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Author
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Topic: Nvidia GeForce2 MX
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Pete Hawk
Pilot
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posted 09-29- 09:12 AM
   
Does anyone have this card yet? I hear it's the "value" version of the higher end GF2 cards that are out now and a friend of mine just got the one Hercules puts out. Comes with 32 megs of SD Ram and is overclockable to match it's $400 big brothers yet costs around $130. He loves his and sold me on it last night. I'm going to look for one today.I'm sure SDOE will run much better with it but just wanted to get any opinions you guys may have of it. Here's the link... http://www.nvidia.com/Products/GeForce2MX.nsf IP: Logged |
Whirlwind
Pilot
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posted 09-29- 10:15 AM
I ordered a dual monitor out Asus 7100/2VID from TC Computers for $154 ($167, 2nd Day Air). It appears to be a good board. Be bop over to www.riva3d.com since they usually have a list of nVidia reviews. I ordered a SLI V2 rig to have glide for my older games. The card isn't in yet, so I can't tell you anything but it comes with Soldier of Fortune  .IP: Logged |
Gustang
Pilot
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posted 09-29- 10:57 AM
I've been using the nVidia chipset since the riva128 and despite a shakey start, they're really coming together now. I have a TNT, and a 350mhz AMD k6-2 that unfortunately sucks for SDOE, but worked well with just about everything else. A friend of mine has basically the same system hardware-wise with the exception of one of the original geforce cards and a bit faster processor. The difference is night and day. The FSAA stuff is just plain cool. I've lined up a Geforce 256 DDR (Asus v6800) for my next upgrade. I never buy top-of-the-line anything where computers are concerned, but it'll be the most expensive card purchased to date (around $200). I haven't read enough on the MX yet to be able to make a distinction between the two, but from what I've read on anandtech.com and tomshardware.com the cards rock. I'm just trying to plug nVidia here... Think about it. For $130 bucks, if the card does rock, then you can't disagree that it's worth it. I don't think you'll find a better price/performer. If it doesn't rock, return it. It's not a piece of software, ya know  Besides, I want you to get one, tell me it's really cool and works wonderfully with SDOE so I can save myself the 70 bucks.
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nealg
Pilot
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posted 09-29- 11:18 AM
Well, I have read on 6 or 8 sites, including those mentioned, that the MX delivers big time for the price. Most stress that it is very good low price solution for 'lower end' systems like mine...PIII 500E..and out performs the comparable Voodoo cards, at most resolutions - not all, though!! So, I have decided I will likely replace my TNT with a MX, but I intend to keep my old Voodoo2 card for quite a while longer, as it handles Glide so much better and I am satisfied with it.------------------
nealg=FC= IP: Logged |
Gustang
Pilot
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posted 09-29- 12:08 PM
BTW Pete,Here's an article at anandtech that gives you a good idea as to how the MX compares to it's family members. http://www2.anandtech.com/showdoc.html?i=1316 It's an ASUS product, but I'm sure any MX card would be close performance-wise. IP: Logged |
Elric
Pilot
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posted 09-29- 01:38 PM
Pete,
My current card is a Hercules Geforce 2 GTS and IMO is slower in SDOE than my Voodoo 3000, probably because SDOE is optimized for glide and I'm running on a Celeron 400, it's probably a different story on a faster processor. Apart from that it's really impressive on some of the new games.
