Specifications

The List

0.18 micron manufacturing process
175MHz core clock
166MHz memory clock
2 pixels per clock cycle
350 Mpixels/s fill rate
4 texels per clock cycle
700 Mtexels/s fill rate
2.7 GB/s memory bandwidth
20 million triangles/sec
8-64MB frame buffer
128-bit Single Data Rate (SDR) or 64-bit Double Data Rate (DDR) memory
TwinView architecture
Digital Vibrance control
Integrated Dual-Link TMDS transmitters
NVIDIA Shading Rasterizer (NSR)
High-Definition Video Processor (HDVP)
AGP 4X with Fast Writes
32-bit color
32-bit Z/stencil buffer
Cube environment mapping
DirectX and S3 texture compression
350MHz RAMDAC

Clock speeds, pipelines and fill rates

Ah, where to begin? Let's talk about the differences between all the different GeForce cards. The original GeForce could push out four pixels per clock, but it could also only do four texels per clock. The GeForce 2 also has a quad-pixel engine, but is able to process two textures per pixel pipeline for 8 texels per clock. The GeForce 2 MX only has a dual-pixel pipeline, but retains the GeForce 2's ability to process two textures per clock.

It sounds like the MX should have half the pixel fill rate of the GeForce and GeForce 2, right? Not quite. We also have to remember that each chip has a different clock speed. The original GeForce has a 120MHz clock, which translates into a 480 Mpixels/s fill rate (4 pixels per clock cycle x 120MHz) and a 480 Mtexels/s fill rate (4 texels per clock x 120MHz). The GeForce 2 has a 200MHz clock, which results in an 800 Mpixels/s fill rate (4 pixels per clock x 200MHz) and a 1.6 Gtexels/s fill rate (8 texels per clock x 200MHz).

Built on the same 0.18 micron process as the GeForce 2 GTS, the GeForce 2 MX supports a nice 175MHz clock for fill rates of 350 Mpixels/s (2 pixels per clock x 175MHz) and 700 Mtexels/s (4 texels per clock x 175MHz).