Creative 3D Blaster4 MX420

Keeping up with graphics card technology is a quick way to break the bank. A new generation of cards appear at least twice a year and the latest, greatest models are never cheap. nVidia currently produces the graphics card chip of choice and it announced its new generation at the beginning of February.

The new chips are called GeForce4 Ti and their abilities are prodigious, to say the least. But since cards that use them start at $199 (UK pricing has yet to be confirmed but count on 'from £199'), hard-up gamers might be tempted by a model with a cheaper GeForce4 MX chip.

Unfortunately, the name is a little misleading, since the GeForce4 MX has more in common with the old GeForce2 MX than the new GeForce4 Ti.

It lacks many of the fancy new GeForce4 Ti features, although it does have built-in support for DVD playback and better anti-aliasing to smooth out jagged edges.

The big deal, however, is the price - the Creative 3D Blaster 4 MX420 card with 64MB of memory we've looked at here costs a mere £100.

So with the GeForce4 MX now established (albeit confusingly) in the new nVidia range, how does the MX420 card stack up? Sadly, not particularly well. The MX420 is the base GeForce4 MX card and new graphics chip aside, its specification barely scrapes past that of the GeForce2. GeForce4 MX specifications only start to impress with the next card up in the range and we'll be reviewing an MX440 card in the next issue of Computeractive.

Unsurprisingly then, the MX420 failed to impress in our performance tests. It performed about as well as a £20 dearer ATi Radeon 7500 and while the performance of both cards dropped when graphics processor-intensive anti-aliasing is enabled, the Radeon's dropped more.

The MX420 also outclassed a GeForce2 MX but still lagged behind a GeForce3.

Given that GeForce3 cards will tumble in price following the announcement that they are to be discontinued, the best advice is to ignore the MX420 and save your money for one of those instead.

b>Contact

No UK phone number; http://uk.europe.creative.com

ALSO CONSIDER

Hercules Prophet 4500XT

Great graphics at a pocket-money price.

See also:

Creative Labs 3D Blaster 4 Titanium 4400

The Titanium 4400 offers excellent performance at a reasonable price.  10 Jun 2002

Asus V8170DDR (GeForce4 MX 440)

A good inexpensive choice for general use.  28 May 2002

Asus V8460 (GeForce4 Ti 4600)

The Asus V8460 is a graphics card that will turn heads.  22 May 2002

Sparkle GeForce4 MX440

Not a bad deal for those on a budget.  12 Apr 2002

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