Gainward’s MX400: Serious Competition For The GeForce2 GTS? — THG.RU

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Introduction

Is it possible for a GeForce2 MX graphics card to outperform a GeForce2 GTS card? At first glance, the answer is no, simply due to the limited memory bandwidth of the MX. In our last graphics card review, where we took a look at 6 graphics cards based on NVIDIA’s GeForce2 MX 400, Gainward’s ‘Golden Sample’, an MX 400 model which uses 32 MB of high-speed SDRAM at 4ns, provided a surprising contrast to its competitors. The drivers offer an Enhanced Mode, that runs the board at 240 MHz core and 240 MHz memory speed.

At Computex, we were presented with the next generation of this card. This time, it is equipped with even faster memory to achieve memory speeds of 260 MHz. The chip speed has also been increased to 250 MHz, which, incidentally, is exactly the speed of a GeForce2 Ultra. We would have loved to have done some benchmarks during Computex, but our schedules were overloaded, and so the tests were delayed until now.

There are a couple of advantages to Gainward’s MX board. First of all, boards based on the MX chip cost less than boards with the GTS or Pro, and in the case of Gainward’s product, which is tuned to reach the performance of a GeForce2 GTS card, you get a better deal in terms of price vs. performance. Secondly, you get the added bonus of the TwinView feature. Furthermore, compared to the other chips that support dual monitors (i.e., Matrox G400/G450 and ATI Radeon VE), NVIDIA’s MX is the only one that is fast enough for 3D gaming. A graphics card with this combination of features is probably ideal for many users. Here, we will find out if the Golden Sample really performs up to such high expectations.

GeForce2 Reviews

For those of you who want some basic information about the GeForce2 MX, refer to the following past reviews, analyses and articles on the technology:

• GeForce2 At Its Best: 6 Affordable Graphics Cards with nVIDIA’s MX
• NVIDIA New Reference Driver 12.xx More Power For Pentium 4?
• The GeForce2 MX400: NVIDIA’s Hold On The Mainstream
• GeForce2 Scaling Analysis
• Mainstream Runners: 5 Allround Graphic Cards with nVIDIA’s GeForce2 MX
• Elsa Gladiac Ultra: A Perfect Graphics Card?
• New NVIDIA Detonator 3 Drivers For Linux
• GeForce2 MX Shootout
• ELSA Gladiac MX Review
• Full Review of NVIDIA’s GeForce2 MX

GeForce2 Competitors

Although the GeForce2 is the most popular 3D chip on the market today, you might want to take a look at some of its competitors that we’ve written about in previous articles:

• A Speedy Tiler: Kyro II on Hercules’ 3D Prophet 4500
• Working on Two Fronts: ATi’s Radeon VE Handles Two Monitors
• Head Two Head: Matrox Millennium G450
• Attacking the GeForce2 MX: ATi’s Radeon 32MB SDRAM
• ATi’s New Radeon — Smart Technology Meets Brute Force

The Memory: SDRAM at 3.5 ns

Gainward made a wise choice in fitting its board with SDRAM. As you might know already, the GeForce2 MX also supports the much faster DDR memory (double data rate), in addition to the usual SDR (single data rate). Unfortunately, NVIDIA limits the DDR interface to 64-bit instead of the standard 128-bit, so that the cards with 64-bit DDR cannot perform faster than models with 128-bit SDR.

DDR SDRAM is still more expensive than standard SDRAM, so Gainward made a wise choice in using the fastest SDRAM available. As the GeForce2 MX is not much different from the GeForce2 GTS or Pro, any versions of the MX which runs at faster clock speeds would reduce the advantage of GTS performance and decrease its value as well. This is why NVIDIA does not want manufacturers to ship their graphics boards with clock speeds that exceed the default values (in the case of MX 400, the default values are 200 MHz core and 166 MHz memory).

Board Advantage: Complex PCB Design

Gainward invested a lot of effort in creating this Super-MX board, which is designed as a 6 layer PCB board. Normally, only GeForce2 Ultra or GeForce3 boards (as well as motherboards based on Intel’s 850 chipset) are lavished with this type of design. 260 MHz memory speed are actually even faster than the 230 MHz of a GeForce2 Ultra or GeForce3 (though those boards are available with DDR technology only, resulting in doubled performance).

The current board design allows memory clock speeds of almost 270 MHz, while the memory package is the limiting factor right now. Next generation memory chips in BGA packages could support 300 MHz for the first time (at cycle times of 3.3 ns).

Test Setup

Benchmarks

Quake III Arena

Quake III remains one of the most important benchmarks, even though the graphics engine will soon be outdated. At 640×480, the GeForce2 GTS is slightly slower than the two MX boards (4 ns and 3.5 ns). At such a low resolution with its low bandwidth requirements, the core clock speeds of the two MX models (240 and 250 MHz) seem to make a bit of a difference.

At 800×600, Gainward is able to realize its ambitions, and the 3.5 ns board proves itself a GeForce2 GTS killer. At 260 MHz memory speed, the board is as fast as the GTS. However, at 1024×768 and above, the memory bandwidth of the MX cards is clearly not enough to let them keep pace with the GeForce2 GTS at 333 MHz (166 MHz DDR).

Mercedes Benz Truck Racing

The result is pretty much the same in MBTR. Though the MX 400 Golden Sample is the fastest 3D graphics card with dual monitor support, it is unable to stand up to the GTS.

Aquamark

The Aquamark requires good performance from both the CPU and the graphics card, which is why the differences up to 1024×768 are small. However, at 1280×1024, the GeForce2 GTS is clearly faster.

SYSmark 2000 — Windows 98 SE

The SYSmark 2000 isn’t that important for graphics card reviews. However, I prefer to include the results to show that the performance does not differ even when the range of clock speeds is this large.

Conclusion

The benchmarks show that the latest Golden Sample fails in its mission to reach GeForce2 GTS performance in resolutions higher than 800×600. Still, GTS boards have two disadvantages to speak of: they are much more expensive than MX cards, and they cannot support two monitors. The GeForce2 MX 400 Twin VIVO might not live up to our expectation that it would be the non plus ultra among graphics cards, but it is still the fastest MX card that we have ever tested. Of course, you also get the added bonus of the TwinView feature, plus TV input and output for composite and S-Video. The main attraction is the option of running the chip and memory safely at 250 and 260 MHz respectively. Other graphics cards can be overclocked as well, but only a few companies offer a setting that lets you run the card with stability at the fastest speed possible.