iXBT Labs - Computer Hardware in Detail

Platform

Video

Multimedia

Mobile

Other

March 2002 3Digest - NVIDIA GeForce2 MX200 32 MBytes AGP



By Andrey Vorobiev

This chip is presented by SUMA Platinum GeForce2 MX200 32 MBytes AGP videocard.

Features:

  • NVIDIA GeForce2 MX200 chip, 175 MHz clock rate;
  • 32 MBytes SDR SDRAM memory in 4 Hyundai 6ns microchips, 166 MHz clock rate , 64-bit bus;
  • Peak fill rate in the multitexturing mode is 350 megapixels/sec and 700 megatexels/sec.

Wasn't overclocked.

When NVIDIA released budget solutions based on a pared-down GeForce2 in the summer of the year 2000, it has become clear that it was not enough for manufacturers to actively implement Hardware T&L into their products, as there were many old videocards like TNT2/TNT2Pro for sale, and NVIDIA decided to release the even more pared-down variant of GeForce2, which, besides SDR memory, had 64-bit bus. It was named 'GeForce2 MX200'. Read more about this product in the video section of iXBT.com.

Now these cards are leaving the market (still they won't disappear soon as there's a great many of them), being replaced by senior models with reducing prices.

For the 10th of March 2002 the latest drivers from NVIDIA are 27.50, 27.70 for Windows 9x/ME and 27.50, 27.51, 27.70 for Windows XP.

Windows ME

Windows XP

As latest driver tests showed, there's no need to use the latest novelties, as old 12.* and 14.* versions are the most stable for MX200. And also maybe 21.85.

I shall mark that overlay settings tab is disabled in a number of 14.*, 21.88, and 22.* versions. It may be enabled with RivaTuner utility.

You can get more information about problems of various NVIDIA drivers at the NVIDIA World site.

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

Games / Cards 1 2 3 4 5 6
NVIDIA GeForce2 MX200
NVIDIA GeForce3

Games / Cards 7 8 9 10 11 12
NVIDIA GeForce2 MX200
NVIDIA GeForce3

Games / Cards 13 14 15 16 17 18
NVIDIA GeForce2 MX200 -
NVIDIA GeForce3

Games / Cards 19 20 21 22 23 24
NVIDIA GeForce2 MX200 - -
NVIDIA GeForce3

Games / Cards 25 26 27 28 29 30
NVIDIA GeForce2 MX200
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. Command and Conquer: Renegade
  • 26. Max Payne
  • 27. AquaNox
  • 28. Serious Sam II
  • 29. IL2: Shturmovik
  • 30. MoHAA

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 excellent for working with monitors smaller than 21". Soaping effects can be seen only on some low-quality monitors in 1600x1200. And I shall mark that there may be some incompatibilities of SUMA cards with a number of motherboards and monitors. 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. So we recommend to look for the latest WDM drivers from Yamaha.

Article navigation:



blog comments powered by Disqus

  Most Popular Reviews More    RSS  

AMD Phenom II X4 955, Phenom II X4 960T, Phenom II X6 1075T, and Intel Pentium G2120, Core i3-3220, Core i5-3330 Processors

Comparing old, cheap solutions from AMD with new, budget offerings from Intel.
February 1, 2013 · Processor Roundups

Inno3D GeForce GTX 670 iChill, Inno3D GeForce GTX 660 Ti Graphics Cards

A couple of mid-range adapters with original cooling systems.
January 30, 2013 · Video cards: NVIDIA GPUs

Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Surround 5.1

An external X-Fi solution in tests.
September 9, 2008 · Sound Cards

AMD FX-8350 Processor

The first worthwhile Piledriver CPU.
September 11, 2012 · Processors: AMD

Consumed Power, Energy Consumption: Ivy Bridge vs. Sandy Bridge

Trying out the new method.
September 18, 2012 · Processors: Intel
  Latest Reviews More    RSS  

i3DSpeed, September 2013

Retested all graphics cards with the new drivers.
Oct 18, 2013 · 3Digests

i3DSpeed, August 2013

Added new benchmarks: BioShock Infinite and Metro: Last Light.
Sep 06, 2013 · 3Digests

i3DSpeed, July 2013

Added the test results of NVIDIA GeForce GTX 760 and AMD Radeon HD 7730.
Aug 05, 2013 · 3Digests

Gainward GeForce GTX 650 Ti BOOST 2GB Golden Sample Graphics Card

An excellent hybrid of GeForce GTX 650 Ti and GeForce GTX 660.
Jun 24, 2013 · Video cards: NVIDIA GPUs

i3DSpeed, May 2013

Added the test results of NVIDIA GeForce GTX 770/780.
Jun 03, 2013 · 3Digests
  Latest News More    RSS  

Platform  ·  Video  ·  Multimedia  ·  Mobile  ·  Other  ||  About us & Privacy policy  ·  Twitter  ·  Facebook


Copyright © Byrds Research & Publishing, Ltd., 1997–2011. All rights reserved.