GeForce2 MX Shootout (11/11) Conclusion
Each member of this trio offers respectable performance at a reasonable price. The overall winner is the Hercules 3D Prophet II MX. Thanks to its faster memory, it edges out the competition in all benchmarks. I feel I should add that both the ASUS and ELSA boards are capable of achieving the same memory speeds with ease through (memory) overclocking. To unlock these hotrods’ full potential, there really is no alternative to putting a fan on their heatsinks. With proper cooling, the GeForce2 MX chip can be tweaked to very impressive heights – with very little effort. See our GeForce2 MX reference card review. Hercules 3D Prophet II MX The deserving winner of this shootout. Good performance and fast memory. A fan would have worked miracles for this card’s performance as well as its score. The meagre software bundle and uninspired drivers serve to mar the overall good impression. ASUS AGP-V7100 ASUS has put together a great bundle. The software and drivers are quite good, and although Drakan isn’t exactly a brand new game, it’s still very enjoyable. The driver seems to be suffering from some strange issues that are holding the card back from achieving its full performance potential. ELSA GLADIAC MX Tied for second place with the ASUS V7100. Good drivers and acceptable software bundle. Still, this card needs a real heatsink – or better yet, a fan – no wait, both! We see the MX class of boards hold a comfortable lead over the TNT2 Ultra. If you were expecting more, the easiest way to get some more performance out of these cards is to mount a fan on the heatsink and overclock the chip (and memory). If that’s not enough, maybe you should consider going for the GTS right away. Also, the Twin-View versions are going to be worth looking out for – two monitors on one card. Bear in mind that the decision to get an MX will not be one of the heart, but of the mind – and your purse: An MX board costs only roughly half of what a GTS does. If you need something in between, you should consider a GeForce DDR, which should be getting relatively affordable now. Some linkage for your reading plaesure. If you would like a comparison with some other cards, take a look at our ATi RADEON 64 review. During the testing we also took a look at 3dfx’s Voodoo 5 5500 on the same testbed system. We also have some scores on a GHz PIII... :o)
Overall results VGA cards (Since I use this rating system): ATi RADEON 64MB DDR: 93% Explanation of the rating system Lars "Borsti" Weinand - August 2000
Translation by Benjamin Kraft Questions? Opinion? - Go to our Forum! |
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| Copyright: 16.08.2000 -
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Station 2000 - Lars Weinand Translation by Benjamin Kraft URL of this Article: www.rivastation.com/mxcards1.htm - If you want to link to it, please use this URL! :-) |
