Every time nVIDIA release a new chipset, 6 months down the road they inevitably release an even faster model to superceed it and make everyone who bought the original feel inadiquate. Their latest, the Geforce 3, now has its own "Ultra" version, but this time they have given it a new name - the Titanium 500. If it aint broke, fix it. This model, the Inno3D Tornado, is not one of the better known makes, but as you will soon find out, is at least as good as other manufacturers in quality, and far better than most in the overclocking stakes.
Technology wise, there is nothing to report since my original Geforce 3 review, which explains all of its amazing new features in almost terrifying detail over 14 pages. The only difference between the Geforce 3 and the Ti-500 is the speed at which it runs. Where as the original was clocked at 200MHz core/460MHz memory, their latest card features 240MHz / 500MHz speeds respectively.
The Tornado comes in a rather unimaginative looking box. Notice that it has an orange "Value Pack" sticker on it, thus it lacks any software bundle apart from the driver CD and the aging 3Dmark2000. Interestingly the Inno3D Geforce 3 Ti-500 did not seem to exist officially on Innovision’s webpage, before this week (they must have forseen the OcPrices review :P) even though I have had the card for a month or so. This is probably something to do with the amazingly low yield nVIDIA is getting with their Ti-500 chips as we exclusively reported some time ago. Getting this one proved to be a real bitch; Chillblast had a few (which is where I bought this one) and they were going for approximately £290.
As you can see it looks rather cool with its black PCB and blue heatsinks. It goes perfectly with the black SOYO Dragon Plus! test platform! The RAM-sinks are of good quality and are a lot more substantial than the 'just-for-style' RAM-sinks bundled with my Elsa. Surprisingly when I removed the RAM-sinks (after this review) with a screwdriver I wish I hadn't, since they were already applied with a good distribution of thermal glue. Note the blue-orb style cooling fan on the core.