If you want raw SDOE power, go for a high end processor and a Voodoo 5500.~Elric
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Pete Hawk
Pilot
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posted 09-29- 02:56 PM
Ok, just got home with the MX card and am about to try it. I'll let you all know how it is on a PII 450 this week, and next week when my PIII 850 gets here I'll fill you in then too  Thanks for the info guys. [This message has been edited by Pete Hawk (edited 09-29-2000).] IP: Logged |
JG3_Jetlag
Pilot
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posted 09-29- 06:03 PM
I have a PII/450, 192Mb RAM and a GeForce 2 GTS Gladiac 32Mb (Elsa). My 3D Mark 2000 score is 3936 and I run SDOE @ 1600x1200 (forget FSAA) and get very good frame rates. Make sure you get the latest Nvidia drivers (Detonator 3 (..618)) as they make a real improvement over the previous ones.------------------
III Gruppe, Jagdgeschwader 3 IP: Logged |
Hawker
Pilot
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posted 09-29- 10:22 PM
Well beware I bought the Ge force 2 mx asus
version.I had nothing but problems ,from my system crashing,flickering and not working in my other games.Sdoe didnt like like it liked my old cl banshee.I treid the det 3 drivers for me they were worse.I heard lots of good things about the card too.So I returned it and got the voodoo 4500 agp(32 meg)(nice) no problems,ans sdoe always runs better in glide wayyyyyy better like double the frame rates.btw I am running a p-3 600,128 slot 133 ram on a gigabyte mb with agp slot. IP: Logged |
Pete Hawk
Pilot
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posted 09-29- 10:33 PM
Well, on my PII 450 it runs ok, but the real test will be when the 850 PIII gets here next week. I'll let everyone know.Just tried F1 2000 (racing sim) and wow, with the this Geforce2 MX it's amazing! Very smooth gorgeous graphics. Truly breathtaking. Well worth $130 (a steal really). (and that's using my PII 450) [This message has been edited by Pete Hawk (edited 09-30-2000).] IP: Logged |
Pete Hawk
Pilot
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posted 09-30- 03:05 AM
OMG, just tried Battle Zone II demo. Amazing with this card, all detail cranked to max and smooth as silk. The water effects are incredible!Ok, this card is keeping me awake WAY too late/early. I just tried the EA Sports Superbike 2001 demo and what a beauty it is. I'm not much into motorcycles but with this demo I am So all in all, so far I LOVE this card!
[This message has been edited by Pete Hawk (edited 09-30-2000).] IP: Logged |
Hawker
Pilot
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posted 09-30- 03:06 PM
Just bought super bike 2001 yesterday,It rocks and man the graphics are wonderful on my voodoo 4500 with every detail cranked and 25 bikes in the race.Try the demo guys its pretty cool.IP: Logged |
Jerry
Pilot
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posted 09-30- 03:18 PM
Yeah, but what does SDOE look like Pete?IP: Logged |
Pete Hawk
Pilot
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posted 09-30- 03:46 PM
SDOE didn't change much. Only about a 4 fps increase that I can notice. It's such a CPU intensive sim that really this sim needs a high end processor to really get the fps WAY up. So as far as that goes it's a bummer. My hopes were high, but I'll just have to wait until the new MB and chip come in and see what I can get then.Hawker, I just got SuperBike 2001 today and my gosh, it's gotta be the most realistic game I've ever played! It looks SO sweet! I'm running in a ridiculously high res and it's smooth and really, just looks real. I'm impressed beyond words. [This message has been edited by Pete Hawk (edited 09-30-2000).] IP: Logged |
Pete Hawk
Pilot
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posted 09-30- 06:13 PM
Aside from SDOE which doesn't benefit a whole lot with this card (yet anyways... patch?) games like Nascar Heat and SuperBike 2001 are just jaw dropping beautiful! Very smooth frame rates at the highest res with full detail/distance on!!!I HIGHLY suggest this card to everyone. I'm extremely impressed with it! Btw the Nascar Heat cars are very high poly, and to see ALL these amazing cars racing around a track where you see WAY into the distance is just breathtaking (same with SuperBike). Yes, I'm trying to sell you all on it. When you get a chance to ever see it in action you'll know how I feel. IP: Logged |
DanW
Pilot
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posted 09-30- 09:43 PM
Geforce xxx cards are also good with Moto Madness 2, X Wing Alliance and Panty Raider.Oh wait a minute, how did that last one get in there? It's not 3D accelerated. Well, I was thinking about get a GeForce 2 Ultra when they come out, but that lady driving the cement truck decided to rip the front bumper off my truck and swipe the left side of it. Oh joy. IP: Logged |
Karaya 2
Cadet
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posted 10-01- 10:18 AM
Joy I can imagine!
