Hercules 3D Prophet 4500 or GeForce 2 MX-400?

[eXcer]

Hi to all...
I want to upgrade my old TNT2 M64 to a videocard with TV-out and that could give me some nice graphics in games like Unreal Tournament and stuff like that. And, of course, that isn't very expensive...
After reading some articles about videocards, i thought that between Hercules 3D Prophet 4500 and GeForce 2 MX 400, the first one is a really good choice... but after reading some posts about problems with Prophet 4500 in this forum, i had some doubts about it's really potential...
I would like to know your opinion, cuz u probably know much better this 2 videocards than me and i would aprecciate a little help...

By the way, if u know other videocard that has what i want... tell me!!

Thnx!

eXcer

 

[Archknight]

The 3D prophet 4500 is the better choice.

The MX would max out at res above 1024X768 while the Kyro still can go up higher.
The TV-out feature is one of the best feature from Nvdia nor Kyro (ATI of course). So either don't matter on this one.
The MX can do trilinear + anistropic at low res because limited memory bandwidth constrait high res with or without it.
The Kyro2 will choke at 1024X768 with anistropic on, but its OK with trilinear. Also the Kyro2 can do 4XFSAA at 1024X768 at some decent fps, this is really good for racing games.
Some of the problems posted in this forum is due to in need of a fresh installation of driver or reformatting the drive. This basically needed if you switch to any vid card.
Smokes in Counter-Strike is known problem with Kyro2. This may be fix by future driver release. They release drivers quite often.

Final words I would go with the 3D prophet 4500.
And maybe the 16bits color will look better on the Kyro2 too.

Hope this thread wouldn't turn out to be another typical Kyro2 thread in this forum.

 

[Mykex]

I had both cards in house over the last week and its pretty much a tossup as I see it. I stuck with the KyroII but Im still second guessing the choice. To me the MX had lesser graphics quality but was faster. The KII had better quality but slightly slower. These are my opinions and prolly go against every review out Im sure so dont bother linking me to quotes or benchmarks.

IMO the GF2MX400 would be best for lower res high action frag fun,the KII for higher res eye candy. Both cards are lower end bargains so dont expect to fall on your butt after installing either. This was my reaction after trying both to replace a Voodoo5500 I killed. (hits self in head with sneaker,stupid,stupid,stupid) Installing the GF2 will more than likely bring less headaches,as it stands now the KII does not work well with others,reformat before install.

 

[rickn]

Get a Kyro 2. It has the better IQ of the two and the fastest FSAA of any card other than the GF3. Kyro 2 of course benefits from a speedy cpu. A K6-2 or Pentium 2 350mhz just don't cut it with the Kyro 2.

 

[nicowju]

Get the Kryo II. You can find it cheaper online, and its 2D quality is terrific, and the 3D quality beats the Geforces. It's also better at the higher resolutions than a Geforce2MX 400

 

[eXcer]

Hi... thnx to all for your replies...
I wonder if that T&L stuff does such "damage" in Kyro II benchmark...
As i told u before, i read some stuff about Kyro II and in T&L benchmarks Kyro II is eaten alive... It's too bad, cuz i think is the only weak point of this videocard... don't u agree?
Thnx again for your replies...

eXcer

 

[powervr2]

in the real world (real T&L games like mdk2) kyro do extremelly well...

with 3dmark2k1 the problem is with directx8...
with final directx8.1 you will see a great increase in performance with kyro in 3dmark2k1

I am getting more than 30% increase on the score os my kyro with directx8.1 beta build 620, It can only improve from this...

 

[eXcer]

I'm glad that with DX8 the things start working better with Kyro II!
I forgot to ask you something: does Linux have some problems with Kyro II? Any of you have tried Kyro II with Linux (Red Hat or Mandrake)? I ask this cuz sometimes i work with Mandrake...

Thnx!!

eXcer

 

[AppleTalking]

Ah, you mentioned Linux.

To the best of my knowledge, there is no Linux driver available for the Kyro II at this point in time. This is not to say that there will never be a Linux driver (there probably will), but there is no Linux driver available from Hercules at this point.

If you have to Linux compatibility right away, get the MX400. Otherwise, get the Kyro II. It has much better image quality (IMHO) and higher framerates at resolutions that really matter (1024x768 and above). I mean, are you really going to notice the difference between 110 and 120 fps at 640x480??

Good luck!
Nick

 

[ilikemovie]

Hi all..
I am currently using eVGA GeForce2 MX which has extremely poor 2d quality (IMO). I am considering to get a new graphic card. How is the 2d quality of Kyro2 compare to matrox G450. I heard matrox has exxcellent 2d quality. Is that true. I dont play game much so i dont need fast graphic card but i do need a good 2d (clear text and image) graphic card. Can any one give me some opinion please ? Thank you guys.

 

[cool]

<< Hi all..
I am currently using eVGA GeForce2 MX which has extremely poor 2d quality (IMO). I am considering to get a new graphic card. How is the 2d quality of Kyro2 compare to matrox G450. I heard matrox has exxcellent 2d quality. Is that true. I dont play game much so i dont need fast graphic card but i do need a good 2d (clear text and image) graphic card. Can any one give me some opinion please ? Thank you guys. >>



I owned a GF2MX and now a Kyro2 card. In terms of 2D image quality (normal work in windows), I haven't recognized any difference. But image/texture quality in games has improved definitively with the Kyro2!
You shouold wait for the matrox G550 which should perform similar to a GF2MX in 3D, 2D will be GREAT, as usual...

 

[AppleTalking]

The standard line about the Kyro II's 2D is that it is better than a GeForce, along the same lines as an ATI, but not as good as a Matrox. Therefore, if you really have to have Matrox-like 2D quality, wait for the G550 as someone else mentioned.

If not, then look at a Kyro II. I have a 3D Prophet 4500 and I would say it gives good 2D image quality. Not excellent, but still good. But I haven't had much else to compare it to save my old ATI RagePro card. I would say it's as good to slightly better than that. I run at 1280x1024 on a Philips 107S 17&quot; monitor.

Nick

 

[mchammer187]

Kyro II all the way u might want to consider a Radeon LE and FLASH for 40 cheaper either one is good but avoid the MX like a fat chick in a thong

 

[ilikemovie]

Thank you guys for all your input. I really appreciate. I will probably wait for Matrox G550. Thanks again.

 

[PotNoodle]

&quot;This is not to say that there will never be a Linux driver (there probably will), but there is no Linux driver available from Hercules at this point.&quot;

Its said that PowerVR are currently working on Linux drivers, however I have yet to hear of the state of their progress.