The most recent articles from PC Magazine

PNY Technologies Verto (GeForce4 MX440)

PC Magazine staff — 2002-05-29T10:15:33.000Z

PC Magazine staff, PC Magazine, Wednesday 29 May 2002 at 10:15:33

A mainstream graphics card using nVidia's GeForce4 MX440 chipset.

The first name you might think of when considering a new graphics card probably isn't PNY Technologies.

A French company more widely known for its memory-based products, such as Dimms, PNY has been producing graphics cards with nVidia chipsets since the Riva TNT.

Its latest product, the Verto GeForce4 MX440, is a mainstream graphics card using the same GeForce4 MX440 chipset as the Asus V8170DDR.

The 440 denomination refers to the clock speed of the memory as well as the core speed of the chip, which are 200MHz and 270MHz, respectively. As it's fitted with 64Mb of DDR SDRam, this is an effective speed of 400MHz.

The Verto GeForce4 MX440 has two pixel processing pipelines that provide a maximum fill rate of 540Megapixel/s, with the new architecture of nVidia's mainstream graphics chip offering advantages and disadvantages in equal measure.

The improved Video Processing Engine now includes dual 350MHz DACs and two TMDS signal emitters for configurations involving either digital or analogue displays, but PNY has chosen to implement only S-Video output alongside the card's standard 15-pin VGA port.

However, you'll still benefit from MPEG-2 decoding and motion compensation support for DVD-video playback on a PC.

The memory interface uses twin 64-bit controllers to provide more effective load-balanced use of this potential bottleneck, as well as auto-precharge and object and texture culling to avoid rendering objects that won't be visible in the final scene.

The most useful addition to the card's feature set is nVidia's multi-sampling anti-aliasing routine, which replaces processor intensive super-sampling. PNY's board also has active cooling, as well as a purple printed circuit board, which might appeal to enthusiasts.

However, be warned that the lack of programmable texel and pixel shaders could well put this board at a distinct disadvantage with future software. Despite this, it's still an attractive product for the price.

Price: £99.99 (ex. VAT)

Specifications:

Controller: nVidia GeForce4 MX440

Memory: 64Mb DDR SDRam

Core clock: 270MHz

Memory clock: 200MHz

RAMDAC: 350MHz

Connectors: VGA, S-Video

Contact: PNY Technologies 01256 338 609

www.pny.co.uk

Asus V8170DDR (GeForce4 MX 440)

PC Magazine staff — 2002-05-28T13:25:45.000Z

PC Magazine staff, PC Magazine, Tuesday 28 May 2002 at 13:25:45

A good inexpensive choice for general use.

Although the name doesn't provide any indication of the onboard chipset, the Asus V8170DDR is based on the same graphics processor and memory configuration as PNY Technologies' Verto GeForce4 MX440.

The maximum complement of 64Mb of Double Data Rate (DDR) SDRam is installed next to the mainstream GeForce4 MX chipset and is clocked at 200MHz (equivalent to 400MHz).

The V8170DDR's graphics chip has a core speed of 270MHz, combined with two pixel processing pipelines to give it a maximum fill rate of 540Megapixel/s.

As well as lacking the quad-pipeline architecture of the high-end GeForce4 Ti chips, the GeForce4 MX 440 at the heart of this card lacks the programmable pixel and texel engines, so it's unsuitable for software running DirectX 8.0-based custom shaders.

This won't affect current software performance, but could put this product at a disadvantage as developers build custom shader routines in future titles.

As on all GeForce4 MX-based products, however, the V8170DDR benefits from improvements to the memory interface, including twin memory controllers and improved object culling.

The Asus is fitted with a passive heatsink. We didn't experience any problems with overheating during our tests, but this solution could deter those who like to overclock their cards. It also has an S-Video port at the rear and a composite video cable adapter in the box.

The V8170DDR returned a 3D WinMark 2000 score of 128" only one point below PNY Technologies' Verto GeForce4 MX440.

Price: £85.99 (ex. VAT)

Specifications:

Controller: nVidia GeForce4 MX440

Memory: 64Mb DDR SDRam

Core clock: 270MHz

Memory clock: 200MHz

RAMDAC: 350MHz

Connectors: VGA, S-Video

Contact: Dabs.com (distributor) 0870 429 3220

www.asus.com

Asus V8460 (GeForce4 Ti 4600)

PC Magazine staff — 2002-05-22T10:25:47.000Z

PC Magazine staff, PC Magazine, Wednesday 22 May 2002 at 10:25:47

The Asus V8460 is a graphics card that will turn heads.

Unlike the slightly disappointing GeForce4 MX-type boards, the Asus V8460 is a graphics card that will turn heads, because it's one of the fastest products you can now buy and also one of the largest, reaching right up to the edge of an ATX motherboard.