I have a Cel 300a overclocked to PII 450 running semi well with a tnt2 32m card and 128 meg of sd ram. This Friday I'm upgrading to a Cel 566 and a Asus GeForce2 MX card. I hear the Cel 566 can be overclocked to 850 on a 100mhz bus??? Hope so. After reading these reviews on the MX I'm wondering if I should stick to the riva tnt2 and forget about the MX since I only really play sdoe anyway. If anybody else is running a similar setup to what I will be(with the cel 566 and MX card)I'd love to know if it works for you.. Cheers.------------------
Karaya 2=FC= IP: Logged |
Spanky the Mad Dog
Pilot
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posted 10-01- 10:34 AM
Spanky here... If you really only play SDOE get a voodoo card. Like the v4500 It will look better and should have better FPS since you can run it in glide and SDOE loves glide so much.
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Pete Hawk
Pilot
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posted 10-01- 10:39 AM
Don't go with the ASUS GeForce. Get the Hercules 3D Prophet II MX. I hear it runs better with Nvidias Detonator 3 drivers and that the ASUS one is too buggy. I've seen this info in the newsgroups and some forums.So far my Herc has run without a hitch and is very nice. IP: Logged |
Johannes
Pilot
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posted 10-01- 11:42 AM
pete,
u play sdoe with u geforce2mx card?
i have problems, maybe u had read my post on the technicforum.
let me know , which driver u use or what for another stuff, please.
best regards Johannes and Blasius
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Pete Hawk
Pilot
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posted 10-01- 12:57 PM
Ok, it's a little bit better than my TNT 1 card was. It's not incredible with SDOE since SDOE runs better with a high end Voodoo card. But I'm hoping when I get my new motherboard and 850 MHz chip going next week it will improve greatly.If you only want SDOE to run it's best then go with one of the later Voodoo 3DFX cards, otherwise if you play many other games as well the Prophet II MX does a great job for the low price. For many games there is nothing better right now (except a 64 Meg $400 dollar GeForce 2, mine only has 32 Megs but still, trust me it rocks!) IP: Logged |
Spanky the Mad Dog
Pilot
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posted 10-01- 05:07 PM
Spanky here... For those that are wondering at least up here in canada the voodoo 4500 is 235 so about 5$ of the mx. It should be the same in the us.
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Pete Hawk
Pilot
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posted 10-01- 05:38 PM
In a few minutes I'll be posting some of the unbelieveable pics I'm getting from Nascar Heat. I love this game!Look in the Off Topic forum shortly and get ready to be amazed IP: Logged |
Tailslide
Pilot
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posted 10-01- 06:29 PM
Spanky are the voodoo cards able to run 3d in a window yet and can glide do 1600x1200 yet? I'm thinking of a new card but i use those two features often and the older glide cards wouldnt handle it. TS
[This message has been edited by Tailslide (edited 10-01-2000).] IP: Logged |
Spanky the Mad Dog
Pilot
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posted 10-01- 06:33 PM
Spanky here... Actually tail i'm not sure about either. I would guess no to windowed 3d but i can't see why it couldn't do high reses. I guess in glide is another matter altogether. I really never thought about either cause i'm fine with my banshee, i just want more power.
