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July 2002 3Digest -
NVIDIA GeForce2 MX400 32Mb AGP







This chip is presented by SUMA Platinum GeForce2 MX400 32MB AGP videocard.




Features:

  • NVIDIA GeForce2 MX400 chip, 200MHz clock rate;
  • 32MB SDR SDRAM memory in 4 Hyundai 5.5ns microchips, 183MHz clock rate, 128-bit bus;
  • Peak fill rate in the multitexturing mode is 400 megapixels/sec and 800 megatexels/sec.

Wasn't overclocked.

Already in 1999 3D accelerator brands understood that it's unprofitable to release only one top model as it would cost much, and to reduce its price to the mainstream level ($100-150) means deprive yourself of superprofits. Therefore they decided to release a whole line of products with different capabilities and prices. After the release of GeForce2 GTS in the spring of the year 2000 for about $350 in the beginning, it as necessary to release something new for the mainstream market as well. So the summer brought GeForce2 MX, being a pared-down GeForce2 GTS. We've written many reviews about these cards, and everybody can find them in the video section.

Soon after GeForce2 GTS turned into a line of alike products (GeForce2 Pro, Ultra) the question about GeForce4 MX evolution has arisen. Especially, the market was full of pared-down cards with the latest GPU and 64-bit bus. So GeForce2 MX transformed into the GeForce2 MX200/MX400 line. The first was the pared-down GeForce2 MX (like a "doubly castrated"), the second was a little improved, as GeForce2 MX400 chipset was working at 200 MHz instead of 175 MHz. Yielding the pressure of users and manufacturers, NVIDIA allowed to use 183 MHz memory with this chip. So, GeForce2 MX400 is a little overclocked variant of the old GeForce2 MX. As it's known, GPU speed plays little role in such cards, as everything depends on memory bandwidth, so that advertised clock rate increase from 175 MHz to 200 MHz was just a marketing trick. Especially, as many MX400 cards were still supplied with 6ns 166 MHz memory.

Now, after the release of GeForce4 MX and with GeForce2 Ti prices reduction, the destiny of GeForce2 MX cards is predetermined. We now see as the price of the former gets close to that of the latter. Due to these reasons and because the latest drivers almost do not improve performance of GeForce2 MX400 we move this section into our archive.

On the 10th of July 2002 the latest drivers from NVIDIA are 29.80, 30.30 for Windows XP.



Windows XP













All monthly test results prove that 21.* and newer drivers are useless for such cards.

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 web-site.

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

Games / Cards 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
NVIDIA GeForce2 MX
































































NVIDIA GeForce3


































































Games / Cards 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24
NVIDIA GeForce2 MX
























-


-


-









NVIDIA GeForce3





















































Games / Cards 25 26 27 28 29 30
NVIDIA GeForce2 MX





























NVIDIA GeForce3

































Game list:

  • 1. Return to Castle Wolfenstein
  • 2. Unreal2 (alpha version)
  • 3. Comanche4
  • 4. Jedi Knight II Outcast
  • 5. Morrowind
  • 6. Colin McRAE Rally2
  • 7. Red Faction
  • 8. Rally Trophy
  • 9. Sacrifice
  • 10. Venom
  • 11. Unreal Tournament 2003 DEMO
  • 12. Real MYST
  • 13. Blade of Darkness
  • 14. Neverwinter Nights
  • 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. Warcraft III
  • 24. Soldier of Fortune II
  • 25. Command and Conquer: Renegade
  • 26. Max Payne
  • 27. AquaNox
  • 28. Serious Sam: The Second Encounter
  • 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.

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 might be spoiled by some "garbage" in 2D mode. One solution is in the iXBT forum.



Mû áëaãoäapèm komïahèþ "SUMA Russia",
ïpeäoctabèbøyþ bèäeoCards äëÿ 3DGiToãob




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