3.2 Diamond
Diamond was unsuccessful in the NV1 graphics card project, which caused Diamond to lose confidence in nVIDIA and instead supported another new company, 3DFX. As a result, STB took the lead in the NV3 graphics card project.
Although Diamond is half-hearted on the NV3 graphics card, it has launched four board-type Viper V330 graphics cards, which are of decent design and workmanship and have achieved certain success.
3.2.1 Viper V330 VIVO AGP/PCI
3.2.1.1 ES
On August 25, 1997 (9735 week), nVIDIA announced that Diamond and STB had joined the ranks of riva128 graphics cards. At that time, the research and development of STB's VELOCITY 128 graphics card was completed, and it will be used on branded machines in September. What is the progress of Diamond's Viper V330 graphics card? Take a look at the Viper V330 engineering sample graphics card below and maybe give the answer.
The PCB date of the above card is 9736 weeks, which is more than one week later than nVIDIA's announcement date. After all, testing also takes time. The PCB date of the earliest official version of the Viper V330 graphics card is also 9736 weeks, and the 9736 week finalization date has been approved.
The Riva 128 chip date of this engineering sample graphics card is 9731 weeks, which is pretty early, and the graphics card is made in the United States. It can be seen that the positions and quantities of many resistors and capacitors are slightly different from the official version. If you are interested, you can compare them; the ITT video chip is also an ES version. Based on the consideration of manufacturing cost, Diamond first conducted small-batch R&D in the United States and mass-produced in Taiwan.
Viper V330 graphics cards began to advertise in November, and retail time is around October.
I spent $1,000 on this Viper V330 engineering sample graphics card.If you want to collect rare collectibles, if you don't have the luck to buy cheap ones, you have to be willing to spend money.
Most of the engineering samples are kept in small quantities, and many of them are orphans. If they are missed, they will never be met again.