Which card????

[doodelsak]

I want to upgrade my video card in my pc.500 Celeron 128mb ram {66hz}I Currently have a nvidia NV3T 4mb.I d like to buy one of the new geforce 2mx .I believe it would be a good choice for my system.Trouble is there are so many company's using that chip Which one's are good and which ones should i stay away from?Im looking to spend up too $125 or so.........thanks .:-)

[RobRich]

I have had excellent results with Abit's SiluroMX. Check out my recent review here at Sysopt:

http://sysopt.earthweb.com/reviews/siluro/index.html

Most vendors use the nVidia reference design, so most MX cards will be similar in quality and performance.

For the best price, I would recommend checking out these sites:

http://ibuyer.sysopt.com
http://www.pricewatch.com

Good Luck,
Robert Richmond

[Comage]

You might want to stay clear of Creative's MX card. It's using 64-bit DDR RAM, and although theorectically speaking it performs the same as the other cards using 128-bit SDR RAM, it actually loses out to the other cards in benchmarks.

[doodelsak]

thank you for your info .What exatly do i need from this card? there seems so many versions of the gforce mx2..thanks for your input....

[RobRich]

Issues to consider:

-AGP or PCI interface? AGP is preferred, assuming you have an open AGP slot to utilize.

-16 or 32 MB of video memory? Since the 32 MB cards only coast $5-15, definitely go with this route. 16 MB is enough for most current games, but you need to consider future software requirements.

-TV-out? TV-Out adds about $10-15 to the base product costs. TV-out is nice for DVD/movie playback, but is generally disappointing for most other tasks.

-Twin View dual monitor support? If you would like to utilize two monitors simulataneously, then this is an extremely nice option. However, this option can add upwards of $20-25 to the base price.

-Memory speeds? You may notice some cards feature different speeds of memory (rated in nanoseconds). Opt for cards with faster 6 ns memory if you are interested in overclocking the MX chipset. If you are not an o/c'er, this should be of little concern.

-Cooling? You will notice several types of onboard cooling, ranging from nothing to heatsink/fan combo's. The nVidia reference MX design does not require any form of active cooling, but the chipset runs at extremely high temperatures when configured with no cooling. I would recommend a card with atleast a good heatsink attached. If you intersted in extreme oc/ing, then a heatsink/fan combo is preferable.

With all of these considerations in mind, I would suggest examining eVGA's GeForce-2 MX "Pure VGA" 32MB AGP. It features a high quality 6-layer PCB, included DVD playback software, and a very low price point. It, however, lacks TV-out and Twin View support.

More information about the EVGA MX:
http://www.evga.com/eVGA/evga.ihtml?page=products3.ihtml

EVGA's online store is currently offering this card for an excellent price of $95:
http://www.evga.com/eVGA/evga.ihtml?page=products3.ihtml

Good Luck,
Robert Richmond

[Wilan Wong]

You may want to get a new cpu as well, since gettin' that Geforce 2 MX card would mean that the CPU would be the bottleneck especially, since it is running a 66Mhz bus it can't "communicate" with it fast enough, giving you average frame rates in low res.. and similar frame rates in high res until the fill rate of the GF2 MX is all used up.. upgrading the CPU and the Vid. Card would definitely boost performance. BTW, tried overclocking it to 100Mhz FSB? If you do however, you won't have to get another CPU since the clock rate would be higher and the FSB is higher which means it can feed the data more quickly.

[doodelsak]

thank you all for all your info and help.i looked all over here {where i live} but the stores don't have that abit card yet.Is it still too new to be on the shelves ?OR is there a place on the net that carry's them? thanks