 .jpg) Top: Logo of the GeForce 2 series Bottom: Nvidia GeForce 2 GTS (Asus Branded) with its cooler removed, showing the NV15 die | |
| Release date | mid-May, 2000; 25 years ago (2000)[1] |
|---|---|
| Codename | NV11, NV15, NV16 |
| Architecture | Celsius |
| Models |
|
| Cards | |
| Entry-level | MX |
| Mid-range | GTS, Pro |
| High-end | Ti, Ultra |
| API support | |
| DirectX | Direct3D 7.0 |
| OpenGL | OpenGL 1.2 (T&L) |
| History | |
| Predecessor | GeForce 256 |
| Successor | GeForce 3 series |
| Support status | |
| Unsupported | |
TheGeForce 2 series (NV15) is the second generation ofNvidia'sGeForce line ofgraphics processing units (GPUs). Introduced in 2000, it is the successor to theGeForce 256.
The GeForce 2 family comprised a number of models. TheGeForce 2 GTS,GeForce 2 Ultra,GeForce 2 Pro, andGeForce 2 Ti are based upon the original architecture (NV15), varying only by chip and memory clock speeds. For the low-end segment and OEMs, theGeForce 2 MX series (NV11) was created, from which theGeForce 2 Go was derived for laptops. In addition, the GeForce 2 architecture is used for theQuadro series on the Quadro 2 Pro, 2 MXR, and 2 EX cards with special drivers meant to acceleratecomputer-aided design applications.
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The GeForce 2 architecture (NV15) is similar to the previous GeForce 256 line but with various improvements. Compared to the 220nm GeForce 256, the GeForce 2 is built on a 180 nm manufacturing process, making the silicon more dense and allowing for more transistors and a higher clock speed. The most significant change for 3D acceleration is the addition of a secondtexture mapping unit to each of the fourpixel pipelines. Some say[who?] the second TMU was there in the original Geforce NSR (Nvidia Shading Rasterizer) but dual-texturing was disabled due to a hardware bug; NSR's unique ability to do single-cycle trilinear texture filtering supports this suggestion. This doubles the texturefillrate per clock compared to the previous generation and is the reasoning behind the GeForce 2 GTS's naming suffix: GigaTexel Shader (GTS). The GeForce 2 also formally introduces the NSR (Nvidia Shading Rasterizer), a primitive type of programmable pixel pipeline that is somewhat similar to later pixelshaders. This functionality is also present in GeForce 256 but was unpublicized. Another hardware enhancement is an upgraded video processing pipeline, calledHDVP (high definition video processor). HDVP supports motion video playback atHDTV-resolutions (MP@HL).[2]
In 3D benchmarks and gaming applications, the GeForce 2 GTS outperforms its predecessor by up to 40%.[3] InOpenGL games (such asQuake III), the card outperforms theATI Radeon DDR and3dfxVoodoo 5 5500 cards in both 16bpp and 32 bpp display modes. However, inDirect3D games running 32 bpp, the Radeon DDR is sometimes able to take the lead.[4]
The GeForce 2 (NV15) architecture is quite memory bandwidth constrained.[5] The GPU wastes memory bandwidth and pixel fillrate due to unoptimizedz-buffer usage, drawing ofhidden surfaces, and a relatively inefficient RAM controller. The main competition for GeForce 2 GTS, the Radeon DDR (R100), has hardware functions (calledHyperZ) that address these issues.[6] Because of the inefficient nature of the GeForce 2 GPUs, they could not approach their theoretical performance potential and the Radeon, even with its significantly less powerful 3D architecture, offered strong competition. The later NV17 revision of the NV11 design used in theGeForce4 MX was more efficient.
The first models to arrive after the original GeForce 2 GTS was theGeForce 2 Ultra andGeForce2 MX, launched on September 7, 2000.[7] On September 29, 2000 Nvidia started shipping graphics cards which had 16 and 32 MB of video memory size.
