nVidia GeForce2 MX Greensboro NC

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Originally published at Internet.com

Do you crave high speed 3D graphics and rich colorful scenes at a competitive price? nVidia, one of the largest graphic chipset vendors in the world hopes to deliver on that dream. Their new product, the GeForce-2 MX will offer extreme performance and rendering for a fraction of the cost of comparable cards. With features such as photorealistic image quality, high fill rates, hardware transform and lighting, and advanced rendering techniques, it promises to be an exciting product for all computer users, whether desktop user or high end gamma. About NVidia

Since nVidia was founded in 1993, the company has striven to bring high quality graphics to the computer market with a commitment to developing innovative technologies that deliver stunning multimedia experiences on mass-produced computing platforms. nVidia achieves its goals by investing in a talented staff, developing new technologies, and ensuring its customers a competitive advantage with uncompromising quality and competitive prices. nVidia products have consistently provided the best in quality and performance, but for a reasonable price. Their new GeForce-2 MX card is another great example, as it offers an extensive list of options for a low price; around $150 US.

Basic Specifications

Basic GeForce-2 MX Chipset Specifications .18 Micron Die Size <4 watt Power Demand <4 watt Power Demand Dual Monitor Support AGP 4x Transfers with Fast Writes Advanced 32 Bit Graphics 4 Textures Per Clock 256 Bit Graphics Architecture DirectX and Full OpenGL 1.2 3D Support D3D and S3TC Texture Compression Full PC '99 Support

Detailed Specs * GPU Features * TwinView architecture * Digital Vibrance Control * Second generation transform and lighting (T&L) engine * Integrated Dual-Link TMDS transmitters * nVidia Shading Rasterizer (NSR) * High-Definition Video Processor (HDVP) * AGP 4X with Fast Writes * Double Data Rate (DDR) memory * 32-bit color, 32-bit Z / stencil buffer * 4 texels per clock * 256-bit graphics architecture * Cube environment mapping * DirectX and S3 texture compression * 3D Performance * 700 million texels per second fill rate * 20 million triangles/sec through Hardware T&L setup * 2.7 GB/sec memory bandwidth (166MHz SDR SD-RAM) * 8-64MB frame buffer size * 350MHz RAMDAC * Maximum 3D/2D resolution of 2048x1536 @ 75 Hz * Complete DirectX 7, DirectX 6 and DirectX 5 support * Complete Professional OpenGL 1.2 support * Single pass multitexturing * 2D Performance * Optimized for multiple color depths including 32, 24, 16, 15, and 8-bits per pixel * True-color hardware cursor * Multibuffering (double, triple, quad) for smooth animation and video playback * Full Windows Graphical Device Interface (GDI) Hardware Acceleration * Driver Support * Windows2000, WindowsNT 4.0, WindowsNT 3.5 display drivers * Winddows98 and Windows95 display drivers * DirectDraw, Direct3D, DirectVideo, and ActiveX drivers * OpenGL ICD for Windows95, Windows98, Windows2000 and WindowsNT * Complete Linux display and OpenGL drivers * OS/2 display driver * Windows 3.x display driver * DVD Playback Support * Optimized for multiple color depths including 32 bit * High-Definition Video Processor (HDVP) for full-screen, full-frame video layback of 720p HDTV and DVD resolutions * Independent hardware color controls for video overlay * Hardware color space conversion (YUV 4:2:2 and 4:2:0) * 5-tap horizontal by 3-tap vertical filtering * 8:1 upscaling and downscaling * Per-pixel color keying * Multiple video windows with hardware color space conversion and filtering * DVD sub-picture alpha blended compositing * Video acceleration for DirectShow, MPEG-1, MPEG-2, and Intel Indeo

Spec Summary

The MX series of GeForce-2 cards carries over the great options of its earlier siblings and even expands the list with exciting new rendering techniques, such as a second generation Graphical Processing Unit (GPU). The MX is not only a high end 3D accelerator, but is a complete graphics and video solution. The high quality 350 MHz RAMDAC ensures a crystal clear, high resolution display. The integrated High-Definition Video Processor (HDVP) supports the new ATSC HD format at over 60 frames per second. Combined with the high quality DVD playback, it is easy to understand how the GeForce-2 MX will affect the graphics marketplace.

