NVIDIA GeForce 2 MX - The new mainstream card (9/9) Conclusion
So where can we place this new card? At stock speed it is usually ahead of a GeForce 256 with SDRAM. The DDR is out of its league, as long as the MX isn't overclocked, anyway. On the other hand, DDR boards also cost about 50 - 100 DM more than a standard MX. The good overclockability is a great "feature" of this card. The SDRAM version of the GF256 just can't be pushed that far. If you don't mind attaching a fan to the heatsink when overclocking you'll be rewarded with a powerful card at bargain price. If you don't you'll quickly find yourself the proud owner of one crisp piece of silicon… In older games, meaning those without multitexturing, the GF256 SDRAM, can still stand its ground against the MX. However, when multitexturing comes into play, as in most new games, the MX pulls ahead. (The pipeline phenomenon: GF: 4 pipes with 1 pixel per cycle each means 4 pixels single textured or 2 pixels multi-textured per cycle. GF2 MX: 2 pipes capable of two pixels per cycle means 2 single-textured pixels or 2 multi-textured pixels…still with me? ;o) ) The final decision between GF256DDR and GF2 MX may well come to be one of price for you, and that's where the MX is looking very good right now! The GeForce 256 chips with their "old" 0.22 micron process are currently nearing the end of their product cycle and will eventually no longer be produced and become unavailable. From an OEM point of view the decision is pretty clear-cut: No fan means one less component that can fail, and also one less component that would drive up the price. On top of that, it also makes for quieter pre-built systems. One great drawback of the GeForce 256 line has always been their enormous hunger for power. Thanks to its smaller 0.18 micron production process, the MX is a lot more modest in that department, drawing less than half the power of its older siblings. If you currently own one of the older BX or Athlon (Irongate) boards and are thinking of upgrading to a GF256DDR, you should test you motherboard beforehand and take a close look at your powersupply. If you get the MX, you're definitely on the safe side. As far as Twin View and DVC are concerned, it's up to the card manufacturers to include these features in their boards. This would call for a comfortable integration of the respective settings into the drivers. Matrox's driver department has shown us how well these settings can be implemented and integrated with their G400 DualHead. It's really too bad that this card is showing its age so badly in 3D games. Hopefully the G450 and G800 will rectify that situation. ATi's Rage Fury MAXX makes a respectable showing, but due to its lack of Windows NT/2000 support it looks like the end of the line for this contender. Although the board features pins for a second vga monitor connector, they aren't being used - that's unfortunate, as it would give the card some extra value. So what lies ahead? S3/VIA hasn't made any concrete announcements in the way of a successor to the Viper II. 3dfx has a potential ace up its sleeve with the new Voodoo 4 4500. And ATi is busy brewing together its recipe for the new RADEON based cards. Nonetheless a dual-head GF2 MX should find quite a number of takers. The "enthusiast" market is still firmly in the hands of NVIDIA and 3dfx. Now NVIDIA has played its trump card in the mainstream segment, and it's up to ATi to shuffle the cards anew. More information: NVIDIA GeForce 2 MX Homepage
Lars "Borsti" Weinand - July 2000
English Translation by: Benjamin Kraft - ThanX for the great work Ben!! Opinions? Questions? - Take a look in our Forum. |
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| Copyright: 10.07.2000 -
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Station 2000 - Lars Weinand URL of this Article: www.rivastation.com/geforce2mx_e.htm - If you want to link to it, please use this URL! :-) |
