[plug] Video cards

[Dennis Plester]

Mark said:

"Hi all
I followed the thread on GeForce2 MX video cards last week and am hoping to
pick one up in Perth soon.
I'm a little confused though Apollo, Sparkle Asus all offer cards with this
chipset.
Is there any difference in these cards other than price or more importantly
in there support for Linux. 
Mark"
All of the GeForce2 MX cards are effectively the same chipset wise, but some
companies introduce minor variations on the reference design. There are some
without the Twinview (dual head) enabled, or with different rear plug
configurations. You might want to pick a particular card that has exactly
what you want on the back if this is important to you.
None of the cards I looked at actually had Linux drivers on the CD or
instructions on how to set it up in Linux. They all mention Linux on the
back of the box however... This isn't a bad thing as you should really use
the latest reference drivers off the web anyway. They are all identical in
terms of Linux support.
The other principle variation is the quality of RAM and cooling used. The
Geforce2 MX can run a little warm, and most of the cards only use a heat
sink. One cheap card I found (Wyan) has a fan, and it runs much cooler than
two others that I have seen in my friends PCs. It also has Hyundai RAM,
which is noted as being far easier to overclock, if that's of interest...
(The difference between the MX and GTS Geforce 2's is the cheaper, slower
RAM used in the MX's. You can wind up the core clock speed very easily up to
the GTS speed, but in most cases the RAM won't come to the party, holding
things back.)
Hope this helps.
Dennis.