------------------
-=Sp@nky=-  www.thot.net/~verge/ IP: Logged |
CRTF
Cadet
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posted 10-01- 07:47 PM
I have a Geforce 256 Asus SGRAM version, with a Celeron 466, Intel BX/ZX board, and 160 MB of RAM.SDOE runs better than any other game I have. It looks fabulous and never crashes. I just about only run in 640x480 with 2X high quality anti-aliasing and I get between 25 and 60 frames per second. For me, this is all I need. I'll take anti-aliasing over high resolution ANY DAY!!!!! What do you all think about anti-aliasing? Do you prefer high res, like 1024x768? I read all of these reviews on the GeForce that would mention anti-aliasing in passing, always noting it was worse than the Voodoo. I can't believe these silly gaming magazines didn't making a bigger deal over it -- if it works well, and for me it usually does, then it changes the face of gaming. I'd buy a Voodoo 5 just for the anti-aliasing if I had the money. CRTF [This message has been edited by CRTF (edited 10-01-2000).] IP: Logged |
mposis
Pilot
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posted 10-01- 08:01 PM
Tail,Maximum resolution of SDOE in glide is 1280x1024. With D3D I can go up to 1600x1200 but Glide has less graphic problems and faster on my celeron@450. I have a Voodoo3 3000. IP: Logged |
Pete Hawk
Pilot
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posted 10-01- 08:08 PM
Ok everyone, check out the pics I just posted at http://kickme.to/hawker See the link near the top. These games are fantastic! Amazing replays too IP: Logged |
Pete Hawk
Pilot
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posted 10-02- 02:04 PM
Just tried SDOE with FSAA set at 2x2 in 800x600 mode and it was nice! Smoothed out the jaggies very well and I got 35-65 fps, depending on situation.It makes it seem like higher res when its not. Kinda cool IP: Logged |
ArgonV
Pilot
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posted 10-02- 02:14 PM
Pete! My God those Nascar pics looks real! I'm gonna get that game! As for graphics renderer... I'll take glide over d3d anyday. It does a much better job at sharpining things up and smoothing things out. The res may not be as high in some games, but who needs super high res in d3d when it looks like it already with glide? Plus glide is in most cases less buggy and a whole lot more graphically correct (In terms of clipping problems and the like) I think Microsoft needs to switch over to glide. You know why CFS sucked so bad graphically dont you? Because it could only run it in d3d. In glide it would have looked sweet! [This message has been edited by ArgonV (edited 10-02-2000).] IP: Logged |
Pete Hawk
Pilot
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posted 10-02- 02:31 PM
It does! You should see it in motion, it's the most real looking game/sim I've ever seen! They got the look of daylight just right. I can't say enough about it. After playing the demo at www.avault.com for one night I had to rush out and buy it. It's money well spent!cc on the glide stuff. I just don't like Voodoo cards and will stay with Nvidia for along time. Their video processors are incredible, esp this new one.
[This message has been edited by Pete Hawk (edited 10-02-2000).] IP: Logged |
DanW
Pilot
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posted 10-02- 03:17 PM
Argon, You are way off base with your assumptions of Glide. (IMHO ) SDOE is the only game that has D3D clipping problems (that I have seen). Glide hampers you down because of the 256x256 texture limitation. OpenGL and D3D do not have that restriction. Also, Glide colors are more washed out in some games than with D3D. Take Falcon 4 for example with the erazor patch. In D3D with 32 bit color, it looks great. If it didnt have its Glide roots, then the texture files would be 24 bit color versus the 8 bit files that it uses. That's why SDOE still looks so great....24 bit color. Finally, Glide is proprietary to 3DFX, and as we all now propriertary = not good for competition. Thanks to Glide Janes F15, Longbow2 and others are forever stuck on my V2 (if I ever play them again and if i ever put another 3dfx product in my computer). Granted, the new voodoos can do all the things a geforce can do, but Glide is on its way out and rightly so. It's too outdated and was created for older video cards where texture memory was not what we have today. CFS looked 'bad' because of their use of 8 bit texture files...that always hurts your image quality...plus the old FS engine was showing its age. IP: Logged |
Whirlwind
Pilot
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posted 10-02- 03:46 PM
