yet another pointless review (MX boards)

[Guest]

Yet another pointless review.. What is the point in comparing 4 nearly identical MX boards ? Geez, they produce nearly identical benchmark results... what a surprise.. But what about overclocking these cards, wouldnt that be of more interest to the THG reader ? And why not compare them with a TNT2 so many of us who still own such a card can decide wether it is worth upgrading ? What about CPU scaling ? What about picture quality ?

And how about a MX DDR board.. ?:

"NVIDIA enabled the MX to work with DDR memory as well. Unfortunately, I have not come across any card with the *faster* memory so far. "

Hello ?? The MX DDR boards use 64bit interface compared to a 128 bit bus for the SDR. So it's NOT faster. In fact it is slower, since the DDR memory is ususally clocked lower, and (much) harder to overclock. I have a Creative Annihilator that uses the MX chip teamed up with DDR, and its *not* that fast. In fact, I've had it for over 1,5 months.. so tell me how THG could not get hold of one ?

 

[Guest]

oh, and how about comparing (one of these cards) with a Radeon SDR and a Radeon DDR ? I wished I had bought a Radeon instead...

 

[LordKaos]

Then you would´ve spent much more money!

Holding on that thought you should have bought a GeForce 2 GTS!

"I´m Going Down!...Down!Down!Down!Down!Down!" - Joe Satriani in G3 Live

 

[Guest]

Actually I would like to see the comparison on the "other" features of the cards, like:
- picture quality (I know it is subjective but at least give us some idea?), since both LeadTek and SUMA ones claim to have done something to improve the picture quality
- more details on the manuals
- more comments on the components on the boards (like do they look too cheap?)

Since the benchmarks are basically the same, these "other" points will make the difference.

 

[phsstpok]

All good points. And to expand upon your TNT2 comparison idea, I think it is time for a comprehensive comparison of all classes of video cards from the TNT2 era on up (yes, Radeon too) and across platforms from Celeron 400's to Athlon C's, 1.2 mhz. I'm tired of trying to piece together imformation from 5-10 reviews to get an answer.

 

[Guest]

phsstpok, i couldnt agree more. I had the same problem. What do you do when you own a p3-500 with a TNT2 ? Does a Geforce Pro pay off ? or do you better upgrade your cpu and buy an MX card.. and what about a celeron 800 vs P3-500 ? Tom, we need a MAJOR upgrade review guide thing instead of these pointless reviews like the MX and dual CPU reviews..

 

[Gog]

I'd like to see the same, I've got PII 450 with TNT2 (although mobo/cpu should be upgraded to 700M tbird soon)

Hmmmm... Donuts

 

[phsstpok]

"pointless reviews like the MX and dual CPU reviews.."

...not to mention a NON-review of "simulated" OEM systems.

 

[rcf84]

Does TOM have something against ATi. Nonthing but Geforce reveiws after geforce reveiws. Well the s3 is coming back. Also Matrox is alive too.

This site sometimes seems it looks like a NVIDIA , AMD site.

First person to get a topic banned. ABIT BP6 Lives FOREVER!!!

 

[Crashman]

Hey everybody, settle down! First of all, hasn't anybody noticed the LACK of new products for Tom to test in the past few months? He has to come up with whatever he can to fill the gaps! Second, I think he was refering to the lack of a 128-bit DDR solution. We can only choose right now between 128-bit SDR and 64-bit DDR. What a crappy decision. I would buy the MX if 128-bit DDR was available, simply for it's dual-head technology. I own a GTS, but I believe that the MX could come fairly close to it if it had 128-bit DDR. Anything in a TV-out GTS is out of my price range and lackes the flexibility of the MX dual head solution.

Suicide is painless...........

 

[Guest]

<i>I own a GTS, but I believe that the MX could come fairly close to it if it had 128-bit DDR.</i>

That's why the MX doesn't have 128-bit DDR memory, and will never have it. The MX is their 'low end' video card solution... it wouldn't be good for it to compete against their more powerful (and higher priced) GTS+ cards.

Also, I'm forced to agree. What's with these two recent reviews? 'Simulated' mobility graphics tests?! Come on. Look at anandtech and other hardware sites... they don't seem to be having any problems writing INTERESTING and INFORMATIVE reviews of various products (hint - there are more than just CPUs and Graphics cards that need reviewing, and I believe Tom's does have sections for those other things)
<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by Murdly_Gurdson on 02/06/01 05:08 PM.</EM></FONT></P>

 

[Crashman]

I would be willing to take a 10% performance hit to get the added features, some people would not. But I think the chip will actually support it. Too bad nobody wants to build it.

Suicide is painless...........

 

[Guest]

First of all, hasn't anybody noticed the LACK of new products for Tom to test in the past few months? He has to come up with whatever he can to fill the gaps!

