The next test we'll
throw at the MX-400 is Quake 3, another excellent
Open GL test. Maybe we'll see some improved
performance with this veteran game...QUAKE
3
Then again, maybe we
won't. It seems to me that even though the
clock speed of the core has been increased by 14%,
the performance of the MX-400 remains virtually
the same compared to it's older brother.
Logic seems to reason that it isn't necessarily
the increased core speed that should improve the
performance but the memory bandwidth. No
matter how you slice it, the two cards have
identical bandwidths of 2.7GB per second., which
explains the lack of improvement throughout the
tests.
The next two tests we
ran to see how this card will handle future
generations of games. The first test be that
of Serious Sam, a benchmark designed to test a
card's ability to handle varying texture fill
rates. We included an Ultra in the
tests to see just how taxing this test can be
on a high end card, too. For this test we ran
the "coop party_4" test, which is loaded with heavy
action that will surely test the mightiest of
video cards...
Serious Sam
Well, well, well, this
test turned out to quite a challenge even for our
trusty GeForce 2 Ultra! Although
these numbers seem low, I have to say that the game itself seemed
quite playable even at 1024x768x32 on the MX cards
and absolutely beautiful on the Ultra.
The next benchmark will
test the cards ability to handle future generation
of Open GL games. Dronez is a benchmark that
applies the next generation Open GL architecture.
The reason we ran this is to give you a rough
idea of the cards life expectancy in relation to
future gaming.
Dronez
As you
can see, Dronez is a workout even for our Ultra
card. But considering the scores of the two
MX GPU's, the
casual user may actually be able to play some next
generation games at 1024x768x16. Only time
will tell.
After reviewing this reference card, it has become
increasingly unclear why nVidia has felt the need
to offer more variations of the GeForce 2 MX
chipset. I can understand the release of the
GeForce 2 MX-200 as a possible solution for the
business desktop market, but the introduction of the
MX-400 puzzles me. It?s obvious that tweaking up
the core clock speed without improving memory
timings is essentially ineffective at providing
any appreciable increase in the video card's
performance. So that leaves us to wonder if all
the additional choices will do is confuse the
budget minded buyer. The best I can say is
that once these cards have be introduced into the
market, we should see the price of the original MX
start to drop. If you are in the market for a
good budget card, then I would stick with the
original MX based card. If you can get a GeForce
2 MX 400 for the price of an MX, then grab it,
otherwise it doesn?t make sense to pay more for
the same performance. As a budget video card,
the GeForce 2 MX-400 should offer decent
performance for the price. However, if you are a
casual gamer that can spare a few more bucks, I
recommend going with a GeForce 2 Pro.
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