As such, you might find that your PC's E-IDE and floppy cables obstruct the installation of this product if they're in front of the AGP slot. However, if you can find the room for the V8460 in your PC, you'll not be disappointed.

It's one of the first boards to feature nVidia's latest GeForce4 Ti 4600 chipset and represents the highest level of consumer graphics acceleration currently available.

The chip is clocked at 300MHz and is fitted alongside the maximum frame buffer configuration of 128Mb, which is made up from 3.8ns DDR SDRam clocked at 325MHz. This is equivalent to 650MHz data rate and offers a maximum bandwidth of 10.4Gbps.

To make best use of this specification, the GeForce4 Ti 4600 is equipped with four independent memory controllers and improved occlusion routines.

This is just as well, as it also features a second dual-texel processing unit, giving the V8460 a massive maximum texture processing rate of 4.8Megatexel/s along with its impressive raw fill rate of 1.2Megapixel/s, so efficient use of memory bandwidth is crucial to avoid performance bottlenecks.

Additional improvements to the architecture include MPEG-2 decoding with motion compensation for DVD-Video playback and the multi-sampling anti-aliasing technique demonstrated by the MX series.

What will appeal most to power users, though, is the 3D performance, which is very fast. The results of the pipeline optimisation are clear, with the V8460 returning a score of 277 in our 3D WinMark 2000 tests.

It also features the same programmable vertex and pixel shaders of the GeForce3 and will support the custom shaders likely to appear in future software.

In keeping with its status as a top-end product, the V8460 is equipped with VGA and DVI-I ports. Asus has also squeezed in an S-Video port for TV output.

It's possible that there's a faster, 0.13-micron chip waiting in the wings to replace the GeForce4 Ti 4600 but, until this emerges, cards like the Asus V8460 are more than capable enough to keep the most performance-hungry PC owner happy.

Price: £320.99 (ex. VAT)

Specifications:

Controller: nVidia GeForce4 Ti 4600

Memory: 128Mb DDR SDRam

Core clock: 300MHz

Memory clock: 650MHz

RAMDAC: 350MHz

Connectors: VGA, DVI-I, S-Video

Contact: Dabs.com (distributor) 0870 429 3220

www.asus.com.tw

VisionTek Xtasy GeForce4 Ti 4600

PC Magazine staff — 2002-05-15T15:24:04.000Z

PC Magazine staff, PC Magazine, Wednesday 15 May 2002 at 15:24:04

Outstanding in more ways than one, the Ti4600 will attract the enthusiast.

VisionTek is a relative newcomer to the European market and the Xtasy GeForce4 Ti 4600, a top-of-the-range graphics board for the performance hungry, is one of its first releases in the UK.

Like the Asus V8460, it uses the same combination of a GeForce4 Ti 4600 chipset with a core speed of 300MHz and 128Mb of DDR Ram clocked at 325MHz, equivalent to 650MHz.

It's a powerful combination, offering a maximum fill rate of 1.2 megapixel/s along with a memory bandwidth of 10.4Gbps. Unlike the GeForce4 MX series, the GeForce4 Ti chipset fitted to this board extends the capabilities of the previous GeForce3 range, as well as introducing some new features.

The biggest advance is the addition of a second vertex engine, like the graphics core used in Microsoft's Xbox, allowing the Xtasy GeForce 4 Ti 4600 to process a massive 4.8Megatexel/s with full DirectX 8.0a support for custom shaders as they appear.

Multi-sampled anti-aliasing (Accuview) is among the new features and the 128Mb frame buffer allows nVidia's five-point anti-aliasing to be applied to resolutions up to 1,600 by 1,200 pixels. A new DirectX-only anti-aliasing function, called 4XS, is also featured.

The board closely follows nVidia's own bulky reference design, with the heat sink and fan designed to channel air over the surface of the Ram chips.

The same is also true of performance, with the VisionTek board returning an almost identical 3D WinMark 2000 score of 276. However, in addition to the DVI-I and VGA outputs at the rear, an S-Video port allows for TV output and input for video.

That aside, the feature set of these two GeForce4 Ti-based boards is the same, including the quad memory controllers, MPEG-2 decoding and motion compensation.

As a result, the Ti 4600's 3D performance is remarkable, offering significant speed improvements for existing software. In addition, a custom shader platform is available for developers wanting to create their own effects.

If you have this amount of money to spend on a graphics card, then the VisionTek Xtasy GeForce4 Ti 4600 won't disappoint you.

Price: £315.99 (ex VAT)

Specifications:

Controller: mVidia GeForce Ti 4600
Memory: 128Mb DDR SDRam
Core clock: 300MHz
Memory clock: 650MHz
RAMDAC: 350MHz
Connectors: VGA,DVI-I S-Video

Contact: VisionTek 020 8323 8040

www.visiontek.com