The GeForce-2 MX chipset will support a variety of different hardware architectures. Support for the PCI and AGP buses allows almost any computer owner to benefit from the power of the MX. The MX is compatible with 1x, 2x, and even 4x AGP transfers with full AGP Side-band Addressing and AGP Fast Writes enabled. nVidia has also provided a great deal of software support; drivers exist for all major x86 operating systems: Win9x, WinME, WinNT 3.51, WinNT 4.0 , Win2000, Linux, OS/2, and even the aging Win 3.1x. With the wide base of supported hardware and software, nVidia hopes to market the MX chipset in all areas of x86 computing available today.

2D Features

NVidia has extended full hardware 2D acceleration to the Windows GDI architecture with the MX series chipset. Included is a high speed 350 MHz RAMDAC for resolution support up to 2048x1536 @ 75 Hz. All internal 2D operations are carried out at 256 bits for the optimum in both performance and precision. True video mutlibuffering, up to 4x for ultra smooth animation and video playback, is also included. When teamed with support for multiple monitors through nVidia's TwinView technology, the MX chipset is an effective solution not only for desktop users, but graphics and design specialists as well.

DVD/Movie Playback

Not only is DVD playback smooth with the GeForce-2 MX, it is visually appealing. By offering complete control over video overlay properties, the nVidia drivers allow users to customize a movie's appearance. 5x3 tap filtering, an option that clarifies and optimizes the rendering of movie formats, is included.

Support for other advanced movie playback options, such as Per-Pixel color keying, hardware color space conversion, and sub-picture alpha blending, provides a clear, fluid motion picture that is highly enjoyable to view.

While the video acceleration is powerful with the MX, it is desirable to have a 400MHz+ CPU, as nVidia still relies on a software MPEG player to decode the video and audio streams.

Advanced 3D Features The GeForce-2 MX not only provides full support for industry standard DirectX and OpenGL, but has added several options as well. New additions include full scene anti-aliasing (FSAA), hardware transform and lighting, texture compression, per-pixel shading, and cube mapping. Combined with true 32 bit color rendering, these new features allow the MX chipset to render rich environments with realistic features. The image above demonstrates many of these new techniques. Be sure to observe the realism of the reflections on the water's surface. Until nVidia designed their consumer level GPU architecture, it required powerful and very expensive systems to reach even a fraction of this detail. nVidia has once again proven they can offer high quality 3D rendering for a nominal cost.

3D Features: FSAA

Full Scene Anti-Aliasing provides MX users will a new level of 3D visual quality. FSAA improves visuals by eliminating the jagged edges between textures in 3D accelerated programs. nVidia's technique creates a high resolution image of the scene to be rendered, then dithers it to the lower viewing resolution. While this does create a large amount of GPU overhead, this method of FSAA offers excellent image quality. In most applications and games, the MX can handle up to 800x600 (32 bit color) with a respectable level of performance. FSAA on the GeForce is still in the developmental stage, so many still regard it as just a cool option. On an editorial note, I will reserve final judgment until nVidia completes finalization and optimization of the FSAA drivers. Do be aware, however, that this superscaling technique used is different and often inherently more problematic (especially with Direct3D) than the T-buffer used by 3dfx's Voodoo5.

3D Features: Cube Mapping

With current texture mapping techniques, shiny surfaces and reflections often look inaccurate or artificial. Cube mapping eliminates this issue by allowing programmers to create accurate reflections by using six independent textures, as compared to the more traditional technique of using one spherical reflection map. By rendering the light patterns from six different positions, cube mapping can more effectively render shadows, thus creating more depth and realism in a scene.

3D Features: Hardware T&L

Hardware Transform and Lighting allows the GeForce-2 MC GPU to process a large portion of the rendering, thus allowing the system CPU to carry out other functions more efficiently, so it is unburdened by these intensive operations and performance is greatly increased. The T&L unit included with the MX GPU is capable of rendering 20 million triangles per second, a level that is three times more powerful than even the most expensive work stations of two years ago. As shown above, the T&L unit first renders the base points of a frame, then adds the rendering lines, and the GPU finally adds the textures to finish the image. Click on a frame above to see blowups of these images (1600x1200).

