January 2002 3Digest - NVIDIA GeForce2 MX400 32 MBytes 4.5 ns AGP

This chip is presented by ASUS AGP-V7100 Pro 32 MBytes 4.5 ns, AGP videocard.

Features:

NVIDIA GeForce2 MX400 chip, 200 MHz clock rate;
32 MBytes SDR SDRAM memory in 4 EliteMT 4.5ns microchips, 200 MHz clock rate , 128-bit bus;
Peak fill rate in the multitexturing mode is 400 megapixels/sec and 800 megatexels/sec.

Wasn't overclocked.

After the release of GeForce256 cards, NVIDIA representatives have began to understand that following releases wouldn't replace previous cards due to the short period between the new releases. Therefore it has been decided to build a so-called 'ladder' of the market niches, so that every accelerator would have belonged to one of them according its price and perfomance. The release of GeForce2 GTS has been marked by a much higher price for them than for any other of the previous cards. It has been meant that a cheap solution named GeForce2 MX would follow the release of more expensive variants to occupy a low cost niche and to replace more expensive and less faster GeForce256 cards. So, the Summer'2000 has brought us GeForce2 MX that is very popular today. And though this GPU occupies lowest niches, it's speed and qualitative features are well combined with low prices for such boards. Cards with faster memory occupy more beneficial position, what is important from the angle of perfomance.

We've already written about new MX200/MX400 series, released to replace GeForce2 MX, and the elder MX400 model - released to increase perfomance. Now ASUSTEK company went as far as completing its MX400 cards with very fast 4.5 ns memory. Read the review of this card here.

WARNING! GeForce2 MX/MX400 cards with the 5ns and faster memory can be clocked at standard clock rates and not at those nominal for such memory!

For the 20th of January 2002 the latest drivers from NVIDIA are 16.30, 23.12, 27.00 and 27.20. As the drivers differences are equal for all MX/MX400 cards, there's no sense in comparing drivers separately for each of these cards. See NVIDIA GeForce2 MX 32 MBytes section for more information about drivers.

You can compare screenshots with reference ones (NVIDIA GeForce3).

Games / Cards	1	2	3	4	5	6
NVIDIA GeForce2 MX
NVIDIA GeForce3

Games / Cards	7	8	9	10	11	12
NVIDIA GeForce2 MX
NVIDIA GeForce3

Games / Cards	13	14	15	16	17	18
NVIDIA GeForce 2 MX						-
NVIDIA GeForce3

Games / Cards	19	20	21	22	23	24
NVIDIA GeForce 2 MX		-		-
NVIDIA GeForce3

Games / Cards	25	26	27	28
NVIDIA GeForce 2 MX
NVIDIA GeForce3

Game list:

1. Return to Castle Wolfenstein
2. Unreal2 - for GeForce cards, Unreal - for all other
3. Comanche4
4. No One Lives Forever
5. Serious Sam
6. Colin McRAE Rally2
7. Red Faction
8. Rally Trophy
9. Sacrifice
10. Venom
11. Need For Speed V (Porshe 2000)
12. Real MYST
13. Blade of Darkness
14. Giants
15. 3DMark2001: Game1
16. 3DMark2001: Game2
17. 3DMark2001: Game3
18. 3DMark2001: Game4
19. 3DMark2001: Dot3
20. 3DMark2001: EMBM
21. 3DMark2001: Vertex Shaders
22. 3DMark2001: Pixel Shaders
23. Black & White
24. Undying
25. Anachronox
26. Max Payne
27. AquaNox
28. Serious Sam II

There are some games that require something more powerful than this card. Look at Rally Trophy screenshot - we've had to lower quality, but the game was very slow even at medium settings and disabled reflections.

I shall mark that these cards sometimes have Z-buffer working incorrectly in 32-bit mode when Z-buffer itself is 16-bit, what causes artefacts. Such problems were noticed on some games with Unreal Tournament engine. Thus I recommend you to use utilities like Riva Tuner for fine tuning, and pay attention to Direct3D settings of such games.

2D quality is outstanding. Soaping effects can be seen only on some low-quality monitors in 1600x1200. And 6.* drivers are not compatible with the software for sound cards based on Yamaha processor, as well as with SoftXG100 software synthesizer. Start or Close Window buttons can be spoiled by some "garbage" in 2D mode.

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