Beware of the PowerColor Geforce2 MX

[kami]

I picked one of these up to use in a system I was building for a buddy of mine (got a great deal) but it has crappy memory on it. It defaults to 175MHz core and 143MHz memory (it's supposed to be 166). There are massive artifacts on the screen and I have to turn it down to 130MHz to remove all the artifacts and prevent the card from locking up. This chopped off 250 Mtexels/sec from the GF2 MX's fillrate.

So anyway, i take it back and figure I have a faulty card, bring the new one home... SAME problem. This one made it to a blistering 133MHz memory, though.

I highly doubt that I'm the only one who happened to get two cards that only had 7.5ns (maybe even 8ns) memory. Anyway, got my money back and picked up some total no-name brand GF2 MX and it works beautifully at 190MHz memory.

Stay away from PowerColor.

edit: and these were retail boxed cards.

 

[TimeKeeper]

A friend of mine pick up a CardEx MX (suppose to be the fastest MX on the market) from CompUSA.

At the glance, it has 5.5ns RAM, but it also has default speed of 175/143.

After updating the Nvidia BIOS version Nv116100.ROM, it happily running at 190/180 at default. (he also OC it to 210/210 w/out any problem w/ powerstripe)

These company already upgrade their RAM, but seems to forget to update their BIOS. Check their RAM spec....maybe it get more than what you expect.

 

[smp]

thanks for the info Kami.. I was always wondering about those.. I wanted to pick one up with my system before, cause of the dual monitor support on the MX.. does the powercolor even have that?

 

[kami]

TimeKeeper, I tried setting the memory to 150Mhz and the system locked up. I dont think the BIOS should affect how high the RAM can go. yes, it can affect the default setting, but I should still be able to put the RAM at 166Mhz.

smp, yes I remember seeing TwinView options.

 

[ToxicMussels]

kami,

I hope you are wrong!
I had just ordered the same card w/tv out. It got great reviews!

Some of the AMD chipsets have problems with this type of card. You need to tell us what your buddies system specs are before you go and flame this card.
There are patches for this problem on the way!

It may even be a just a user problem!

click here for card review

 

[Hekana]

I bought a Powercolor GFMX for my brother. It runs ok except for a faint scrolling diagonal line that comes up every few minutes. I will return it and get a new one...

 

[Hekana]

Where can I get latest bios for my Powercolor Geforce 2 mx card?

 

[ToxicMussels]

GET THEM HERE

 

[kami]

ToxicMussels, umm no it's not an AMD system. it's a P3-800 on a Asus CUSL2-C.

User problem? Sorry bud, but I know what I'm doing and that card was f*cked up. They tested it at the store with the same results. He said they've had numerous returns on this card and they're going to stop carrying it. Maybe it was a bad batch, but that's no excuse. No company should be run with quality control like that. Pathetic.

The bottom line is: the two cards I received shipped with RAM only capable of 133MHz (7.5ns), and it could have been much worse since even 7.5ns RAM can usually clock higher than that.

Oh yeah, I tried the drivers that shipped with the card, and also the 6.31 and 6.50 nVidia drivers.

 

[Hekana]

I cant seem to find bios there, just drivers...

 

[steimm]

I have a similar problem.

I got a PowerColor Geforce 2 MX 64 MB the other day and I have big problems!!!

The rig is:
PIII700E@933 (rock stable)
128MB RAM
P3V4X Mobo (soltek converter) 4.29 drivers (4.05 AGP-drivers).
WinME
DX 8.0
4xAGP
PowerColor Geforce 2 MX 64 MB (drivers tested 6.31 6.50 6.67 10.80 7.5X and a lot of others)

The system hangs very often or "bumps" out to Windows in 3DMark2000, no o/c on the card. The best score I've had is 4600-something score in 3DMark2k and I think that really sucks, doesn't it??
The system hangs in the game I love: DF3:Land Warrior

Have tried WinME, Win98SE clean installations

What can I do?
How can I tell the speed of the memory on the card? (7.5ns or whatever it can be)
Should I send it back?
It was given to me as a gift...

Help me...!!!...!!!...

/steimm