Hardware T&L also allows for much more than higher performance, as it can add more depth and complexity to 3D rendered scenes. With T&L enabled programs, curves are more accurate and round, characters look more lifelike, and the environment is much more detailed compared to traditional rendering procedures. By allowing programmers to use more polygons per frame, hardware T&L creates the most lifelike computer generated 3D scenes ever. nVidia includes T&L support in both DirectX and OpenGL drivers, so the greatest amount of support can be offered. Programs that support T&L are still limited in numbers, but expect many more titles to surface soon. As other vendors such as 3dfx and ATI begin offering their own T&L rendering chips, the market will suddenly explode with a wealth of new games and applications with support.

3D Features: Texture Compression

A current bottleneck to 3D performance is adequate memory bandwidth to support the complexity of current and future programs. Texture compression is a simple but impressive option that can help overcome this limitation. The leading format is S3'sTexture Compression (S3TC). Microsoft has already incorporated S3TC into DirectX. nVidia has taken it one step further by licensing S3TC for use in OpenGL drivers. By offering S3TC for both of the major 3D formats, nVidia has insured that its customers have received the best software support possible. To effectively use S3TC, a program must have texture compression support. Several new games on the market include this option, such as ID Software's Quake3. As the standard matures, expect to see many new titles with full S3TC support to be appearing.

3D Features: Per-Pixel Shading

A new piece of hardware introduced with the GeForce-2 lineup is the nVidia Shading Rasterizer (NSR). The NSR engine creates advanced visual effects, such as accurate lighting and shadows to photorealistic bump mapping. Other effects, such as rough surfacing and advanced depth perception, make the NSR a unique piece of hardware. In conjunction with the hardware T&L processor, the NSR unit offers a level of graphics quality previously unseen.

3D Performance

When buying any new software, performance is a large concern. What's the use of owning a video card that can render amazing graphics if it can process only one frame per second (fps). Scientific measurements have determined that the human eye must process around 30fps to perceive fluid movement and motion. The goal in creating the MX chipset was to develop a video solution that is capable of rendering 60fps+ in the most commonly used resolutions and color depths. In the following charts, the MX is directly compared to the pinnacle of nVidia's non-T&L enabled chipset, the TNT-2. Test System * AMD K6-2 500 * Epox MVP3-G2 Motherboard (1MB L2 Cache) * 256MB PC-100 CAS-2 SD-RAM Memory * Western Digital 13.1 GB ATA-66 5400 RPM Hard Drive * Creative Lab's AWE-64 Sound Card * Video cards used during testing: * nVidia GeForce-2 MX, 32MB AGP @ 175 core / 166 RAM * Creative Lab's nVidia TNT-2 Ultra, 32MB AGP @ 150 core / 175 RAM * Hercules Prophet II nVidia GF-256 GTS, 32MB AGP @ 200 core / 333 RAM Software Setup * Microsoft Windows Millennium Operating System * Microsoft DirectX 7.1 Final * nVidia OpenGL 1.2 ICD * nVidia 5.32 Beta Reference Drivers

Fill Rate Comparison

3D Mark 2000

Performance Commentary

3dMark2000 clearly indicates the MX is a good performing chipset, especially compared to a non-T&L enabled chipset. The benchmarks indicate that performance is severely impacted by available graphics memory throughput. The GeForce256 GTS scores show the importance of memory bandwidth, especially at high resolutions and color depth. The standard GeForce MX configuration will be using SDR SDRAM, but we hope that DDR based boards will appear later. Even if DDR never appears with the GeForce-2 MX, nVidia still has developed a very performance competitive chipset.

Conclusion: My Thoughts

nVidia's GeForce-2 MX offers a complete video and graphics solution for one low price. Considering the retail price will be at or below $150, the MX chipset should be very popular in the retail marketplace. nVidia is already developing strategies for introducing the MX into other areas, such as notebook computing and integrated chipsets. If volume prices are low enough, expect many of the larger OEM computer vendors to take interest. With the market saturation of $300+ graphic cards, it will be a pleasant experience to purchase a low cost card with high end performance.