The Truth on the Creative Annihilator 2 MX.
Written: Jan 22 '01 (Updated Jan 23 '01)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Good performance for the price.
Cons: 64-bit bus makes it the slowest MX out there.
The Bottom Line: It's not horrible, but it's not stellar either. There are faster as well as cheaper MXs out there.
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| mr. silver's Full Review: Creative Labs 3D Blaster Annihilator 2 MX |
Background Info
Recently, since my old Gateway has become inadequate for gaming, I have been forced to build a new computer. As most know, the heart of any gaming PC is a video card, and I craved high performance, but didn't want to lay down 200 plus bucks for a GeForce2 GTS. Luckily, this was around the time when nVidia began selling their budget graphics card chip, the GeForce2 MX. Basically, a scaled down version of the higher-end GTS, the MX is a real champ. On Pricewatch.com you can buy some cards for less than a hundred bucks! Creative's offering, the Annihilator 2 MX is based on the aforementioned chipset. I saw it in a Best Buy ad and what really caught my attention was the DDR (Double Data Rate) RAM that came with the board. For those that don't know, DDR sends data two times faster, which is very good for gaming. So I decided that this was the card for me and I bought it promptly.
The Results
First off, let me say the Annihilator MX is by no means a bad card. It's great for games, but for those that don't already know, Creative has a dirty little secret. nVidia has set some rules for all the boardmakers like ELSA, Creative, Hercules etc. that they have to follow. One of these is that they can make an MX card with DDR, but it can only utilize a 64 bit bus. If this sounds Greek to you, let me try and explain. The bus of the video card is how data gets around the board. Every MX except the Creative uses SDR RAM, and uses a 128 bit bus, so data moves freely. However, since the DDR RAM is double the power of SDR, you have to squeeze all that data down a narrow little 64-bit bus, so the info gets slowed down, slowing down gameplay. If you still don't understand, think of the Creative MX as trying to push an apple through a straw.
The Final Word
Luckily, I had kept my receipt and the box from Best Buy and immediately returned it to the store. With the same 129.99 I was able to purchase an ATi Radeon, which is affectionately known as the "MX killer". So, all in all, while the Annihilator 2 MX is a decent card, I fail to see why someone should have to pay more when you could be buying faster as well as cheaper cards like the ELSA Gladiac MX and Leadtek Winfast GeForce MX.
Recommended:
No
Amount Paid (US$): 129.99
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Epinions.com ID:
mr. silver
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Reviews written: 1
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