BlueSmoke - Review : ABIT Siluro MX400

		Date	: Jul 11th, 2001
		Category	: Video
		Manufacturer	: ABIT
		Author	: Jin-Wei Tioh

It has been quite some time since nVIDIA introduced the GeForce2 MX, which soon became one of its most popular product. Competent 3D gaming performance with workstation graphics features such as dual display support. Quite the irresistible package.

Soon after its release, other people came to play in nVIDIA's court. ATI launched the Radeon SDR and the Radeon VE. Matrox tackled the GeForce2 MX's workstation features with their G450. These solution performed better and cost less. Clearly, nVIDIA had to do something to maintain their presence in the value segment of the video card market.

The solution? Segment the GeForce2 MX line; the GeForce2 MX200 and the MX400. The MX200 is a lower-end solution, while the MX400 is a higher-end solution meant to replace the original GeForce2 MX. Today, we take a look at a product based on the new GeForce2 MX400 chipset, the ABIT Siluro MX400.

ABIT is certainly no stranger to the tech community. They electrified the scene with their revolutionary SoftMenu technology, in the form of the IT5H motherboard which achieved spectacular overclocking results. Then came other overclocking stars such as the BX6 and the BH6. This Taiwanese company has certainly met with much success outside the Asian market.

Originally, ABIT limited its production to motherboards. However, as other motherboard manufacturers began expanding their product line, so did ABIT. Starting with nVIDIA's GeForce chip, ABIT continued the trend with the Siluro GF2 MX, based on the GeForce2 MX chip, and now the Siluro MX400, their current top of the line model. There's also the Siluro T400, which is basically a MX400 with TV-out. So, how does a video card from a premiere motherboard manufacturer perform? Let's find out.

The Siluro MX400's packaging is rather unique, but aesthetically pleasing. You get the Siluro, a well written user manual, as well as a CD with the drivers and a registered copy of WinDVD 2000.

ABIT chose to follow nVIDIA's specified reference design. There's absolutely nothing wrong with this, as their reference designs are quite good. The first thing that jumps out at you is that the Siluro uses a black PCB. While having no bearing on performance, ABIT wants to let you frag and look good doing it. However, there is something odd. The Siluro utilizes passive cooling for the GeForce2 MX400 core. Granted, it is a larger than usual heatsink, but most manufacturers provide an active cooling solution even for their GeForce2 MX products. We'll take a look at what impacts this has later in the article. On a note of interest, ABIT did not include the two mounting holes needed to use coolers such as the ThermalTake Blue Orb. If you do want to mount another heatsink/cooler on the Siluro, you would have to use some form of thermal adhesive.

Another point of interest is that the Siluro MX400 is outfitted with 64MB of SDR RAM. The Siluro uses eight 6ns EliteMT chips to achieve this capacity. This amount of RAM used to be a luxury item, but in recent months, the price of 6ns (166MHz) SDR RAM has fallen steadily as faster DDR RAM becomes the norm, to the point where it is finally feasible for manufacturers to use 64MB on a card.

Since this is the Siluro MX400 and not the Siluro T400, TV-out functionality is not present. On the T400, TV-out functionality is provided by the popular Conexant (Brooktree) BT869KRF chip. However, you can clearly see that the silk screening for the required hardware is already there on the MX400.

The Siluro MX400 utilizes nVIDIA's reference drivers as the shipping drivers. You can look at this from two perspectives; it keeps costs down, ensures stability and makes for rapid updates, since you can download the latest reference drivers direct from nVIDIA; however, it generally lessens the amount of variety that the end-user gets. Fortunately, ABIT has added some custom graphics here and there to spice things up a little. Unfortunately, the drivers supplied (version 6.62) are somewhat dated. This is easily fixed by downloading the latest nVIDIA reference drivers.

Also bundled are E-Color's 3Deep software as well as ABIT's own overclocking utility, Graphic MAX. 3Deep basically corrects lighting, shading and color in 2D and 3D applications, a calibration utility if you will. While it is certainly no hassle to use a 3rd party overclocking utility, it was thoughtful of ABIT to include Graphic MAX for the end-user's convenience.

Without further ado, let's take the Siluro MX400 for a ride...

Generally, the GeForce2 MX400 manages to keep abreast or slightly ahead of the GeForce2 MX in most of the benchmarks. At a high resolution (1600x1200), the GeForce2 MX400's advantages begin to show, resulting in a performance increase in the range of 3.5% to 9% in all benchmarks. Another marked difference is that the GeForce2 MX is unable to complete the 3DMark 2001 tests at 1600x1200 with a color depth of 32-bits. It simply does not have sufficient video memory (32MB) to hold the required textures, whereas the GeForce2 MX400 encounters no problems with it's large 64MB.

This is where things begin to get interesting. The original GeForce2 MX chip could quite easily go from it's default clock (175MHz) to 200MHz. Since the GeForce2 MX400 is basically an overclocked GeForce2 MX chip, we were not expecting much of a possible increase in the core clock.

However, the Siluro MX400 did surprise us by running stable at a core/memory clock combination of 225/205! These increased speeds gave virtually no benefit at lower resolutions (eg. 640x480). However, there were significant gains at resolutions of 1024x768 and above, an average of around 20%. Certainly not too shabby for a passive cooling solution as well as the 6ns EliteMT memory, which has a rated speed of 166MHz.

The Siluro MX400 is a fine, no-nonsense card. It works well, with few gimmicky extras to increase its cost. There is the lack some overclocker-friendly features such as RAM sinks and active cooling for the GeForce2 MX400 core. However, this did not prevent us from achieving a nice overclocking margin, with the Siluro MX400 hitting a core/mem speed of 225/205. Although the original GeForce2 MX and the GeForce2 MX400 are nearly indistinguishable in performance, ABIT cannot really be blamed for this. Moreover, the MX400 might permit a wider margin of overclockability.

To top it off, ABIT uses a black PCB and unique packaging, making the Siluro MX400 aesthetically sound. WinDVD 2000, E-Color's 3Deep, partially personalized (though dated) drivers, ABIT's custom overclocking utility and a well-written manual round up the bundle. In short, if you're looking for a reasonably priced 3D graphics solution, with adequate features and competent performance, the ABIT Siluro MX400 just might be the ticket.

Highly Recommended.

NOTE : We have made the Siluro MX400 part of our motherboard testbed.