Reviews / previews
Ferocious beast on a diet
If you're a gamer who's tearing out his hair because those fabulous TNT2-based cards are too expensive, listen up: Guillemot gives us the Maxi Gamer Cougar, based on the TNT2 M64 chipset.
TNT2-lite
A regular TNT2 chip is a 128-bit processor. The M64 is 64-bit. (Actually, the Cougar has a 128-bit internal processor but when the data is processed through a 64-bit interface.)
But don't let those numbers deter you from picking up a M64 board. If it the Cougar represents what vendors can do with the M64 chipset, it may be the way to go if you don't have the cash for Ultra TNT2s.
Our pre-production version included the Cougar, a drivers CD and a host of game demos. (The demos package wasn't final at press time). Installation was a breeze, with no snags at all, and the software installation proved hassle-free as well.
How do I look?
Picture-wise, the Cougar seems to have lost nothing on its bigger brothers. Running that 300MHz RAMDAC really seemed to work (the higher the RAMDAC the sharper the image), and Expendable, Need for Speed: High Stakes and the other games looked sharp, with bright colors.
We also tested put the Cougar through its paces using Futuremark's 3D Mark 99MAX, and tested the frame rates using the demo for Rage's Expendable and id's Quake 3 Test (version 1.05).
In our 3D Mark test, the Cougar produced an overall score of 5032 3DMarks running in 640 X 480 resolution, just 5 points shy of Guillemot's very own Maxi Gamer Xentor 32 (the TNT2 Ultra version). In most 3D Mark categories, the Cougar strayed either a few numbers back or was way far behind (like the 16MB Texture Rendering, Xentor: 112.3 fps, Cougar: 62.5 fps), never actually overtaking its bigger brother. The same can be said for the other tests, it matched the 55 fps in the Expendable demo, and came in at 67 fps compared to the Xentor 32's 75 fps in Q3Test. The weakness of the Cougar (when compared to the Ultra TNT2s) lie in higher-resolution. In the same Q3Test, while the Xentor 32 pumped out 53.3fps running at 1024 X 768, the Cougar managed 32.6fps - not shabby but definitely not the newest prodigy on the block either.
I'm good enoughand people will like me
And it doesn't pretend to be a phenom either. After all is said and done, the Cougar is an excellent card that pumps out reasonable numbers for a great price. It's selling for $120 and a mail-in rebate brings it down to $99. For that price you should ask yourself, Do I really need to fork over another extra $100 to be satisfied?
If not, the Cougar should be at your local computer stores soon. Get in line!-- Danny W. Lam / GamePro
Got an opinion about Maxi Gamer Cougar? Or maybe know a good cheat or strategy? Share it with the world!