The Tests
D3D Tests
|
Video
Card
|
3DMark2K
|
UTBench
"N"
|
UTBench
"H"
|
WT98
|
|
GF2
MX PCI
|
2925
3DMarks
|
27.4
FPS
|
15.2
FPS
|
266
MP/s
|
|
CLA
GF GTS
|
7500
3DMarks
|
45.1
FPS
|
40.4
FPS
|
428
MP/s
|
The blue
3DMark score is a reminder that T&L was turned off for the tests due to
the PCI bus limitation. With it enabled this score dropped to under 1600 which
was totally useless. What was disappointing was that Unreal Tournament ended
up being completely unplayable. The lowest VGA resolution, 640x480 proved
annoyingly slow. And what's more is that this took place with a processor
kissing the 1GHz mark. Based on this poor D3D performance, I wouldn't count
on newer games being playable at all with this PCI MX version.
OpenGL
Tests
|
Video
Card
|
Q3A
"N"
|
Q3A
"H"
|
WT98
|
|
GF2
MX PCI
|
82.5
FPS
|
47.5
FPS
|
211
MP/s
|
|
CLA
GF GTS
|
135
FPS
|
104
FPS
|
355
MP/s
|
Taking me complete surprise
was the OpenGL Q3 performance. While 1024x768@32bpp was slightly stuttery,
it was useable and 640x480@16bpp was 100% smooth. I can see where Glide based
cards get their incredible FPS power from and all without saturating the PCI
bus!
2D Video Speed &
Quality
|
Video
Card
|
WT98
|
800x600
|
1280x1024
|
|
GF2
MX PCI
|
155
MP/s
|
Excellent
|
Moderate
|
|
CLA
GF GTS
|
185
MP/s
|
Excellent
|
Moderate
|
What? Does anybody check
2D stuff these days? Since I do moderately complex graphics and of course
web pages now and then ;-), I gave the MX a close eyeballing. I honestly couldn't
tell the GTS and MX apart. The Nvidia 350MHz RAMDAC appears to be the very
same in both cards, so this wasn't some kind of revelation but it was great
to see excellent 800x600 jpegs and moderately clear 1280x1024 plain ol' text.
Both cards don't look the best at 1600x1200 and skywards but then again, would
you really buy a $100-$200 card for your $2000 21"-24" monitor?
Conclusion
The PCI version leaves
me slightly bewildered at its market intent. Only usable for 3D games (apparently
not D3D based) when ultra fast processors are used and for dual monitor setups,
the AGP version is better suited for the buget-based 3D gamer. However, if
you have an old bomb 233-400MHz box lying around with an open PCI slot, the
MX may indeed be your best choice for a relatively high-end video solution.
William
Yaple
09/18/00
