PCI versions of cards seem to be skipping 4 generations now... This is a GREAT deal on the best PCI card out there now. I have a voodoo5 5500PCI on this comp and a MX200 PCI on the other comp(My dad went crazy and bought 2 dell GX110s w/ no AGP slot off ebay "Because its a solid brand") They seem to be about equal, with this card coming in better on some games and the mx200 being better at others. It sucked for those stuck with PCI slots to only be able to use a 2 year old economy graphics card that performed as well as their 3 year old ubercard.
This will at least be a step up.
For all those who think mx420 sucks: It is mislabelled really, in order to fit in with their marketting department. There are 3 basic cores(each card has many modifications) for the Geforce line:
The Geforce 1 (first T&L GPU)
The Geforce 2 (Used on all Gf2's and on the Gf4mx420-460 line)
The Geforce 3 (Programmable effects core, used on all Gf3's and on Gf4 ti4200-4600 line)
The mx420 has a very high clocked Gf2 core, with SDR memory and one new feature, the Lightspeed 2 memory architecture, which makes VASTLY improved z-occlusion culling possible, improving framerates 20-60% over a similarly clocked Gf2 GTS
The mx440 and 460 are the same as the 420, but higher clocked and with DDR memory
Since the main bottleneck in graphics cards is the memory, an mx460 is going to perform MUCH better than a 420. Even at the same clock, the 440 and 460 would go almost twice as fast as the 420 due to the DDR memory.
Still, the mx420 PCI beats the pants off anything PCI graphics cards had to offer before. The former front-runners were the gf2mx40PCI, the Kyro2 PCI, and the voodoo5 5500 PCI, but NVIDIA has finally asserted their dominance over the PCI sector.
@ $79, this is a burning hot deal, as the PCI card market isnt very competitive(compared to AGP) and PCI cards are sometimes even more expensive than their superior AGP brothers.
