Of the numerous Taiwanese motherboard manufacturers, ASUS has grown into quite an empire. Ever since ASUS's entrance into the video card market with the TNT based V3400, the company that originally got its name out by producing quality motherboards has expanded its market scope by becoming a large video card manufacturer as well. Beginning with this card, ASUS expanded their high quality and innovate product line into the video card market. Throughout the years ASUS has seen high sales of not only the V3400 but also almost all of the very successful V series in general.

With ASUS being one of the largest Taiwanese producers of NVIDIA based cards, it was no surprise to see them quickly expand their V series cards to include a GeForce2 MX based product. ASUS's entrance is marked with the V7100, a card that comes available in three models: the VGA only V7100/Pure, the VGA and TV-out V7100/T, and the VGA and DVI V7100/DVI. Each card comes in a variety of dual monitor features and is available in 16MB and 32MB configurations. We recently got a chance to take a look at the 32MB V7100/T, equipped with both composite and S-video TV-output as well as a standard VGA port. The last ASUS card we took a look at was the GeForce2 GTS based V7700 Pure, a card which faired extremely well in our GeForce2 GTS Roundup. Let's take a look and see if the V7100/T meets the high quality of standard that we have come to expect from ASUS.

• Second Generation GPU - GeForce2 MX
  TwinView architecture
  Digital vibrance control
  Second generation transform and lighting engines
  NVIDIA Shading Rasterizer
  256-bit graphics architecture
  Up to 700 million texel fill rate
  Up to 20 million triangles/sec through T&L and setup
  Up to 2.7 GB/s memory bandwidth
  
• Visually Stunning Interactive 3D
  Optimized DirectX and OpenGL acceleration
  4 texture-mapped, filtered, lit texels per clock cycle
  Single-pass multitexturing
  32-bit colors, Z/stencil buffer
  High quality texture filtering, including anisotropic
  Cube environment mapping
  S3 texture compression
  Maximum 3D resolution of 2048x1536 at 75 Hz
  
• High Performance 256-bit 2D
  Optimized for multiple color depths including 32, 24, 16, 15, and 8-bits per pixel
  True-color hardware cursor
  Multibuffering for smooth animation and video playback
  Maximum 2D resolution of 2048x1536 at 75 Hz
  
• TwinView Architecture (for TV-out Model Only)
  Simultaneous and independent dual-display control
  Simultaneous and independent dual-video support
  RGB monitor + TV
  Surf the web while watching a movie
  Play a 3D game on a big screen TV
  
• High-Quality Video Playback
  Optimized for multiple color depths
  High-Definition Video Processor
  Independent hardware color controls for video overlay
  Hardware color space conversion
  8:1 upscaling and downscaling
  Per-pixel color keying
  Multiple video windows with hardware color space conversion and filtering
  
• Software Bundle
  ASUS AGP-V7100 driver CD
  ASUSDVD Software DVD decoder
  Solider of Fortune
  3Deep Shareware

The Card

Click here to enlarge.

Following the path we expect more and more manufacturers to take, ASUS has chose to vary from the GeForce2 MX's reference design to minimize PCB space and maximize efficiency. In fact, ASUS has changed a few items on the V7100, opting to use a customized design, a strategy which we have seen ASUS use many times in the past. More on what exactly ASUS changed in a minute, but for now note the small PCB space that the V7100 takes up, making it look very similar to the Guillemot/Hercules GeForce2 MX based product..

The rather cool .18 micron GeForce2 MX GPU is cooled via a standard 4.5 x 4.5 cm heatsink that is appropriately bonded to the MX's surface via thermal grease. This automatically gives the V7100 quite an advantage over many other GeForce2 MX based cards out there that lack any form of cooling. Although this passive form of cooling may not work as well as a fan and heatsink combination, it is still quite a step above some of the other naked products we have seen. In fact, this heatsink seems to ad more than one selling point to the V7100, because as a result of the cooling employed ASUS was able to bring the V7100 to market with a core speed of 180 MHz, 5 MHz over the suggested NVIDIA clock speed. We are unsure if it is just our test sample that came with the overclocked core or if every V7100 sold will come with it but regardless it is almost certain that every V7100 sold will be able to hit this speed.

Click here to enlarge.

On the downside, the method of bonding the GPU to the heatsink was good but the pins used to hold it in place were not. The pins used to hold the heatsink to the chip surface are a bit different than the clips we have seen in the past, which proved to be a problem, as the functionality of these clips is not as good as what we have seen in the standard clips. The clips popped out of the mounting holes rather easily, leaving our heatsink only half attached quite a few times during testing. This problem seems to be a result of the thinner plastic used on this clips. Normally this will not be a problem, as the video card will stay stationary for the majority of its life. Just be careful when putting the card in and make sure that both clips are fully inserted.

