We then relayed this information to NVIDIA, Diamond and all the (known) TNT2 board OEMs. We received feedback from several of the companies. Here is the comment we got from Diamond Multimedia, attributed to Todd Reddick, Director of Product Marketing:

"As seen in products like the Monster 3D II and Viper V550, Diamond's engineering excellence has brought to market graphics accelerators that lead the industry in performance, reliability and compatibility. While the Viper V770 board previewed by Sharky Extreme was a pre-production sample, it is indicative of the outstanding performance and reliability that the shipping version will provide."

From Parth Shukla, Product Manager at Guillemot (North America), we received the following answer:

Sharky Extreme: Basically, your competitors keep telling us that the XXXMhz clock speed and XXXMhz memory speed (a clock speed higher than NVIDIA's spec) won't be attained by yourselves... Is this true? Can you comment on it?

Guillemot: "A distinction between the TNT2 and Ultra TNT2 is extremely essential. The Maxi Gamer Xentor line of video cards is based on the TNT2 chipset whose MINIMUM core clock speed is 125 MHz. Guillemot is in the process of evaluating these chips to obtain the optimum speed and will release the final core speed at the earliest. Anyone (including us) can make boards on the Ultra TNT2 chip, which will be clocked at a higher speed than the minimum core clock speed of the TNT2. Guillemot will deliver the best performance and value for its customers."

Joe C. Lau, Marketing Coordinator at Hercules Computer Technology, Inc., was kind enough to supply this exchange:

Sharky Extreme: Hercules has been quiet on the TNT2 topic but can you confirm that you'll at least be doing MORE than just the TNT2? I mean the Ultra TNT2?

Hercules: "Our Dynamite TNT/2 will be competitive with ANY other TNT2 Ultra card currently announced. We plan on shipping the Dynamite TNT/2 sometime in May."