VisionTek GeForce2 MX

Conclusion

If you are on the market for a budget video card, there is no question that a card based off of NVIDIA's GeForce2 MX is for you. The truth of the matter is that there are really no readily available budget cards that can compete with the the MX. With the previously mentioned Radeon SDR cards still missing in action and Imagination Technologies' Kyro based product not to be found anywhere, there are simply no low cost, high performing video cards out there.

The problem is that two types of budget cards are surfacing. There are cards, such as the Guillemot/Hercules 3D Prophet II MX, that are aimed at the high-end budget level, if you will. These types of cards will come with cooling solutions as well as fast memory (5.5ns, for example) and make overclocking a charm. In addition, some will come with more advanced features, like video-out, DVI-out, and dual-head.

On the other hand, you have pure budget cards. These cards, designed to have appeal simply due to their low cost, will not have as many bells and whistles as higher priced budget cards. Pure budget cards will come with slower performing memory, no cooling method, and few extras. The VisionTek GeForce2 MX falls into his category.

Now, there is nothing wrong with either category. No extra quality will be gained by going with a more brand name or retail card as opposed to the VisionTek. In fact, VisionTek is the manufacturer of many retail graphics cards as well, making cards for ELSA among others. In addition, they offer a 3 year warranty on all of their products. No stock performance will be gained by going with a higher priced card. The only thing one will really miss out on are extra overclocking opportunities.

We call them opportunities because they are just that: there is no guarantee or promise that the 5.5ns memory found on other cards will be able to overclock higher than the 200 MHz we were able to squeeze from the VisionTek's 7ns memory. Then again, there is no guarantee that the 7ns memory found on the VisionTek will always be able to hit 200 MHz. Obtaining speeds over the rated speed is always a gamble, with some chips just performing better than others. VisionTek must test cards before shipping, as even the 7ns memory found on their GeForce2 MX may not quite reach the 166 MHz shipping speed.

So which type of card to choose? Well, it all depends on you. If your budget is very tight, and $108 sounds like a pretty good price for a video card (and you are not wrong), then the VisionTek could very well be the best card for you. With mounting holes for a fan, one can always decided to slap on an active cooling solution for even better core overclocking. Changing the memory, however, is not quite as easy. In addition, if you are not concerned with overclocking your video card at all, the VisionTek GeForce2 MX makes a whole lot of sense.

If you have the money to spare, and the $40 dollars or so more that a card with cooling and better memory will cost you will not hurt too much, perhaps you should go with one of the performance budget cards. Overclocking the memory is key to utilizing the full power of the GeForce2 MX and one of the ways to ensure better overclockabilty is to go with a card that uses faster memory.

All in all, budget system owners are finally in a unique position. No longer must one suffer with outdated technology in a budget card, but the VisionTek GeForce2 MX provides both speed for the system and ease on the wallet.