NVIDIA GeForce2 MX 200 LP

NVIDIA GeForce2 MX 200 LP is an end-of-life AGP 4x graphics card built on TSMC’s 180 nm process, featuring 20 million transistors on a 64 mm² die. It occupies a single slot, draws power solely from the AGP slot (no external power connectors), and is paired with 32 MB of SDR memory on a 64-bit bus. Its percentile rank of 50 places it exactly at the midpoint of all GPUs in the database, indicating balanced—though not exceptional—performance for its era.

How It Compares

The GeForce2 MX 200 LP has no nearest rivals listed in the fact pack, meaning the database does not contain direct comparison scores for other cards in its immediate performance tier. This absence of nearestRivals data means every performance assessment must be derived solely from its own hardware characteristics and benchmark percentiles. The 50th percentile rank suggests that half of all recorded GPUs perform better and half perform worse, a neutral positioning that reflects its role as an entry-level option during the GeForce 2 MX generation.

Without rival scores, the MX 200 LP’s position is best understood through its own architectural limits. Its 2 ROPs and 4 TMUs, combined with a 64-bit memory bus, place it well below the performance ceiling of its own generation, yet the 50th percentile indicates it still outperforms a substantial portion of the broader GPU landscape, including older and lower-tier cards. The card’s predecessor, GeForce 256, and successor, GeForce 3, bracket it chronologically, but the fact pack provides no comparative scores for either.

The lack of nearest rivals also means no deltaPct values exist to quantify gaps. Consequently, the analysis must rely on absolute specifications: pixel rate of 350.0 MPixel/s and texture rate of 700.0 MTexel/s. These figures represent the card’s raw throughput limits, and when combined with the 50th percentile, they suggest a GPU that is neither a bottleneck for light 3D workloads nor capable of handling demanding contemporary titles at high settings.

Ray Tracing and Feature Set

The GeForce2 MX 200 LP predates dedicated ray tracing hardware entirely. It has no ray tracing cores and no tensor cores, as these technologies were introduced much later in GPU architecture evolution. The card’s feature set is limited to the DirectX 7.0 and OpenGL 1.2 APIs, which were standard for early 2000s gaming and professional 2D/3D applications. DirectX 7.0 supports hardware transform and lighting, but does not include programmable shaders, which arrived with DirectX 8.0.

The absence of tensor cores means no AI-accelerated features such as DLSS or similar upscaling technologies exist on this card. Ray tracing, whether real-time or software-based, is not supported at the hardware level. The card’s texture rate of 700.0 MTexel/s and pixel rate of 350.0 MPixel/s define its fixed-function pipeline capabilities—these are the peak rates for texture mapping and pixel output, respectively, and they cannot be augmented by any form of compute acceleration.

For API support, the card offers only the two listed interfaces. Vulkan and any form of hardware-accelerated ray tracing API are absent, which is expected given the release date of March 2, 2001. The single display output, 1x VGA, further confirms its role as a basic desktop or low-end gaming solution, not a multimedia or workstation card.

Who Should Consider It

Given the 50th percentile ranking, the GeForce2 MX 200 LP is suited for users running legacy applications that target DirectX 7.0 or OpenGL 1.2. At resolutions typical for its era—which the fact pack does not specify—the card’s 32 MB of SDR memory and 1.328 GB/s bandwidth would handle 2D desktop work, early 3D games with low texture requirements, and basic video playback where hardware acceleration is minimal. The 64-bit bus width is a clear limiter: memory-intensive workloads will stall quickly, so the card is not recommended for high-resolution textures or modern game engines.

The 350.0 MPixel/s pixel rate means fill-rate-bound scenarios, such as high polygon counts with multiple light sources, will cause frame drops. Conversely, the 700.0 MTexel/s texture rate suggests that games relying heavily on texture mapping but with simple geometry—common in Quake II-era titles—would perform adequately. Users who require multi-monitor setups or digital outputs should look elsewhere, as the card offers only a single VGA connector.

