GeForce2 Scaling Analysis

Introduction

NVIDIA's GeForce2 Ultra Reference board

With the recent release of the new GeForce3 , NVIDIA rocks the whole graphics market once again. As you could read in the largest article in our history, this new 3D killer chip is expected to declass its competitors in terms of features and performance.

Thanks to this new star, it will only be a matter of weeks until the precedent GeForce2 family will be object to price cuts, making the former top-model GeForce2 Ultra finally affordable. Still the TNT2/Ultra is the most sold NVIDIA chip, as most of them are being integrated into low-cost systems. Unfortunately, this oldie is rather lame by today's standards.

The GeForce2 family consists of five different chips: The GeForce2 MX, which is the most versatile mainstream chip including TwinView for two displays, the GeForce2 Go for Notebooks, GeForce2 GTS and GeForce2 Pro as the performance models and last but not least the GeForce2 Ultra, representing the very top of this family at 250 MHz clock speed. Currently, only ATI is able to compete with NVIDIA in terms of features and performance. However, the high-performance sector is traditionally ruled by NVIDIA; a tradition, which will be continued with GeForce3.

At prices between $ 100 and $ 200, the GeForce2 MX is the most attractive chip. Simple GeForce2 GTS or Pro models start at $ 150, while the Ultra monsters cannot be obtained for less than $ 350. This article will answer the question whether you should invest your money in a fast processor or in a high-end graphics card and which team will provide the best graphics performance for your money.