Architecturally identical to the GTS, the Ultra simply has higher core and memory clock rates. Meant to be a niche product, it was rumored that GeForce 2 Ultra was intended to prevent 3dfx taking the lead with theirVoodoo 5 6000 that was ending up never released as 3dfx went bankrupt. The Ultra model actually outperforms the firstGeForce 3 products in some cases, due to initial GeForce 3 cards having significantly lower fillrate. However, the Ultra loses its lead when anti-aliasing is enabled, because of the GeForce 3's new memory bandwidth/fillrate efficiency mechanisms; plus the GeForce 3 has a superior next-generation feature set with programmable vertex and pixel shaders for DirectX 8.0 games.
TheGeForce 2 Pro, introduced shortly after the Ultra, was an alternative to the expensive top-line Ultra and is faster than the GTS.
In October 2001, theGeForce 2 Ti was positioned as a cheaper and less advanced alternative to the GeForce 3. Faster than the GTS and Pro but slower than the Ultra, the GeForce 2 Ti performed competitively against theRadeon 7500 (RV200), although the 7500 had the advantage of dual-display support. This mid-range GeForce 2 release was replaced by theGeForce4 MX series as the budget/performance choice in January 2002.
On their 2001 product web page, Nvidia initially placed the Ultra as a separate offering from the rest of the GeForce 2 lineup (GTS, Pro, Ti), however by late 2002 with the GeForce 2 considered a discontinued product line (being succeeded by the GeForce 4 MX), the Ultra was included along the GTS, Pro, and Ti in the GeForce 2 information page.
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Since the previous GeForce 256 line shipped without a budget variant, theRIVA TNT2 series was left to fill the "low-end" role—albeit with a comparably obsolete feature set. In order to create a better low-end option, Nvidia created the GeForce 2 MX series (NV11), which offered a set of standard features similar to the regular GeForce 2 (NV15), limited only by categorical tier of lower performance. In order to reduce production costs, the GeForce 2 MX cards had two 3D pixel pipelines removed and a reduced available memory bandwidth. The cards utilized either SDR SDRAM or DDR SDRAM with memory bus widths ranging from 32 to 128 bits, allowing circuit board cost to be varied. The MX series also provided dual-display support, something not found in the GeForce 256 and GeForce 2. With performance approaching the GeForce 256 while also being much more economical to produce, the GeForce 2 MX was successful in the OEM and budget market.
The prime competitors in the OEM and budget segment were ATI'sRadeon SDR (which with all other R100 chip-equipped cards, regardless of clock/memory speed and memory configuration, was later renamed collectively as Radeon 7200),Radeon VE (RV100) (later renamed Radeon 7000), and the 3dfx Voodoo4 4500.[8] Sharing the same R100 GPU as the higher-end Radeon 32MB DDR (US$230), the Radeon SDR (US$150) was equipped with SDR SDRAM instead of DDR SDRAM found in its more expensive brethren although this did not bring down costs sufficiently to match the GeForce 2 MX.[9] Released 3 months after the GeForce 2 MX, the Radeon SDR lacked multi-monitor support but exhibited faster 32-bit 3D rendering over the GeForce 2 MX.[10] 3dfx's Voodoo4 4500 arrived too late, as well as being too expensive at US$150, but too slow to compete with Nvidia or ATI's offerings, and also lacking multi-monitor support. Next up, the Radeon VE's RV100 GPU was cut down considerably from the R100 to reduce production costs, so it did not offer hardwareT&L, an emerging 3D rendering feature of the day that was the major attraction of Direct3D 7. Further, the Radeon VE featured only a single rendering pipeline, causing it to produce a substantially lower fillrate than the GeForce 2 MX. However the Radeon VE (US$100) had the advantage of somewhat better dual-monitor display software while matching the GeForce 2 MX on price.[11]
Members of the series includeGeForce 2 MX,MX400,MX200, andMX100. The GPU was also used as an integrated graphics processor in thenForce chipset line and as a mobile graphics chip for notebooks calledGeForce 2 Go.
