GeForce2 MX Shootout – THG.RU

Introduction

A little over a month ago we introduced the first GeForce2 MX based product, the Gladiac MX from ELSA that stirred much interest. Although this item provided reasonable 3D performance for the price, it lacked many of the ‘other’ features that the GeForce2 MX chipset offered and came at an unattractive price.

Asus, Leadtek, MSI, Prolink and SUMA now have their own GeForce2 MX offerings boasting more for less. The big question now is, “Are all GeForce2 MX cards created the same?” We’ll answer this and more as we take a detailed view at each card and its abilities.

The Chipset

The GeForce2 MX chipset is NVIDIA latest low-cost alternative based on the GeForce2. In our original review of this chipset, we had an excellent graphical example (that you can find here) that illustrated the big differences between the chipsets. The main differences are: half the rendering pipelines, lower clocked core speed, and slower memory performance.

Obviously these chipsets are not competing with each other as they both have their uses. Where the GeForce2 GTS chips would cover the high-end market, the GeForce2 MX would cover the entry level or cost effective market. The chip allows for a much cheaper solution to be produced and still provide very reasonable 3D performance as well as some interesting video-out capabilities through the TwinView Technology. For a good chipset overview, have a look at our chipset comparison table in the original GeForce2 MX chipset review.

The Driver

The arrival of the Detonator 3 driver promised incredible performance boosts but has received a mixed bag of reactions due to varying end-user experiences. It seems that either people have no problems at all and are blessed with the extra performance or are cursed with such annoying problems that they have no choice but to revert back to older Detonator 2 drivers. If you’re unfamiliar with the Detonator 3 driver release, you should look over the following articles.

• NVIDIA’s Detonator 3 Drivers
• Update: SUMA GF2 GTS SE and Detonator 3

I’ve spoken with NVIDIA since then and I was assured that they are working hard to release an updated Detonator 3 driver sometime soon to address the various issues that some of the public has been seeing.

Unfortunately for GeForce2 MX owners, it is imperative that this new driver is used as it enables the TwinView feature for the first time. For the time being, missing out of the added performance can be overlooked but losing the TwinView functionality altogether is unacceptable to me. Hopefully, by the time most of you obtain a GF2 MX, you will have access to an updated Detonator 3 driver and not have any issues.

You will also notice that I didn’t include screenshots from the various vendors but there is a good reason for this. Most of the competitors didn’t have a 6.18 driver so I was asked to use the NVIDIA reference. Only Asus and Leadtek had their own version of the 6.18 reference drive but they were far from “custom”, as they had basically relabeled the reference driver to say Asus or Leadtek. However, this still proved that Asus and Leadtek are very good at keeping up with the reference drivers from NVIDIA.

TwinView

In our initial reviews, we were unable to test TwinView, as the driver had no support until the Detonator 3. I planned on extensively testing this feature as soon as the driver and release products were available. That time is now and the results of my testing are a bit startling.

The TwinView feature promised to offer the similar functionality that Matrox users have been enjoying for some time now, but GeForce2 MX has the advantage of offering much better 3D performance. I went into this roundup expecting just that and I was sadly mistaken. The TwinView property window (seen here) offers three modes: Standard Mode (TwinView disabled), Spanning Mode (virtual desktop) and Clone mode (same visuals on both outputs). I was hoping that with these three modes I would be able to do things like work on a spreadsheet for work while a DVD movie played on my second output or play my DVD movie on both outputs. I was denied in both cases.

When I enabled Spanning mode to use the second output for DVD playback, the DVD window was purple with no video. This was the case with ALL the cards in the roundup so it was not a limitation with the given output. VGA out or video-out, it still failed. If I dragged the video window back onto the CRT, the movie would be playing fine.

Immediately I was concerned and decided to test this in clone mode. This time things were actually worse as the program crashed when I started the DVD movie. I was annoyed to say the least. One of the best features of the card was failing in my eyes.

Please note that there were no problems with DVD playback on the secondary output when TwinView was not used. I’ll address the quality of TwinView output with each card as the second video-output varies on each card.

I would also like to note that while TwinView had failed in my experiments, I had no problems installing a Matrox G400 and completing these tasks. Obviously the G400 isn’t in the same class when it comes to 3D performance but its DualHead feature made me realize that TwinView has some growing up to do.

The Competition

Asus V7100 2V1D

Asus will be offering a couple of V7100 variants so we’ve decided to review the 2V1D for this contest. This model is a standard 32MB (6ns) SDR GeForce2 MX with a DVI-I secondary output. Although this board doesn’t offer TV-out, the other available V7100 does should you need it. The board comes shipped with: a DVI to VGA converter, Asus video driver, Asus utilities (SmartDoctor and Overclock), Asus Software DVD player, Soldier of Fortune, 3Deep software and an excellent manual. The package will retail for about $189.

