The GeForce 2 MX? The Radeon?
Written: Dec 21 '00
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Very Fast, DDR Ram, Great driver support from NVidia
Cons: No TV Out, No DVD Software, Creative isn't great about driver updates
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| DavidGriffiths's Full Review: Creative Labs 3D Blaster Annihilator 2 MX |
My upgrade cycle this winter included my graphics card. I wanted a card that could play all the latest games with ease, have hardware support for a DVD player, at a price I can live with.
The choice was between NVidia and ATI. 3DFX cards are not as fast, and they just recently went out of business (and their assets bought by NVidia).
Before I launch into my Epinion of this specific card, let me explain what I looked at when deciding between ATI and NVidia.
Both the Radeon and GeForce 2 cards have T&L (Texture and Lighting) engines. This is basically a graphics-processing unit (GPU) that sits on the video card and performs mathematically intensive calculations for rendering three-dimensional scenes.
If a graphics card does not have a T&L engine, then your computer's processor (your Intel Pentium or AMD K6/Athalon) does the work. You don't want your computer's processor (the CPU) to do this; you want the game to use it for artificial intelligence, sending data for multiplayer games, etc. Let the graphics card shoulder some of the burden.
The Radeon, by ATI
The Radeon's strengths include somewhat faster performance at higher resolutions with 32-bit color, better DVD support (and picture quality), HyperZ and hardware support for DirectX 8. Those last two are a bit technical, but here's a quick explanation.
HyperZ is a technology that maximizes the efficiency of moving data around on the video card. Your video card has a processor, and it has memory. If the video card's processor can't get data fast enough, it will just sit there. This is a performance bottleneck. A video card can have a super fast processor (GPU) and lots of memory, but if data is not moved back and forth quickly between the processor and memory, you won't be getting the full benefit of your hardware. Most processors today have this problem - they are "bandwidth-bound". HyperZ is simply technology that moves the data between the GPU and memory more efficiently.
DirectX 8 is now out. It has new features that allow game developers to add more advanced features into games. If your video card supports those features, then the video card does the work (which is good). If the video card does not support those features, then the CPU in your computer does them (bad). ATI has been very forward thinking in adding hardware to support DirectX 8.
NVidia's GeForce 2 MX
The GeForce2 MX is a tuned-down version of the GeForce2 GPU aimed at the budget gamer.
NVidia has been a leader in new-feature-adoption; they had stencil buffers, T&L engines, etc before anyone else.
They are very aggressive with features and with updating their drivers to add additional performance.
And I Picked a GeForce2 MX Because...
I like the Radeon. There are several configuration options (32 megabytes up to 64 megabytes), and if I wanted full video editing abilities, the All-In-Wonder Radeon is the card to get. But the Radeon is a bit expensive ($40 US dollars more), and has been thumped by cards based on the NVidia GeForce 2 MX (see http://www.anandtech.com, or http://www.tomshardware.com).
In addition, it has been suggested that the T&L engine offered by NVidia is a better implementation than that by ATI. Obviously, I can't prove it, not even to myself, but those who do this for a living claim to have figured this out by analyzing benchmarks.
So Why the Creative Blaster?
The Creative Blaster was one of the best-priced cards, and had one feature that no other GeForce 2 MX card offered: Double Data Rate (DDR) RAM.
Without going into too much detail, DDR allows twice as much data to be transferred per cycle.
The downside of DDR RAM on the GeForce 2 MX is that the memory bus is only 64 bits. If you buy a GeForce 2 MX with SDRam, you will get a memory bus that is 128 bits wide. In other words, the DDR RAM transfers about the same amount of data as the SGRAM implementation does. So why DDR RAM? It runs at a higher clock speed, and is more overclockable. You can increase the speed at which your video card operates more easily with DDR RAM. I have a feeling that I will get better performance out of the DDR RAM than I would out of the SGRAM. Note that I’m not sure if the DDR RAM on the Radeon is 64-bit or 128-bit.
There are several things I don't like about this card.
First, there is no TV Out. You can't plug your TV into the video card to watch DVD's, or to play games on your TV.
Second, to say that the software bundle is anemic is an understatement; it's non-existent. Drivers, some software you'll never use, and a bunch of demonstration software. Not even a DVD player. That last one hurts a bit. You'll have to shell out $30 for WinDVD if and when you get a DVD player (unless you already have WinDVD).
Third, if you install NVidia's driver updates (which provide bug fixes, and big performance enhancements), you won't be able to use the Creative Labs tweaking software. The Creative tweaking software allows you to over-clock, change settings for the video card, etc.
If Creative comes out with a version of their software with the new drivers included, that’s great, but currently NVidia is several driver revisions ahead of Creative. That means that you can't use the Creative Labs over-clocking software with the NVidia drivers, which is a bummer. There is tweaking software out there (for free) that will tweak your video card, however. You don't need the Creative Labs software to do this.
And the Conclusion...
I'm happy with the card. I ran some demos on Quake 3, and it blows away my Voodoo 3 3000. I've over-clocked the card by ten percent without problem, which further increases the performance. This is a very fast card for not a lot of money.
I'm going to have to spend another $30 to get DVD software (unless I can find a DVD player that comes with it). The lack of a TV Out is a big deal. While I will be able to watch DVD's on my monitor, I won't be able to pipe them to my TV. And I wish Creative was as on-the-ball as NVidia with regards to driver releases.
The old saying, you get what you pay for, has been shown to be true again. The card is fast and cheap, but doesn't come with many of the nice bells and whistles that other cards (like the Radeon) do.
If speed is your only concern, go with the GeForce 2 MX. If you want a card that is almost as fast, but has better support for DVD's and your television, go with the Radeon.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 130
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Epinions.com ID:
DavidGriffiths
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Member: David Griffiths
Location: Vancouver, British Columbia
Reviews written: 90
Trusted by: 79 members
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