The NVIDIA GeForce2 MX 400 is often considered underwhelming because of its limited capabilities. With just 32 MB of SDR memory and an outdated architecture based on the Celsius design, it struggles to perform efficiently. Its low GPU clock speed of 200 MHz and support for only DirectX 7.0 further hamper its ability to handle modern games and applications. In the context of today's technology, the GeForce2 MX 400 is seen as outdated and insufficient for most graphic-intensive tasks.[12][13][14]
The successor to the GeForce 2 (non-MX) line is theGeForce 3. The non-MX GeForce 2 line was reduced in price and saw the addition of the GeForce 2 Ti, in order to offer a mid-range alternative to the high-end GeForce 3 product.
Later, both the GeForce 2 and GeForce 2 MX lines were replaced with theGeForce4 MX.
| Model | Launch | Transistors (million) | Die size (mm2) | Core clock (MHz) | Memory clock (MHz) | Core config[a] | Fillrate | Memory | TDP (Watts) | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
MOperations/s | MPixels/s | MTexels/s | MVertices/s | Size (MB) | Bandwidth (GB/s) | Bus type | Bus width (bit) | ||||||||||||
| GeForce2 MX IGP + nForce 220/420 | June 4, 2001 | NV1A (IGP) / NV11 (MX) | TSMC 180 nm | 20[16] | 64 | FSB | 175 | 133 | 2:4:2 | 350 | 350 | 700 | 0 | Up to 32 system RAM | 2.128 4.256 | DDR | 64 128 | 0.700 | 3 |
| GeForce2 MX200 | March 3, 2001 | AGP 4x, PCI | 166 | 32 64 | 1.328 | SDR | 64 | 1 | |||||||||||
| GeForce2 MX | June 28, 2000 | 2.656 | 128 | 4 | |||||||||||||||
| GeForce2 MX400 | March 3, 2001 | 200 | 166,200 (SDR) 166 (DDR) | 400 | 400 | 800 | 1.328 3.200 2.656 | SDR DDR | 64/128 (SDR) 64 (DDR) | 0.800 | 5 | ||||||||
| GeForce2 GTS | April 26, 2000 | NV15 | 25[17] | 88 | AGP 4x | 166 | 4:8:4 | 800 | 800 | 1,600 | 5.312 | DDR | 128 | 1.600 | 6 | ||||
| GeForce2 Pro | December 5, 2000 | 200 | 6.4 | ? | |||||||||||||||
| GeForce2 Ti | October 1, 2001 | TSMC 150 nm | 250 | 1,000 | 1,000 | 2,000 | 2.000 | ? | |||||||||||
| GeForce2 Ultra | August 14, 2000 | TSMC 180 nm | 230 | 64 | 7.36 | ? | |||||||||||||
| Model | Launch | Core clock (MHz) | Memory clock (MHz) | Core config[a] | Fillrate | Memory | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
MOperations/s | MPixels/s | MTexels/s | MVertices/s | Size (MB) | Bandwidth (GB/s) | Bus type | Bus width (bit) | |||||||
| GeForce2 Go 100 | February 6, 2001 | NV11M | AGP 4x | 125 | 332 | 2:0:4:2 | 250 | 250 | 500 | 0 | 8, 16 | 1.328 | DDR | 32 |
| GeForce2 Go | November 11, 2000 | 143 | 166 332 | 286 | 286 | 572 | 16, 32 | 2.656 | SDR DDR | 128 64 | ||||
| GeForce2 Go 200 | February 6, 2001 | 332 | DDR | 64 | ||||||||||
Nvidia has ceased driver support for GeForce 2 series, ending with GTS, Pro, Ti and Ultra models in 2005 and then with MX models in 2007.
GeForce 2 GTS, GeForce 2 Pro, GeForce 2 Ti and GeForce 2 Ultra:
GeForce 2 MX & MX x00 Series:
The drivers for Windows 2000/XP can also be installed on later versions of Windows such as Windows Vista and 7; however, they do not support desktop compositing or theAero effects of these operating systems.
Note: Despite claims in the documentation that 94.24 (released on May 17, 2006) supports the Geforce 2 MX series, it does not (94.24 actually supports onlyGeForce 6 andGeForce 7 series).[18]
Windows 95/98/Me Driver Archive
Windows XP/2000 Driver Archive
Unix Driver Archive
