eVGA's Geforce 4 MX440

Author : Martyn Date : 20th Feb '02

...Product	e-Geforce 4 MX440
...Manufacturer	eVGA.com
...Supplier	eVGA.com
...Price	$179.00

 

 

The HSF unit we can see here is discussed on page two. I merely wish to illustrate the unit's air expulsion here. I made a quick reference to the grills used to push out the hot air and thus here they are. It's still hard to believe the unit is real unless it's in front of you, what I can vouch for with great certainty though is the quality finish. The aluminum on this innovative heatsink is machined perfectly with exceptionally smooth, flowing edges. You can clearly see the low profile appearance of the unit here too. It's actually a little lower than a standard cooler enabling full usage of your underlying PCI slot, something that isn't always possible with more extreme solutions.

Here is the full card in all it's glory. eVGA.com have stuck to the reference design of Nvidia's MX series. It's so 'reference' in fact the nV logo is still placed on the top right hand side of the PCB. This isn't actually a bad thing, we know from the Nvidia GF4 previews and reviews just how fast Nvidia's reference boards are. Add the excellent cooling on top of the already superb design and we have a card to be reckoned with already. Some users do prefer however for companies to stamp a certain individuality upon retail boards, so if you fall into the aforementioned group of consumers, this board may not instantly appeal.
On this board, it was Samsung 5.0ns rated for the memory. The boards do look a tad bare now these memory types are becoming standard. There is plenty of room now though for users to add their memory heatsinks of choice. It would have been nice to see the inclusion of some eVGA branded heatsinks on the memory, but I guess with such a great HSF, we mustn't complain. I'm very tempted to add some Thermaltake or Tweakmonster heatsinks though! Alas, for now I will resist the temptation, the unit must be reviewed in it's original state. But afterwards... who knows!

Updated Software Section: ADM: A Novices Dream Come True?

ADM? It stands for Automated Driver Management and it attempts to do just that, automate the install sequence for those unsure exactly which drivers are needed.
If one had to wager a large amount of money on the most frequently typed sentence in forum history, I would suggest 'Have you installed your motherboard drivers?' would be right at the top of my list! No doubt many good cards have been returned to retail stores due to the inexperience of the purchaser. eVGA is attempting to correct this. Not only will the program install your latest nVidia display driver for you, it will also detect your chipset and identify if your AGP driver has been installed. If none are found, the software will install the relevant driver from it's large selection of available drivers and then move on to your display driver. A truly excellent idea that worked perfectly on this card. I uninstalled my VIA AGP driver and set the program to install the drivers. It detected the lack of AGP acceleration straight away and installed VIA service pack v.4.37. Constant messages are displayed upon your screen to tell you exactly what choices you have and just what is happening at each given moment. The software can even detect which Operating System you are currently using and install the nVidia drivers relevant to your PC. At a later time, if you wish to use different drivers, the ADM program will clean up your computer, removing all traces of the last display driver to ensure your new drivers install without a hitch.
eVGA.com have clearly put a lot of effort and research into this program and their support for those with minimal PC experience can only be applauded. This program is Patent Pending at this moment and if they continue to update and improve this software, eVGA could soon be the end user's best friend very quickly indeed.

eVGA's commitment to the customer doesn't stop there though, they also have a full diagnostic utility available via the online resource: Syscan
Basically, this is an excellent resource for users who need to send detailed information about their system to eVGA but are unsure of exactly which components they have. The program will scan and display the common features of a computer system such as chipset, BIOS, VGA cards etc. The Syscan software will then suggest patches or drivers that may help your system.
In conclusion the eVGA.com software package was an excellent inclusion for user's who are still learning their way around the finer points of computing, the commitment to the customer is clear, if only other companies thought more like this....

Now we are familiar with the board and software we can commence the testing. I had high hopes, let's see how this card faired in the benchmarks...

Page Six: Benchmarks [1]
>>>

Back to page one
<<<

Home