excellent design of their reverse pass-through cable technology you can eliminate a considerable amount of the image degradation normally associated with conventional pass-through methods
Using the supplied Drivers & Utilities CD-ROM the newly detected hardware was installed without a hitch. A quick reboot later, and the system was ready for testing. The Canopus launcher bar was present at the top of the screen, and quick resolution switch utility also made its presence known in the Windows 98 Systray. The settings for the Spectra 2500 itself weren't added to the Display Properties Control Panel directly, rather they were featured in the Advanced Settings of the adapter settings.
The conclusion?, with hot game performance and amazing visual quality the Riva TNT is a worth-it investment for any hard-core gamer. Hats off to nVidia for an amazing chip which could be the chip which unseats Voodoo2 as the king of the 3D Accelerator hill!!.
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