The VisionTek GeForce2 MX 200 Video Card - Worth More Than the Cost
Written: Oct 05 '01
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Product Rating:
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Pros: cheap, runs well, 2 monitor capability
Cons: not for state of the art games
The Bottom Line: For those who need a good graphics card yet aren't willing to spend $300, the VisionTek GeForce2 MX 200 32 MB card is the perfect solution.
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| vein's Full Review: VisionTek Xtasy 5332 Graphics card |
When building a new computer for my parents, I wanted to use the best components for them without breaking the $600 price they wanted to spend. On the lookout for a graphics card that could handle games such as Diablo II, Sim City 3000, and heavy Solitare use (among other such non-cutting edge games), I knew the $200 cutting edge video graphics cards would be wasted on the system I was putting together.
I admit, not being much of a gamer (my pre-ordered copy of Alice has been sitting collecting dust – it became “too hard” soon after I opened it) I rarely studied the different types of video cards available. Because my current system had no AGP slot, the highest-capacity video card I lusted after was a PCI 32 MB card while having to make do with my 16 MB card. Starting out my research, all I knew was what little I’d heard – the NVIDIA architecture was best for video cards.
Because of my lack of knowledge, I simply started researching the sub-$100 range of video cards sold at the computer supply company I purchased the other hardware from. I did want to give my mother at least a 32 MB card, which was worth the $30 price difference between a 16 MB card and a 32 MB card. My leading choices after taking into account price became the Matrox Millennium G-450 32 MB DDR video card (around $95) and the VisionTek GeForce2 MX 200 32 MB video card (around $80).
Both cards were AGP cards, which was supported by the FIC AD-11 motherboard in the system. While most computers built in the past years have supported AGP, many older computers would not be able to – requiring a PCI video card instead.
My first research of the Matrox began to make the GeForce2 card look like a better option. While it was agreed the Millennium had good graphics, it was not “geared towards gamers” – the main plus of the video card was the ability to have two monitors running on the same computer at the same time through two monitor outputs. (Or, for those inclined, a tv set and a monitor.) In addition, while the memory on the graphics card was DDR, the card did not support 3D imaging. Geared more for the corporate market instead of the even light-gamer home user, I decided to purchase the VisionTek GeForce2 MX 200.
Without breaking the bank, the GeForce2 MX 200 seemed to have excellent features:
•32 MB on board memory
•AGP 4X, but supported 1x and 2x AGP also
•3D Graphics
•Integrated HDVP (High-definition video processor) to turn your computer into a full quality DVD player and full quality HDTV receiver or player
•Digital Vibrance Control for better images
•Dual digital out for two monitors, with the ability to use both at the same time
•32 bit colour including 32 bit stencil buffer for developers
•DirectX and S3 Texture compression
•3 Year Warranty
What’s different about the MX 200 compared to other VisionTek GeForce2 cards?
•Unlike the GeForce2 MX, this is TwinView capable for 2 monitors
•The GeForce2 MX 400 came with 64 MB memory
•The GeForce2 MX was the first of the line, and is now being phased out – replacements are the GeForce2 MX 200 (low cost) and the GeForce2 400 (higher cost).
In other words, this card did everything my parents needed, and a whole lot more – all at a reasonable cost.
When the card came, I eagerly made the “once over” inspection I do before putting any parts in – if I notice a blatant manufacturer defect as sometimes happens, it makes my life a while lot easier. So far, so good with the VisionTek GeForce2 MX 200 - unlike a large number of sound card defect horror stories I heard, nothing was obviously wrong.
The first thing I noticed about this card was the wasted space – true, while some of the non-super advanced video cards don’t need more pins and capacitors and all of the other little parts, however, I couldn’t help but wonder if VisionTek could have used a bit less board to cut the cost even more – this was, after all, a “mid-range” budget video card.
Another lacking feature was a tv-out connection. While not an issue for those like my parents, it would be a major drawback for more tech-oriented users. In addition, while this was not a super high performance video card, I had expected a cooling fan somewhere on the card itself. Thankfully, however, with the cooling fans located inside the case itself, I didn’t notice much heat being thrown off of the card. The exposed GPU with no heatsink or fan is a non-issue for those like my parents, who have no plans to overclock their budget video card.
The actual installation of the video card went fairly smoothly. While I did know what I was doing, I did make it a point to read the instruction booklet before installation of the card and drivers. Instructions included in the tiny manual were minimal, at best, with confusing hardware installation directions that would likely frustrate one unsure of the process. Driver installation instructions were extremely confusing for those running a Windows 98 machine - in some lines, even contradictory directions were given.
No problem, I thought, when turning on the computer, this video card should be detected and find drivers on the cd itself. Unfortunately, thanks to my luck, Windows 98 did not detect this video card as new hardware, making the processes only very slightly more complicated for me.
Not bothering to translate the instructions to plain English, I installed the drivers on cd without the help of the manual, a task even a novice might find easier than the instructions in the manual.
From the disk sold with the retail packaged GeForce2 MX 200, display drivers for common operating systems were included - Windows 98/95 and Windows 2000/NT 4. Through download on the VisionTek website, drivers were available for the newly released Windows ME and Windows XP. To install drivers on a Windows 98 machine, DirectX 5 (or a later release) was required, with the normal Service Pack 4 to run Windows NT drivers.
Another reboot of my system and the new video card was up and running in all of its glory.
While I finished up the configuration of the system as a whole, I loaded up my games for a test drive of this new VisionTek GeForce2 MX 200 video card.
As I was used to a PCI VooDoo2 16 MB graphics card, I was likely easy to please – more easy to please than hardcore gamers, for sure. However, what I did see blew me away. The graphics in all of the games I normally played were millions of times better than I was used to, even on the same 17” IBM P70 monitor. At 1024x768 with 32 bit True Colour, the graphics looked clear and crisp, with the most beautiful colours imaginable from a computer game. The graphics were also amazing at the lower resolution of 800x600, a mode that my parents prefer thanks to larger icons and fonts.
In addition to the general looks of the results produced by this VisionTek video card, games ran blazingly fast, without any frame rate problems I experienced on my 16 MB card. While often times the frame rate on even Sim City 3000 Unlimited would suffer on my computer, thanks to the processing power of this new video card, the game ran smoothly and beautifully, better than I’d expected results to be.
The huge difference came in my try-out of Alice. With my VooDoo2 video card in my computer, frames had trouble refreshing quickly enough to keep up with the game, causing jerkiness in the picture and generally making it hard for me to get through an already tough game. However, thanks to the processor of the GeForce2 MX, the game flew by in brilliant colours and excellent speed, never hanging for seconds as I had found common with the older video card.
Increasing the resolution rate to any rate above 1024x768 did cause a slight decrease in performance, however, it’s usually hardcore gamers that would run their systems in a higher resolution – already out of the target audience this video card is built for.
Numerous reviews I’d read about the VisionTek GeForce2 MX 200 rated the card lower than great - mainly pointing out that it’s not overclock-friendly, or that it can’t hold up to $300 64 MB graphics cards. However, this card is perhaps the best card to get for a machine that won’t be running Quake version 15 (Or whichever version is new newest and best!).
For those who want an inexpensive graphics card that performs brilliantly for “middle line” games such as Sim City 3000, Alice, and Frogger II, the VisionTek GeForce2 MX 200 would be the first card I’d suggest without hesitation. Forget the video card that’s more expensive than the rest of the hardware together – there is no need to have the newest and greatest card when your needs don’t call for it.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 80
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