In addition to the supercharged hardware, the GeForce2 Ultra arrives with NVIDIA's new Detonator 3 driver. Detonator 3 packs a host of optimizations for NVIDIA's architecture in general and for the GeForce architecture specifically, optimizations that boost performance across both old and new cards. These optimizations include:

i815 and Pentium 4 Optimizations - NVIDIA says their optimizations for Intel's i815 chipset and the Pentium 4 and its SSE2 will help boost the speed on those systems. In our testing, the driver is indeed faster than before on i815 based motherboards, but then it's also faster on every motherboard.

DVD and HDTV Optimizations - NVIDIA says they are continuing to improve their HDTV and DVD playback quality. At this stage, whatever improvements there are, they are subtle enough that we didn't notice them.

New TwinView and Digital Vibrance Controls - TwinView controls will allow owners of the GeForce2 MX to easily control their multiple monitor setups, while Digital Vibrance controls will allow users to adjust color on their GeForce2 MX and Quadro2 MXR.

Asynchronous Command Processing - NVIDIA tells us that the Detonator 3 driver is more efficient in handling asynchronous commands in OpenGL. This is one of several reasons for performance improving dramatically.

Advanced Vertex Buffering - Possibly the most exciting new feature of the Detonator 3 driver is how it can now intelligently determine whether to store vertex buffer information within the AGP card's memory or within system memory via AGP. When memory bandwidth gets tight such as when running at 1600x1200x32bpp, the Detonator 3 driver can use system memory for storing vertex data, thereby using system memory bandwidth instead of onboard video card memory bandwidth. And since the driver is "advanced," it can also determine when system memory bandwidth is tight and instead use the video card memory for storing vertex data.

Remember, Detonator 3 boosts performance across the entire range of NVIDIA cards that work with it. TNT2 cards should see less of a boost than GeForce 256 and faster cards. Detonator 3 is like a free speed boost to your old NVIDIA card. We love it and wish that other companies would provide similar driver speed boosts across their entire product line.