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Introduction:
We
all know that the GeForce2 MX is a great selling
card because it fits the budget of gamers very
well. We've also found out the limitation of the
GeForce2 MX in performance. It's the memory bandwidth
of the card. With the arrival of the MX400 and
MX200 flavors, memory bandwidth didn't improve
a bit so you can expect almost the same performance
of the new MX cards from the first type.
This
article has a few objectives. First is to find
out what processor is necessary to drive the MX
to its peak performance. This article also aims
to prove whethere is is good to pair a high end
CPU with the MX or just use a low-end CPU with
it. My test beds have taken a shift from Intel
to AMD. For one thing, I can easily access different
CPU speeds with AMD because of the capability
of it to be unlocked.
Take
note that this is just Part 1 of a 3-part GeForce2
CPU scaling guide. Two more articles should follow
shortly but for now, let's start of with the GeForce2
MX. This article will be useful for those who
are new to the computer scene and are wondering
what processor to pair with their GeForce2 MX.
With my objectives said, let's get on with the
test system.
Test
System
AMD
Athlon 1.13GHz
AMD Athlon 850MHz
AMD Duron 850MHz
AMD Duron 600MHz
Abit KT7A
256MB CAS2 PC133 SDRAM
NVIDIA GeForce2 MX 32MB SDRAM (175/166)
Creative Labs SoundBlaster Live! Value
20.4GB Maxtor DiamondMax Plus 60 7200RPM ATA100
HDD
Windows
98SE
DX8a
Detonator 11.01
VIA 4.29a Driver Set
I
decided to go with a C-type Athlon for the high
end processor instead of a B-type Athlon. I opted
for this to avoid being CPU limited when I represent
a high end system. The Athlon 850 and Duron 850
serve two purposes: first, they represent the
mid-range system and lastly, having 2 Processors
of the same clock speed will show the difference
between these 2 processors and what they can do
to enhance the performance of the GeForce2 MX.
The Duron 600 represents the low end system and
hopefully, it is enough to show how fast the GeForce2
MX can go in a CPU limited environment.
Benchmarks
Quake
III Arena 1.17, demo001
Fastest 640X480, 800X600, 1024X768, 1280X1024
High Quality 640X480, 800X600, 1024X768, 1280X1024
MDK2
Max Texture Quality, Trilinear Filtering, Hardware
T&L
640X480X16, 800X600X16, 1024X768X16, 1280X1024X16
640X480X32, 800X600X32, 1024X768X32, 1280X1024X32
3DMark2000
Triple Buffer, 16-bit Z-buffer, Hardware T&L
640X480X16, 800X600X16, 1024X768X16
640X480X32, 800X600X32, 1024X768X32
3DMark2001
Triple Buffer, 16-bit Z-buffer, Hardware T&L,
Compressed Textures, 1024X768X16
Double Buffer, 24-bit Z-buffer, Hardware T&L,
Compressed Textures, 1024X768X32
Quake
III Arena Fastest |