As we mentioned before, the V7100 comes in two different memory configurations, both a 16MB and a 32MB one. Our test sample was a 32MB card, an option that we suspect that the vast majority of people will choose in order to gain the most speed from the GeForce2 MX chip. Our configuration of the card came with 6ns SDR Hyundai SDRAM chips. Although these chips may not be as fast as the 5.5ns version we have heard of on the Guillemot/Hercules based card, they are still within spec, a problem we encountered with the VisionTek GeForce2 MX. In addition, we have heard of the Guillemot/Hercules cards coming with everything from the 5.5ns RAM to 7ns memory, meaning that memory speed and type may not be certain any more. In the case of our V7100, the memory clock on our card was actually pushed up to 171 MHz, once again exceeding NVIDIA's suggested speed by 5 MHz. This also, coincidentally, exceeded Hyundai's specification for the RAM chips by 5 MHz as well. Once again, we are not certain if cards will come to market with these speeds, but it should not be a problem getting the vast majority to achieve this modest overclock.

Ok, now back to what ASUS has changed on the V7100 that makes it look a bit different than other MX based video cards. As we mentioned before, our model of the V7100 was branded the V7100/T, making it the TV-out version of the V7100. You may notice that there is no daughter board controlling the video-out features of the card. In fact, there are not even pin headers to allow for the addition of an add-on board. Rather than take the path that every other MX based video card manufacturer has taken since the release of the product, ASUS decided to ditch the whole daughter board idea and place the TV-out components of the card on card. This required some slight modification of the GeForce2 MX reference design, with the placement of a Chrontel CH7007A chip on the back of the card. If you recall from our previous ASUS reviews, ASUS has been using the Chrontel chip over the commonly found Brooktree 869 chip found on almost every other NVIDIA based card with TV-out. This proved to be a wise decision, as the Chrontel chip seems to have just as good, if not better video output than the Brooktree chip.

In addition to switching the the video-out decoder to the back of the card, ASUS also had to place the S-video and composite out connectors on the board itself, as opposed to on the daughter card that other GeForce2s use. Accomplishing this feat by placing the connectors where the DVI or Dual-Head VGA ports would be, ASUS managed to fit both connectors on the card. The incorporation of the connectors on the card is great for home entertainment users, as the dual-head abilities of the card allows it to display two applications on different screens, for example one could watch a DVD movie on a nearby TV while also surfing the web on the monitor.

On an interesting note, the V7100 also has a blank space on the board for the placement of the Brooktree 869 chip that we spoke of earlier. We are not quite sure why ASUS would choose to include a place for this chip on their reference design board (as the Chrontel chip on the back accomplishes the exact same thing), however it is possible that they will switch chips later in production.

Overclocking

As we mentioned before, the ASUS V7100 that we received was overclocked upon shipping. The core was running at 180 MHz and the memory at 171 MHz, proving for a very conservative overclock. There is almost no question that every V7100 out there should be able to run at these speeds, regardless of whether or not it ships like that.

The heatsink attached to the GPU is quite a plus for overclocking the V7100's core. Even without any cooling, we were able to get our previously reviewed VisionTek GeForce2 MX card up to 200 MHz so it was no surprise that our V7100 overclocked even higher. We were able to reach a core speed of 210 MHz on our V7100. This seems like the logical place of a passively cooled GeForce2 MX core to be, as our Overclocking the GeForce2 MX guide showed that with active cooling the MX was able to get up to 220 MHz. The passively cooled V7100 lies right in the middle of these two solutions, with a core speed of 210 MHz.

The problem is that overclocking the core, as easy as it may be, does not provide any significant performance increase due to the memory bandwidth limitations as a result of the SDR memory used. ASUS must have been pretty confident about the Hyundai parts found on our V7100, as they were clocked 5 MHz above the memory's rated speed. Once again, this overclock is very conservative and it is likely that almost every 6ns Hyundai RAM chip sold will be able to clock at this speed. Once we pushed the memory as high as it could go, we found that our board was able to reach a memory speed of 210 MHz. As with all MX based cards, the faster the memory the better, so even faster memory (such as 5.5ns) is preferable since they will be able to overclock even higher than the 6ns samples found on our board.

The Drivers

ASUS has been using a variation of their drivers for quite some time now, updating the back-end to the newest reference drivers while keeping the front-end the same. As a result of this, the same information that applied to the V6600 SDRAM drivers applies here, as quoted below.

In recent driver releases, we have seen the same features and abilities used over and over again. Not to say this is a bad thing: while most of the drivers look a like, the features are very comprehensive. Until more companies release drivers capable of high tweaking, such as ELSA, the competition on the driver front appears to be rather nonexistent. Companies such as ELSA include very advanced features such as the ability to change refresh rates in 1 Hz intervals which the ASUS drivers lack. The ASUS drivers tested here fit the mold of most NVIDIA drivers, including an easy to use taskbar utility, color control not only for the desktop but also for OpenGL and D3D, refresh rate adjustment, and comprehensive D3D and OpenGL settings. The only downside to ASUS's drivers is that they are the same driver set as used in the Deluxe [based cards], meaning that features that are only available for use with the Deluxe will loom in your taskbar, taunting you and making you dream of the Deluxe's advanced features.

Useful settings at your fingertips via the taskbar resident driver icon.

Color adjustment options are easy found for not only the desktop, but also for D3D and OpenGL.

Refresh rate adjustments are easy to make.

The Direct 3D settings are plentiful and easily adjusted.


Overclocking could not be easier.

The Test

Since we want to compare cards on the same level, we underclocked our sample V7100 to the normal MX speed. For the results of the card running at 180/171, please look at the overclocked performance section of this review.