GeForce2 MX400, worth it ?

[daveqb]

i need peoples thoughts/experience on the GeForce2 MX400.

i have an mx200 & have a chance to get a mx400 for AU$70

to put a conversion on it, for 30% the cost of a GeForce 4 MX or half the price of a new MX400

its on a Video Excel card

overclocks well too he said,
my current mx 200 cant get over 155mhz memory speed

so what people say?
is it worth it to hold me over til the G3's come down in price ??



PS how do you get a 'My Rig' hyperlink on your posts?

thanx all

 

[Confused]

Firstly, welcome to AnandTech forums

I personally wouldn't bother going for the GF2 MX400 for that amount of money. I would wait until the GF3s come down in price, which hopefully will be quite soon now that the GF4 is becomming more mainstream.

Also, the GF4MX is just a crippled GF3, so i still wouldn't go for that either.

Just my £0.02


As for the link to rigs, to add a rig go to http://www.anandtech.com and click on "My AnandTech" at the top, log in using your forum login, and add the rig. Then, you will be given a link to your rig. Click on "Profile" at the top of the forums when you are logged in, and in the "Signature" box at the bottom, enter the following:

[L =My rig]http://thelinkyoucopiedbefore.com[/L]


But delete the space between the L and the = above

ConfusedBW

 

[daveqb]

thanx mate, i think i got it going

keep in mind that price is Aust dollars
equates to $30 something US

i cant afford a good card right now & am just looking for something better then my mx200, but inexpensive for the time being


its funny though, they have on this auction other mx 400's going for over the $100 mark, one for $154


even an mx200 for $90


gotta make ya laugh

 

[bluemax]

Well, dollars aside (you figure out if it's worth it...) the MX-400 is just about DOUBLE the speed of the MX-200. You would see a significant difference...

Bear in mind that a Geforce2 GTS would be faster, GF2 Ti or "pro" even more, GF3 ti200 more still and prettier.
Only you know what prices are like in Australia- make your available prices vs. speed your arguement. If it's really cheap, do the 200-to-400 upgrade. If it's almost as much to get a GF2 "TI" you'd be gaining much more speed.

Hope this helped.... I hope I didn't get confusing.

 

[Rand]

Well you'll certainly get a hefty performance boost as the MX200 is only around the performance levels of a TNT2 Ultra/V3 3000.
You might want to look into finding a GF2 GTS-V or a Radeon LE though, they should be comparable in price to a MX400 and certainly faster.

 

[daveqb]

thanx peoples for your prompt replies.

from looking at the nvidia web site, icould see that the mx400 had DOUBLE the bandwidth & thought that would make a big difference in game play.

this card is going out cheap @ $68 when they retail for around the $150 at a good priced store, more anywhere else!
So the price is good, just trying to find out performance verse mx200, see if it equates to that much in gaming terms.

And yes i been havin a look out for a GTS second hand too (found one for $180 second hand) and based the price of the other mx400's selling (over $100), i would stupid to buy that & not just go the extra bit to a GF2Ti, GF3 or GF4mx
but they are all around the $200 mark.

plus i can overclock this mx400 & get up close to GTS standard.

thanx for the replies, & anymore comments are welcome

 

[holdencommodore]

For that price, I think you are getting quite a good deal - although see if you can try it before you buy it....just to check if the 2D quality is up to standard. If you have overclocked the MX200 to the max, the MX400 seems like the best bet for the pirce - although you could get a Kyro II for around 130-140 AU.

Cheers

 

[spanky]

hold out for the gf3's to drop. unless u only plan to spend $30 to upgrade...

 

[bennyboy]

I say hold 'til the ge3 prices drop. I have a mx400 and can't wait to get a new card and do an office space on this card!

 

[daywalker]

Well my impressions from my -late- GF2 MX400 are mixed. In some games it did a good job, but in others (like Max Payne or C&C Renegade) it was clear that it was reaching its limits. Also, my GF2MX 400, died after some overclocking and WATCH IT on that matter. You will see that the card has a lot of space to overclock its memory BUT IT CANT HANDLE THE HEAT WITHOUT SUFFICIENT COOLING. I overclocked my card from 133 to 150 Mhz and one day, it just died (not susrprisingly i admit). Now i will buy a GF3 when the prices will be low enough... probably at the end of this month.

 

[MCS]

I put together a system using an MX400 64MB which would be used for gaming at 640x480, or 800x600 and 16bit colour (it uses a TV for a display) and for that it is great, but I would not have chosen the card for a system running the latest games at 1024x768 or higher.

 

[daveqb]

how does the Radeon 7500le stack up?
& whats the difference with the 7500 & 7500le ??

 

[spanky]

there is a radeon 7500le? well... if its out there, i would guess the difference would be lower core/mem speed.

 

[Rand]

<< how does the Radeon 7500le stack up?
& whats the difference with the 7500 & 7500le ?? >>



290/230 core/memory clock on the R7500, and 270/230 on the R7500LE.... performance difference is minimal in the extreme. Watch out there is one manufacturer developing SDR R7500 boards though, and those perform quite a bit lower then their DDR brethren.

 

[DieHardware]

I have a Abit 64MB MX400 and I just bought an ASUS V7100 MX200(it was so inexpensive I had to buy it). If its of any interest, in an ECS K7S5A/T-bird 900(running @ 933) rig running 3dmk2k default test they score 4950 and 2865 pts. respectively-my old Diamond TNT2 Ultra scores around 3650(hehe). I find in UT, only the MX400 is acceptable at 1024x768 16bit, but they are all playable at 800x600 16bit.