Of all the cards tested, only the Asus and SUMA boards had the dual VGA-out capability. The use of the DVI to VGA converter was necessary but painless to install and the connection was firm once everything was screwed down. Since the DVD playback was nearly useless when using TwinView, the Spanning Mode was the most useful option and worked best when the second output was another monitor. The only problem I ran into was the inability to adjust the second output’s refresh rate. The output was at 85Hz so I wasn’t upset but this might be an issue for others using an older monitor. Unfortunately my Flat Panel hadn’t arrived yet so I was unable to test the DVI-I capability.

ELSA Gladiac MX

For Details on this board, please see the ELSA Gladiac MX Review.

Leadtek WinFast GeForce2 MX

The Leadtek GeForce2 MX comes equipped with 32MBs of 6ns SDR memory and S-Video output (Chrontel 7007 encoder). Aside from the board itself, the package comes with: S-Video cable, Leadtek driver, Leadtek SoftDVD player and documentation on par with the Asus offering. The package will retail for $149.

Since this board was equipped with S-Video output, I was only able to test TwinView through my TV as the secondary output. Unfortunately that meant that TwinView would be nearly useless to me being that text is extremely hard to read from a television unless you use huge fonts, which is fine for things like a PowerPoint presentation. To top this off, there was annoying pink borders around some of my windows and the edges of the screen were a bit wavy. After testing all the cards, the Leadtek had the worst quality S-Video output. I was shocked to say the least since Leadtek typically offers high-grade equipment. The video-out was the same when using TwinView and manually changing to single S-Video output.

MS StarForce 816

MSI’s StarForce 816 offers the same hardware options as the Leadtek board with 32MBs of 6ns SDR memory and S-Video output (Conexant Bt869 encoder). The retail package contains: Minor documentation and a single CD with the drivers/utilities/SoftDVD. The retail price for this box is $149.

I was surprised that the package didn’t come with an S-Video cable because not everyone has one sitting around. This didn’t bother me very long as I tested the S-Video output and found what was to be the best of the bunch. The output was still a little off-colored but the clarity was by far the highest overall with little to no wavy edges or screen artifacts. It’s unfortunate that I couldn’t watch a DVD movie while using TwinView to take advantage of such good output. S-Video visual output quality in TwinView mode was just as good as single non-TwinView S-Video mode.

Prolink PixelView GeForce2 MX

Prolink is shipping their PixelView GeForce2 MX with the standard 32MBs of 6ns SDR and coupling with S-Video/Composite out connections (Chrontel 7005 encoder). The PixelView package contains: drivers/utility disk, SoftDVD player, cable for composite input and an average manual. This product will be available for an incredibly low price of $129.

The PixelView board has not only S-Video but also a composite output. This can be handy if your TV doesn’t have S-Video and no converter cable handy. The output of the card was actually good aside from the colors being off. I still think the MSI was clearer but this was definitely better than the Leadtek output. Once again the use of TwinView had no effect on S-Video output quality as we’ve seen with other competitors.

SUMA GeForce2 MX

SUMA is providing a very complete GeForce2 MX solution, as it will be shipping with 32MBS of 5.5ns memory (our test sample had 6ns), 2 VGA outputs (no converter), and a S-Video out (Chrontel 7008). The board comes with the bare essentials: Driver, SoftDVD player, and an above average manual. This package will only cost $150.

There is one big hitch with SUMA however; you can’t buy this brand in the US yet. It seems SUMA is having issues finding a distributor to carry their products in North America and is only available in Korea, Japan and South America. They’re desperately looking to change this but until then, those of us not in the available areas will not have this brand as an option.

The output quality of SUMA’s S-Video and VGA outputs is excellent. The S-Video clarity was nearly as good as the MSI offering but had slightly bend edges that kept it from a tie. The colors were off in the same way that the MSI was as well. The VGA output required no converter plug because the board doesn’t have a DVI-I connection but rather a standard VGA connection. The output quality of the VGA port was essentially the same as the Asus offering. To me this is very important as I find dual monitor availability the most useful feature of TwinView since the TV-out usefulness is limited due to the low-resolution screen. Both screens were running 1024x768x32 @ 85Hz without a hitch (aside from the DVD playback limitation).

Contestant Overview

I’ve compiled a comparison table as a quick reference for you to compare each of the boards.

Table notes:

• ELSA’s Gladiac still hasn’t shipped and is on backorder. Also, the price on the street has actually risen from the expected $189 to $199 and only one store I found was pre-selling.
• The Prolink PixelView card might be a pain to get a hold of as they’re not carried in many stores that I know of in the US.
• The SUMA board will be unavailable to many of us because of limited availability. SUMA also claims to be shipping a faster SDR version upon release.

