Leadtek GeForce2 MX
DH Pro
Let's be brutally honest. For
the average consumer a $400 GeForce2 GTS is simply out of reach. That can
be a real problem since the GeForce2 offers so many great features. Luckily,
nVidia has made a less expensive alternative to the GTS, namely the MX. The
MX offers the same great GPU design coupled with slower SDRAM memory. DDR
memory can yield impressive gains in performance but 32 MB of SDRAM brings
the price down considerably. nVidia designed the MX to be a competitor in
not only the budget gaming market but also the business market where cards
such as the Matrox
Millennium G450 are the big sellers. Leadtek was kind enough to send their
GeForce2 MX DH Pro (DualHead Pro) for testing.
|
Features |
The
Board |
- 0.18 micron technology
- AGP 2X/4X with
Fast Writes Support
- 350 MHz RAMDAC
- 32MB 6ns SDRAM
memory
- S-video/RCA TV-out
up to 800x600 resolution
- 3 LEDs are embedded
onboard for troubleshooting
- Special Designed
Active Cooling Module
- 2048 x 1536 max
resolution
|
|
First
Impressions
A couple of things stand out
immediately when you take a look at the GeForce2 MX DH Pro. The card comes
equipped with 32 MB of 6ns SDRAM. This is certainly one reason why this MX
card can be had for such an affordable price. The 64 MB of DDR SDRAM certainly
drove the price of the Leadtek GTS I tested recently.
Once I had the card out of the
box one of the first things that struck me about it was its heatsink. Click
on the image above to get an idea what I am talking about. Leadtek could have
very easily installed a small heatsink like other manufacturers have been
doing. Instead, we have a large gold-tone heatsink with a fan sitting squarely
in the middle. I looked at it from the side and noticed that there is heatsink
grease coming out from under the heatsink. Way to go Leadtek. I don't know
how many times I've pried the heatsinks off of videocards in order to put
better aftermarket units in with heatsink grease. Does the MX really need
these cooling features? I'd say yes. Heat is the leading cause of instability.
I've seen some cards produce less visual artifacts once their cooling package
was revised.
The other thing that is immediately
obvious is that this card has two outputs for a monitor/LCD panel and
an S-Video out. I reviewed the Matrox Millenium G450 recently and it required
a special dongle cable that plugged into its second output to enable S-Video
output. This isn't a major issue since Matrox included the correct cable but
it just shows to me that nVidia designed the MX to be less reliant on special
dongle cables. Included with the card were the adapters to convert S-Video
to regular RCA video, a two foot S-Video extension cable, and a one foot RCA
extension cable.
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