An affordable, reliable performer
Written: Feb 11 '01
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Ease of setup, quality of driver/software included, extremely stable performance.
Cons: No fan or heat sink included, no dual monitor support
The Bottom Line: There are cheaper MX cards available, but the software and manufacturing quality of this card makes it a great choice.
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| taoshaman's Full Review: Creative Labs 3D Blaster Annihilator 2 MX |
Being in the market for a 3D video upgrade (meaning that I felt the time was right to move from my Voodoo3 3000 16MB to a GeForce2 MX 32MB card), I shopped around extensively before making a purchasing decision.
Of all the GeForce2 MX cards on the market, there were really only a couple choices that met my price/performance criteria: ASUS and the Creative Labs. Both were in the sub $150 range, both had a history of reliable products and solid driver support, and the reviews available seemed to bear out expectations.
I made up my mind to order the ASUS card because a couple friends had good success with their products (and I'm a fan of their motherboard line). This, however, ended up being the path not taken. I was knee-deep in a particular 3D game and was feeling the need to boost performance NOW (if you're a gamer, you've probably been there).
So, against my usual judgment, I wandered down to the local CompUSA to see what they had available. They rarely stock the 3D cards I'm most interested in, but I figured I needed to buy another CDR spindle anyway, and it wouldn't hurt to look.
The only GeForce2 MX card they had in stock was the Creative Labs Annihilator II. It was priced at $129. It was one of the cards I had read favorable reviews on. It was right there staring at me. No waiting. No shipping charges. Nothing but immediate, all-American gratification.
So I bought it. If you ask my wife you'll find that this kind of on-the-spot impulse buying is way out of character for me, but hey, that game was calling to me, beckoning for 32-bit color and faster frame rates.
I wasn't disappointed, but of course even the best purchases usually have one of two things that are less than perfect. I was a little surprised that this card doesn't come with a heat sink or fan of any kind, but in the three months I've had it installed, I haven't noticed any instability that could be attributed to heat. In fact, I haven't noticed any instability AT ALL. I can't say the same of some other 3D cards that have come and gone. We won't name names...but I'll just say that every card I ever tried from a particular major Canadian company had problems.
The included "Blaster Control" software provides an adequate set of "tweaking" and diagnostic functions, including the ability to overclock a bit (up to 315Mhz), and all the other Direct3D/OpenGL settings that hardcore geeks like to play with. Other than changing a given setting for a particular game that required it, I haven't found much need to mess with these controls: this card provides great performance in its default mode.
I have run the card in normal and overclocked mode and haven't noticed a whole lot of difference in performance, but more importantly, the stability didn't seem to change one way or another. Perhaps my system has efficient cooling, or perhaps this chip is just more stable than some others. Regardless, I can't really recommend overclocking it since there doesn't seem to be much of an advantage, and it's probably better to be safe than potentially sorry (any processor can suffer thermal breakdown if operated at clock rates higher than intended).
One bugaboo that bothers me has nothing to do with the card itself, but rather with the current state of game development. The game I was deep into at the time of purchase was Deus Ex (quite possibly the best game I've played in years, but that's a story for another review). Now, those of you who know the specs on that game will be shaking your collective heads and muttering, "This idiot didn't read the FAQ." You're right, I didn't. Silly me. As it turns out, Deus Ex is optimized for 3dfx Glide, not Direct3D. In fact, it has really poor Direct3D support. I discovered, as every other GeForce user has, that Deus Ex ran a LOT better on my old Voodoo3 than it did on my brand new GeForce2 MX card. It just goes to prove an old adage I've applied to computing in general: choose the software you want to run FIRST, then built the hardware required for best performance in that environment.
This isn't to say that Deux Ex was unplayable on my new card. I just means that I didn't get "Oh wow!" performance increases, and I actually had to step down my quality settings in order for the game to play smoothly. My wife was also playing that game at the time, and she was perfectly happy to take the Voodoo3 off my hands (replacing an antiquated Matrox card she'd been using).
This little contretemps almost had me marching back to the store to return my new purchase, until I tried playing American McGee's Alice with it. Ok, here it is....
W O W !!!
Alice DOES have good Direct3D support, and WOW WOW WOW what a difference. I thought that game was visually impressive on my prior card...with the Annihilator 2 MX I set all of the detail settings to high, cranked up to 1024x728x32 res, and just marvelled at how smooth, vivid, and beautifully rendered that game can be. So, I changed my mind on the return and finally felt happy with my choice.
Being that nVidia has now purchased most of 3dfx, I think 2001 will be the year that more game engines are built to exploit Direct3D in lieu of Glide. And as that happens, I'll be here with this great-bang-for-the-buck 3D card that was probably one of the better purchases I made in 2000.
In other words, I recommend it!
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 129
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Epinions.com ID:
taoshaman
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Member: Todd South
Location: Reno, NV
Reviews written: 16
Trusted by: 8 members
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