I cant remember ever having so many new products in such a short time (Athlon DDR/P4/Geforce2*pro*ultra*mx/Radeon/...).
And if he doesnt have any new products to review, he (they) must have the time to some more interesting in-depth reviews or articles. <b>I think now is the time to do a massive "upgrade" guide, since so many people are drooling over the low prices of Athlons, geforces, etc. Its one thing to compare a Athlon 1.2 Ghz with a Pentium 4, but for most of us, it is at least is interesting to see how much performance we would gain by upgrading certain components.. </b>.Say you have a BX board and a TNT2 Ultra card. What do you do ? Buy a new CPU (850/100) ? Perhaps even a Celeron 800/100 ? A geforce ? MX ? new MB+cpu+vid card ? Does it pay off to buy a 133 Mhz MB, and throw away your 100 Mhz RAM ? etc. I thought the frames per $ comparison was a good start; now I'd like to see what is the best $200, $500, $1000 upgrade, starting from a K6, a Pentium II or a celeron system with a corresponding videocard.

Cuurent CPU reviews always include a 640x480 Quake3 timedemo. Who cares if a certain cpu score 200 fps to have the videocard limit this to 30 in 1024x768x32 ? Wouldnt it be more interesting to say what cpu is needed to drive a certain videocard to its limit in certain resolutions ?

I think he was refering to the lack of a 128-bit DDR solution.

Like already mentioned.. This combination is (unfortunately) not possible with the MX chipset. And since the 64 bit DDR solution *is* available (heck, I have one), I wonder why he didnt include it.

 

[zwaarst]

If i am writeon there is a somebody from tom's hardware reading al those artikels. Can't he ask tom to anser on his own medium to explain why he wrote al those unintresting pointless artikels. I want to know how he got the terrible idea of comparing theoretical performens of mobile graphic chips.

 

[Guest]

. I want to know how he got the terrible idea of comparing theoretical performens of mobile graphic chips.

LOL.. I hadnt even read the article, but you're right on. that gives us 3 pointless articles in row:
1) compare a preproduction dual cpu board with an existing one using 4 utterly pointless benchmarks (and draw a non-sense conclusion about how expensive these setups are- check the prices ! its virtually free !)
2) compare 4 identical MX boards and see how they perform indentically - what a surprise
3) benchmark 2 non-existing theoritecal chips

I cant wait for the benchmarks of the software emulation of the the x-hammer compared to a preproduction Itanic running 32 bit software... (like a quake timedemo) ! Now *that* would be an interesting article ;-)
Great work Tom.. keep it up.

 

[LordKaos]

I´m not sure but i think the only way to get the dude´s attention is by Spamming in your posts!

Better burn in Hell with some company than freeze in Heaven all alone

 

[Crashman]

All the stuff you metioned is already months old except for DDR, which he has already tested with current chipsets. Well, the P4 is the other newest thing and nothing has changed with it since he tested it.
I think maybe all that's left is comparisons of current products-oops, I see that is what started this thread! Maybe an upgrade guide, like you said.

Suicide is painless...........

 

[zwaarst]

Does enybody know a way to get Tom's etantion so he can tell us why he is writing al that crep and maby he can tell us wath he is going to write next week. If he is writing the same crep i can save a little bit of time with not cheking tom's h.w.g.

sorry for my bad englisch....
i hope you all get my points

 

[Guest]

It probably won't take you too much time to just read the titles and decide whether or not it is worth your time. I mean, I know tom is a little busy, but Im sure he has enough time to write everyone an email, just to let them know not to come check out his site this week because he doesn't have anything worth reading sorry.. sarcasm breaking loose..

but a serious reply to the previous posts.. why even waste time with the MX boards when you can get an ATI Radeon 32MB for the same price (notice, I just made another stupid comment with precisely no proof to back me up, Is the Radeon better? better picture quality?)

-Suicidal tendencies pay off in war (at least better than a 1 to 1 ratio-

 

[morte]

Not to mention - why don't they have the GeForce 2 MX test setup on an AMD based motherboard for once, so we can put paid to the issue of whether Geforce 2 MX cards have probs on AMD based motherboards, and whether it is just a BIOS revision issue.

 

[zwaarst]

I am afraith that Tom hasn't read the things we are writhing on this forum. Today we can at an other poitless review to the list. That makes 4 poitless reviews in a row. Does Tom really think that we care when intel comes with another CPU ore chipset. I don't think so. The only thing I want to know, when a product is out how good it is. I hope he will put some effort in getting that NV20 test model. I think that is what most peoples are waiting fore.
there are pictures of that thing, so it has to exist.

http://www.planethardware.com/features/articles/nv20/index3.shtml

sorry for my bad english, i hope you understand what i am trieng to say.