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Asus V9180 Magic Display Card

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PCQ Bureau
New Update

For desktop graphic users, nVidia has product categories containing the ‘Ti’ range of cards for the gamers and enthusiasts and the ‘MX’ series for the mainstream or value users among other products. 

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The card we reviewed this time was an MX series card. Surprisingly, this card comes with an AGP 8X interface, whereas some other high-end cards like the GeForce4 Ti 4600 still feature AGP 4X. This is because a faster AGP interface does not make a card perform better, it is the GPU or Graphics processor Unit and the Video memory of the card that matter the most. AGP 4X interface is more than enough for most current and near future games and our tests backed this clearly. The GeForce4 MX-8X card has 64 MB video memory and we compared it against

an older AGP 4X GeForce2 Ti card also having 64 MB memory. 

In out tests the new AGP 8X Geforce4 MX was defeated by the older AGP 4X GeForce2 Ti in all benchmarks (See table for results). Also Serious Sam

was not able to give any score for it at 1600x1200x32 resolution. 

We have also listed the scores of GeFroce4 Ti 4600 with 128 MB video memory (in the table below) to show what high-end gaming cards can provide, even with an AGP 4X interface.

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Quake III Arena

Serious Sam

3D Mark 2001 SE

 Unreal

Tournament 2003
1024*



768*


32
 1600*



1200*


32
 1024*



768*


32
 1600*



1200*


32
 1024*



768*


32
 1600*



1200*


32
 1024*



768*


32
 1600*



1200*


32
fps fps fps fps 3D

Marks		 3D

Marks		 fps fps
GeForce

4 MX-8X		 114.1 46.6 73.1 x 5059 2248 49.1 21.2
GeForce

2 Ti		 134.1 56.1 93.9 39.2 5500 2546 56.8 25.1
GeForce

4 Ti 4600		 320.7 158 164 121.1 14745 8874 185.6 86.4
Config

used: Intel P4 3.0 GHz and 875PBZ Motherboard, 512 MB DDR RAM in

dual-channel config, 7200 RPM HDD.

The Bottom Line Overall, the card is a poor performer compared to the older GeForce2 Ti based cards. The latter would be a better buy if you can find it (it’s been discontinued). Even though the V9180 has an AGP 8X interface, it doesn’t result in better performance. The card would, however, give you much better performance than onboard graphics. Plus, it also has TV out connectors, both

S-Video and Composite, which let you hook it to a TV. Some useful Asus utility software is also thrown into the bundle.

S

N   A   P   S   H

O   T
Price : Rs 7,850 (two-year warranty)
Key Specs : Has AGP 8X interface. But this doesn’t translate into better performance, based on GeForce4 MX440-8X

GPU, has TV-out and useful utility software
Contact : Rashi Peripherals, Mumbai.
Tel : 28221013/1024.
E-mail : ho@rptechindia.com 

Anoop Mangla

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