Geforce Graphics Cards

Can somebody tell me the difference between a Geforce 2 MX200 and a Geforce 2 MX400 card. I went out and bought one today, asked for a 400 but got a 200 and i am not too sure about it. It is supposed to be a 64mb card, it says this on the card but the box says 32mb as does the manual. The make is either Jetway or VGA, i am not sure as the box is not very well designed and the manual doesnt say anything about it.

 

Here is Jetway's site, you will have to look up the model number you have
http://www.jetway.com.tw/evisn/index.html

The 200 only uses single date ram versus the double data ram used by the 400, double data will send twice as much data per cycle so it is faster.

GeForce2 MX400 200MHz core
64 MB 128-bit SDRAM (166MHz)
Memory bandwidth - 2.7 GB/s


GeForce2 MX 200
175MHz core
32 MB 64-bit SDRAM (166 MHz)
Memory bandwidth - 1.3 GB/s


Here is an article with a comparision of them
http://firingsquad.gamers.com/hardware/gf2mx400/default.asp

 

I too was interested in up-grading my Video Card and I couldn't believe the prices for 64mb cards. So i did a little investigating.

<FONT SIZE="1" COLOR="blue"> Quote</FONT>
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From here things can vary as the GeForce2 MX will be available in a couple of memory configurations. The memory interface can range from 64-bit to 128-bit depending on the manufacturers needs and SDR or DDR memory can be used. Frame buffer sizes can vary between 8 and 64 MBs but 32MB configurations will probably be most common.

Costs obviously will drop if the narrow 64-bit SDR memory is used but it also greatly hurts performance. However, NVIDIA told us that the 64-bit memory configuration should automatically be equipped with DDR SDRAM, which will equalize the narrower data path with a higher memory clock. Our reference board is based on 128-bit SDRAM clocked at 166 MHz (giving us a theoretical limit of 2.7 GB/sec) so we can only imagine how bad the performance can get if a 64-bit/SDR configuration should be used.


Taken from <A HREF="http://www4.tomshardware.com/graphic/00q2/000629/index.html">tomshardware.com</A>
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My take on this is it is a cheaper type of 64mb memory and chip set.

 

My son just got a gforce3 ti200 (normal price around 199), if your really looking for a nice card without the expense of the gfroceti500 it really is a nice card. runs rings around my GTS2.

 

Just been on the Jetway website and there is no menton of a Geforce MX200 64mb card, only 32mb so I am gonna take it back to the shop Monday and get the one I originally asked for. My thinking was if there wasnt much difference in the 2 cards I would leave it as is as I got a good deal anyway but i dont know what I've got so I'll swap it or get a refund.

 

I was looking for a budget card really, best I can get for under £70 and I saw this one on the Novatech site along with a 1ghx Athlon, heatsink and fan, motherboard and 256mb ram - total price £227 and the shop near me said they would match the price.