The suggested power supply of 200 W indicates low power consumption, making the card suitable for older systems with modest PSUs. However, the AGP 4x interface limits compatibility with modern motherboards. This card is best considered for retro gaming builds, legacy office PCs, or as a diagnostic tool for troubleshooting AGP slots—not for any current workload.

FAQ

Q: What is the memory configuration of the GeForce2 MX 200 LP?

A: It has 32 MB of SDR memory on a 64-bit bus, providing a bandwidth of 1.328 GB/s.

Q: Does this card support ray tracing?

A: No. It has no ray tracing cores or tensor cores, and its API support is limited to DirectX 7.0 and OpenGL 1.2.

Q: What is the pixel and texture throughput?

A: The pixel rate is 350.0 MPixel/s and the texture rate is 700.0 MTexel/s, based on 2 ROPs and 4 TMUs.

Q: How does it rank among all GPUs?

A: It sits at the 50th percentile, meaning exactly half of all GPUs in the database score higher and half score lower.

Q: What power supply is recommended?

A: A 200 W PSU is suggested, and the card uses no external power connectors, drawing power solely from the AGP 4x slot.

Q: What display outputs are available?

A: The card provides a single VGA output, which limits it to one analog monitor connection.

Benchmark Performance

The fact pack lists no benchmark scores for the GeForce2 MX 200 LP, and its average benchmark score is 0. This absence of direct performance data means the only quantitative performance indicator is the 50th percentile rank. With no nearest rivals, there are no deltaPct values to calculate percentage differences against competing cards. The card’s performance must therefore be inferred from its hardware specifications alone.

The 2 ROPs and 4 TMUs define the card’s fill-rate ceiling. The pixel rate of 350.0 MPixel/s means that at a hypothetical resolution of 1024×768—which the fact pack does not mention—the card would theoretically fill roughly 0.35 billion pixels per second, a figure that modern GPUs exceed by orders of magnitude. The texture rate of 700.0 MTexel/s similarly caps the number of texels that can be processed per second, and with only 32 MB of memory, texture caching is severely limited.

Comparing to its own generation, the predecessor GeForce 256 and successor GeForce 3 are named but lack scores. Based on the 50th percentile, the MX 200 LP sits at the median of all GPUs ever benchmarked, but this is a broad measure that includes many older and lower-end cards. In practical terms, the card will outperform integrated graphics of its era but will fall far behind any discrete GPU from the past decade. The lack of rival data prevents any precise percentage-based comparison, so the only conclusion is that the card is a mid-tier performer by historical standards, not a standout.

Memory Subsystem

The memory subsystem is a critical bottleneck for the GeForce2 MX 200 LP. It uses 32 MB of SDR memory, which is single data rate—unlike DDR memory that transfers data on both clock edges. The memory clock runs at 166 MHz, and the bus width is 64 bits, resulting in a total bandwidth of 1.328 GB/s. This bandwidth is the maximum data transfer rate between the GPU and its local memory, and it directly impacts how quickly textures, vertex data, and framebuffer content can be accessed.

A 64-bit bus is half the width of many contemporary cards of that era, which typically used 128-bit or 256-bit buses. This narrow bus halves the theoretical bandwidth compared to a 128-bit implementation at the same clock speed, making the card particularly sensitive to memory-heavy workloads. The small 32 MB capacity further constrains the card, as high-resolution textures and large framebuffers will exceed available memory, forcing the GPU to spill to system memory via the AGP 4x bus—a much slower path.

At higher resolutions, the pixel rate of 350.0 MPixel/s becomes the secondary limiter. The framebuffer size scales with resolution, and with only 32 MB of SDR memory, resolutions beyond basic VGA or low-resolution 3D will likely cause severe performance degradation. The bandwidth of 1.328 GB/s is sufficient for simple 2D desktop operations, but any 3D scene with multiple texture layers will saturate the bus quickly. For users considering this card, the memory subsystem is the clearest indicator of its limitations: it is designed for low-resolution, low-texture workloads, not for any modern gaming or compute task.