The VisionTek XTasy Titanium Series Line-up
Taking Graphics to the Next Level

By - Dave Altavilla
November 19, 2001

 

We tested the GeForce2MX 400 that comes bundled with Visiontek's XTasy Everything, in the following system configuration.
 

HotHardware's Test System
Pentium 4 based test-bed
  • Intel Pentium 4 1.7GHz. Processor

  • Abit TH7-RAID Pentium 4 Motherboard

  • 256MB of Samsung PC800 RAMBUS DRDRAM

  • IBM DTLA307030 30Gig ATA100 7200 RPM Hard Drive

  • Windows 2000 Professional w/ SP2

  • Direct X 8.0a

  • nVidia Detonator 4 reference drivers version 21.85

Benchmarks With The Visiontek GeForce2MX 400
Decent entry level performance

Just to give you a baseline, with respect to what the 3D Graphics portion of this bundle can do, we thought it would make sense to show you a few benchmark numbers.  We'll start with MadOnion's 3DMark 2001.

These are fairly respectable numbers, especially in the lower resolutions, where texture memory bandwidth is not as saturated as it is at 1600X1200.  This benchmark is based on Remedy's Max Payne game engine.  As a point of reference, we recommend at least a score of 2000 3DMarks in order to run Max Payne smoothly in full detail.  As you can see, at 1024X768X32 frame rate should be very playable.

 

Vulpine Software's GLMark is a little more taxing on a graphics card and as opposed to 3DMark 2001, is driven by an OpenGL based engine.  It has the ability to support pixel and vertex shaders, like those found in a GeForce3 card but we had to turn that feature off obviously during testing since this card is based on a GeForce2 core.  Regardless, as you can see the GeForce2MX 400 does struggle with this test. 

Let's look at an all too familiar OpenGL benchmark based on a real gaming engine.

We cranked up the texture and geometry detail in all the Quake3 Timedemo tests.  As you'll note, the Xtasy Everything's GF2MX 400 cards handles 800X600 and 1024X768 resolutions with relative ease.  Holding on to that magic 60 frames per second number, even users with 19" monitors will have a fairly high resolution and detailed gaming experience at more than acceptable frame rates.

Let's deliver the final verdict here.

The Visiontek XTasy Everything is the proverbial jack of all trades for multi-media video and graphics.  Fortunately, it is also masterful with respect to the video side of the equation, delivering high quality TV images and allowing for a myriad of recording, producing and time shifting features to grace the average home users desktop.  In addition, its ease of use is commendable. 

Conversely, we would have appreciated more detailed documentation with our unit.  Although we were up and running in no time, we felt that maybe we may be missing out on some interesting feature that we are unaware of. (update 11/19/01 - there is a full html driven manual on the install CD.  Shame on us for not looking into this.  Add another point for VT!)  Also, it would have been nice to have a higher end GeForce2 Ti or GeForce3 Ti bundled with this kit.  The GeForce2MX 400 is nothing to scoff at but we would only consider it entry or mid level graphics hardware at this point.  However, if at the end of the day, price is a concern for you, this full featured kit that competes with the "All In Wonders" of the world, is a steal at a retail price of $199 with street prices around $179.

We're giving the Visiontek XTasy Everything a HotHardware Heat Meter Rating of...

 

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