Test Setup

Test Notes

I’ve provided data in the past few chipset reviews to give you an idea of where the GeForce2 MX sits in the midst of what’s currently available. Also, as we’ve seen before, there is really no point in comparing these very similarly boards. They’re using the same configuration aside from maybe what SUMA may be shipping. With that in mind, I’ve limited the test results provided to show that they’re dead even with each other. I’ve also used the resolutions of 640×480-1152×864 because these cards aren’t quiet the powerhouse that the GeForce2 GTS is. If you need to see how this chipset compares with the rest of the available chipsets, refer to the latest Detonator 3 article’s results.

Test Results – Quake 3 Arena

In 16-bit color all of our test boards run strong until the peak resolution. In high detail 32-bit mode, we see things start to drop hard at the 1024×768 resolution but that’s still a very good framerate. You will notice that the scores are dead even but you might see slight variances.

Test Results – Evolva Demo Bump Mapped

Evolva in bump mapped mode is a very demanding and the results prove it. In 16-bit color the 1024×768 resolution is borderline at about 45 FPS. In 32-bit, this cutoff point is at 800×600. For a low-cost 3D card, these results aren’t bad at all.

Test Results – CPU Scaling

I’ve been flooded with requests to show more “realistic” system setups and even though we’ve decided a while back to use a 1GHz part to isolate the graphics card analysis, I’ve squeezed in a few tests to compare a slower clocked 500MHz PIII system with our reference platform. I figured that a $120 PIII 500E was a very reasonable, low-cost processor.

You can clearly see that the slower CPU does have a greater affect on the framerate at the 800×600 and below resolutions. I would consider this loss minor and note that at the upper resolutions, the CPU means nearly nothing. This is a huge reason why we’ve decided to remove lower resolutions from our high-end benchmark testing.

Putting greater stress on the graphics card with greater color depth and detail, the PIII 500 hinders the performance at our lowest resolution test. Above that, the slower CPU provided numbers just as good as our expensive rig.

Performance Conclusion

As you could see, the scores are even across the board when you compare the competitors. No one has a drastic change to the design or the memory configuration so this comes as no surprise to me at all. The only one that might be a better buy down the line is the SUMA card if they in fact do ship with faster memory.

You can also see that even an inexpensive PIII 500E can work very well with a GeForce2 MX based board. You don’t need a GHz PIII to do the job.

Conclusion

In general I’m still a bit upset that the GeForce2 MX is unable to provide the same output functionality that something like the G400 can. I had hoped that I would be able to virtually have two identical, fully featured outputs but that isn’t the case. With TwinView you’ll be given the ability to basically have full functionality on one output while partial on the other, at the same time. This might not be too bad for some but I think that many others won’t be as forgiving. I’m not. Aside from this, the GeForce2 MX is still offering excellent 3D performance for the price.

The Asus card is the only DVI-I capable card in this roundup and one of two that offers twin VGA output (my favorite TwinView setup). This card will be widely available and as always, you’ll have the Asus quality hardware coupled with timely driver updates. However, all this will come at a steep price for a GeForce2 MX and if you’re in need of a TV-out, you’ll have to look into the alternate model.

ELSA was the first to supply us with a working board but it disturbs me that they still haven’t shipped anything. Not only is it unavailable but the price is also outrageous for what is offered. The only advantage this card has going is the ELSA name backing it. I would not choose this board unless the price drops dramatically and/or the VIVO solution begins to ship free with it.

Another surprise for me in this roundup was the Leadtek GeForce2 MX. I expected better quality video output than what I had found or added functionality over its competition. I can give them credit however for having their own 6.18 driver packaged already. That supports the quick driver turn-around time we’ve seen in their previous products. The WinFast GeForce2 MX is something I would pass on for now.

On paper MSI seems to be providing nothing special with a board that matches its peer’s hardware configuration and was coupled with an S-Video out. After completing our video-out testing, I was mistaken. The MSI turned out to have the best output quality due to its Conexant encoder chip. I still wish they had added a second VGA output as I feel that’s one of the most useful TwinView configurations.

Prolink’s TwinView GeForce2 MX is a very basic card that offers both composite and S-Video output. It comes with the bare essentials and at a killer price of only $129. By far it is the best bargain of the bunch if you don’t need the extra VGA out or DVI-I connection. My only other major concern here would be the availability of this card.

SUMA’s GeForce2 MX is yet another promising card as it offers 2 VGA outputs, an S-Video output and upon shipping, faster memory. Assuming this product shipped in the US, I would probably be talking about our winner but unfortunately getting this card will be nearly impossible for the time being. It would boast the best 3D performance and offer most of what every other competitor has aside from DVI-I. Great card, too bad we can’t buy it here in the US.

So who’s our winner or should I say winners? My first pick is the Prolink TwinView GeForce2 MX as the bargain buy. What other card could give you this type of 3D performance at a mere $129? My next choice was difficult, as TwinView still needs some work. If I were to use TwinView right now, I would use a dual VGA setup in Spanning mode to complete work tasks more efficiently. With that in mind, there is only one logical choice for me here as well, the Asus V7100 with its dual VGA output ability (assuming the SUMA is still unavailable).