Glide is still alive and kicking - a lot of games still have glide support. I am going to download the API and see if I can track down the opensource version of glide. Despite 3dfx not supporting it anymore, people still use it. Beleive it or not, glide and opengl are the two easiest ways to port a game linux :0.Anyways, I am sitting here wondering when the heck my MX card is getting here so I can stop suffering with the weird ATI 'who is in charge' problem with my ATI Rage Pro cards. The MX is a nice card and should be viable until games stop supporting 1024x768 resolution like they have with 320x200 . IP: Logged |
ArgonV
Pilot
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posted 10-02- 04:12 PM
I have a V3 3000 AGP. Everything looks sweet with Glide and with D3d. Ever played Homeworld? or CFS, or Half-life? These games have clipping problems with D3d (There are more too that have this problem) They dont with Glide! Glide is here to stay. Why? Because it does what it does best... render great image guality at fast frame rates. The reason why your colors looked "washed out" is because like you said... you played those games on a V2........ (Yours is probably just a add-on 3d card. I too had a V2 add-on 3d card and the colors were "washy" looking. Midtown Maddness under D3d and Janes WWII Fighters under Glide had this bad on my old V2) Go out and see what a stand alone V3 3000 APG or a V4 AGP looks like. The Glide image is MUCH MUCH sharper than V2s and the D3d image is MUCH MUCH sharper aswell. Plus, the V2s only have 12MB and dont use AGP! Now I dont know how good the support for D3d is on my V3 3000 APG. D3d works with every game I have that uses it and it looks pretty sharp... but if there is a Glide option, I use that (Because of faster frame rates and less graphical errors) and if there's not... I use D3d. [This message has been edited by ArgonV (edited 10-02-2000).] IP: Logged |
DanW
Pilot
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posted 10-02- 06:11 PM
Don't get me wrong, I have seen the V3 with Glide in action on sdoe and the V5 in action with RC sim...the visual quality is great. But its no where near the quality of OpenGL or D3D on a Geforce based card. A V3 by 'todays' standards is pretty much ancient technology. The Geforce can run at such a high resoltion and with high framerates that is pretty much unbeatable. (again, IMHO)Video cards are pretty much well religous nowadays anyway, so the feelings and preferences will always be strong towards 'your' product. But Glide is dying the slow painful death that it needs to die. IP: Logged |
Spanky the Mad Dog
Pilot
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posted 10-02- 07:25 PM
Spanky here... Yes glide is on its way out but it was still a great API, the colors do wash a bit though, at least in the older voodoos like mine. Still though I have played SDOE in D3D and boy is it nasty, I really don't know how you guys play it like that. Those props are horrible. Maybe Thats why i hear people complain about them, cause I think they look great, at least with glide.
I always take glide when given the option.
All I Know is that SDOE is my main game so i'm going with a voodoo card again. Yes there is alot of games that are coming out that will not support glide but the v4500 is still a pretty good card for all around apps. Does anyone know about windowed 3D and the newer voodoos>? IP: Logged |
Stark
Pilot
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posted 10-02- 07:42 PM
Actually Spanky, I run SDOE on a Geforce DDR and have no visual artifacts whatsoever. It took some work to get it that way but it can be done. I used to run Voodoo's in SLI and the visual quality of Geforce shreds it to pieces...not to mention the sutained 60FPS (in a furball mind you) at 1600x1200. I think the GeForce is the best purchase I've made for my PC.-Stark IP: Logged |
Pete Hawk
Pilot
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posted 10-02- 07:54 PM
Stark, Please go into detail about your system specs and what you did to get it to run that good. Thanks. IP: Logged |
Spanky the Mad Dog
Pilot
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posted 10-02- 08:01 PM
Spanky here.. SO your saying your the only D3d guy around here that doens't get the nasty props and the flikering on the cliffs>? BTW pete, Man I guess we have different tastes I really don't see what made you run out and buy nascar heat. I really liked there older game Viper racing more. Wacky. LOL
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robert s
Pilot
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posted 10-02- 08:23 PM
Does the GeForce or V5 family of cards support 3D glasses? (I remember the V2 and TNT2 had 3d glasses at one time.) Do 3d glasses add or detract from game play? IP: Logged |
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