GeForce 4 MX for my Computer

Computer Hardware
#1

I have my old Compaq PII 333 with an AGP 2X slot. Currently using a TNT2 M64. I pity my processor because I don’t have a GPU to render my games.

I thought of getting a GF4 MX 440 card for it. I might sell the stupid TNT2. I’m just not sure whether my PC supports it or not. I try to ask HP/Compaq and they said it might not be compatible because Compaq mobos are quite sensitive.

Do you think I can use the GF4MX card on my PC ? I know I am not going to get all the benefits from that card but at least the processor will not work so hard.

#2

Whatever card you get will never be able to use it’s full capacity as they will be starved for CPU power.

Take a look at this, Digit Life did a retro look at all current and past 3D accelerators on a PII 350.
Link

In summary there is no point in getting anything else better than a GeForce 4MX.

The card should be compatabile with your system but to make sure download the free version of sisoft sandra
Link

And run the motherboard information module it will (hopefully) identify the make of your motherboard and what version of AGP you have.

Then check the brand of GF4MX you intend to buy against that to see if they are compatabile.

#3

My motherboard is a Intel 440LX/EX chipset with AGP 1.0 (2X).
Maybe I’ll bring the CPU to the shop and test the card before purchasing it.

#4

I think you are wasting your time. The TNT2 should be fine for working and any game your CPU can handle. Hell, I was using a TNT up until a year and a half ago, and it worked fine at low to medium detail on most games.

#5

If you can find a GeForce 2 MX 400 or similar maybe second hand that should have a better chance of working. The thing you have to watch out for is can your motherboard supply the correct voltage to the AGP slot.

With such an early revision of the AGP slot it might not support the necessary voltages required for the current spec’d video cards.

Your motherboard at least according to Intel’s own site supports 3.3v AGP video cards.

According to the link below the Asus GeForce4 MX440SE does support 3.3v so you may be in luck just check the specs of the vid card you intend to plug into it before you do.

Link

#6

I just borrowed a GF2 MX400 (Asus) from my friend and benchmarked it. I can see noticable difference between Geforce and TNT2. The games run smoother ( GTA: Vice City ) and gained 900marks on 3dmark 2000.

I think it’s worth it to get a GF4 MX. How about Radeon 9000 ? Is it good ? Does GF4 MX 440 supports AGP 2X ?

#7

The ATI R9000 is a good DirectX-8 budget card but if you look back at the first link I posted with Digit Life’s look at how all the current 3D cards behaved on a PII 350 you’ll see that it didn’t fare that well on a CPU bound machine.

The one’s that came out the top consistantly were a GF4 MX and and an ATI R9500 which isnt really a budget card and probably a waste of money unlesss you intend to bring it with you to another machine.

The GeForce 4 MX440 does support AGP2X. But it’s only DX7.

If you do want DirectX-8 complient graphics card try getting hold of a second hand GeForce 3.

#8

Not easy to get a GF3 nowdays. Radeon have driver problems. I’ll see what I can get. I might be thinking of using this card when I do a major upgrade on my computer or get a new one.

From what I understand is the difference between DirectX7 and DX8 cards is DX8 have something pixel and vertex shading technologies.

Does getting a DX8 card will boost a DX7 game’s performance ? Are there a lot of DX8 games around ?

#9

Originally posted by liteonmania
Not easy to get a GF3 nowdays. Radeon have driver problems. I’ll see what I can get. I might be thinking of using this card when I do a major upgrade on my computer or get a new one.

When doing a major upgrade, a GF3 card is somewhat slow for a new system. It may do fine for now, but as a matter of fact, it’s already old and relative slow…

Originally posted by liteonmania

From what I understand is the difference between DirectX7 and DX8 cards is DX8 have something pixel and vertex shading technologies.

Yes, that’s part of the differences. Do a search on google for all differences…

Originally posted by liteonmania

Does getting a DX8 card will boost a DX7 game’s performance ? Are there a lot of DX8 games around ?

DX8 cards don’t boost the performance in DX7 games because they are DX8, but often DX8 cards are just plain faster (faster core/memory) than DX7 cards.

DX8 games? Yes there are… most games that were released about the last year or so are probably DX8…

#10

You wont get any real perofrmance boost from a DX8 card but it will be able to do the DX8 effects that DX7 cant albeit slowly though.

And DX8 games are common enough now.

Still I would stick with the GF4 MX, it’s cheap and by the time you get round to building a new PC the 3D graphics card market moves so quick price and technology wise, you’ll get something better and cheaper than if you bought a powerfull 3D card now.

#11

Originally posted by liteonmania
Not easy to get a GF3 nowdays. Radeon have driver problems. I’ll see what I can get. I might be thinking of using this card when I do a major upgrade on my computer or get a new one.

I decided to acquire a video card with GeForce 3 Ti500 over the GeForce 4 MX series.

A Gainward GeForce3 PowerPack!!! (GeForce 3 Ti500, 128MB DDR, TV-out) running for $87 USD plus $5 UPS Ground Shipping.

http://www.excaliberpc.com/product_info.php?cPath=184_227&products_id=1794

#12

I got a MSI GeForce 440SE and notice some difference in my benchmarks.

This card has 250mhz core and 166mhz ram (333 DDR).

I got some 1000 marks more than my previous TNT2 M 64. I know this card can produce better 3DMark result. It’s slow because of my old PII CPU.

I benchmark the GPU on both Win98SE and XP Pro and there were around 400 marks difference between that two OSes. Win98SE produce better 3dMarks results. Why is this happening ?
I am using the same drivers(MSI Detonator 30.00).

Why can’t I run Enviromental Bump Mapping benchmark in 3DMark ?

#13

The GF4MX does support Cube environment mapping
but enviromental bump mapping is not listed on MSI specs for the card, now wether they are different or the same thing I do not know.

As for the performance difference it could just be that MS does not tune/optimize enough the AGP driver for what they consider old equipment under WinXP.

Try updating the drivers to the most current from Nvidias website currently at 44.03http://www.nvidia.com/

Or if you want to stick with the branded MSI drivers try their 41.07
Download for Win98SE/ME
Download for Win2K/XP

#14

What is the difference between cube enviroment mapping and enviromental bump mapping and what is the purpose of this benchmark.

According to MSI’s website. My card does supports cube enviroment mapping.

#15

Don’t worry if the GF4MX does not support EBM as only certain games use this and is not to noticable with it turned off more so if the games details are tunred down or playing at low resolutions.

As for what they are Nvidia states:
Cube environment mapping allows for accurate reflections without the problems of sphere environment mapping. A demo with source code is also available.
Link

And Pvr state that:
Enviromental Bump mapping is a technique which allows surface irregularities to be represented on an object during the 3D rendering of a scene without requiring the irregularities (or bumps) to each be represented by a separate polygon, which would be hugely expensive for both the CPU and the graphics processor.

Link

Assuming your talking about 3DMark 2001, their in their just for the sake of being thorough I guess.

#16

I notice that my VGA signon message is not enable from the bios editor. Everytime I restart my PC, I experience corrupted graphics and then everything runs fine. Should I enable the VGA signon message ?

#17

A good bit of advice is if it 'aint broke why fix it…

If your getting some garbled display but everything works fine after that I would suggest just leaving it alone.

It’s upto you if you want to, but tweaking unknown settings in the video card bios and and flashing it could leave you with a dead video card or at best one that could be salvaged if you had a PCI graphics card so you could reflash the bios with it stil in the AGP port.

It might have to do more with the motherboard bios than the graphics card.

It’s your call…