To NT or not to NT?

[davidr]

If you're wondering what the difference between the Garmin NT and Non-NT maps is, it's the following:

The Non-NT maps are the original Garmin maps that were supplied with the earlier units and so some units (for example Quest and 276 with early Firmware) cannot use the NT maps. The Non-NT maps are larger in size but have smaller chunks of mapping which means that they can fit less on one unit but in certain circumstances these smaller sections are advantageous if you know precisely the area that you want to travel (i.e. you then don't need to load large chunks of rerdundant maps onto your unit.)

The NT maps are newer and more heavily compressed so more maps can be loaded onto the unit for the same memory, generally speaking also these maps are easier to come by as the newer units are more popular than the old ones. I have for example, not yet seen Garmin announce the 2009 version of the Non-NT maps although the NT version has been available already for a couple of months.
Postcode searching is also an improvement with the NT maps.

If you are a 276c user with Non-NT maps are are looking to get onto the NT maps, this is possible for you provided you have at least version 5.3 of the unit firmware.

It is however not possible to upgrade from Non-NT to NT maps through Garmin's upgrade process but if you purchase the NT map separately, it will work and with the new reduced price of the 2009 maps being about half of the 2008 ones, now is a good time to do so!

David