Radeon 7500 vs. GeForce 2MX in Cube

[bunnspecial]

This is something that I've been wondering about for a little while.

I have upgraded the video cards in all my Cubes. Two of them currently have the 2MX, and one a 7500. I've had a slight preference for the 2MX due to its compatibility with the Cube faceplate, but had been under the impression that the 7500 was the better performing card of the two.

At least in the OpenGL Wiki we currently have going, the 2MX scores over twice as high as the 7500(460 in a cube for the 7500, vs 1179 in a Cube).

I know that benchmarks don't necessarily reflect real-world situations, so I'm wondering if the OpenGL test is a real measure of how I can expect these cards to perform-especially under OS X.

Two of my Cubes are primarily OS 9 machines, while the third is almost exclusively a Leopard machine. The Leopard machine currently has a 2MX, but I'm wondering if I would see any benefit to putting a 7500 in it. If nothing else, I appreciate the fact that the 7500 seems to run a fair bit cooler than the 2mx. Availability is not an issue, as I have extras of both cards on hand.

Of course, I know the real answer is to get off my rear end and get my 6200 flashed for my Leopard system, as that will give me CI support. That same system also has an 800mhz Sonnet upgrade with 1mb of L3, so I expect it would do really well in Leopard with a CI card(it's not bad now).

 

[MagicBoy]

The Radeon 7500 should perform similar to a full-fat GeForce 2 (GTS?). The 2MX had the memory bus halved.

Here's some PC benchmarks : http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/vga-charts-i,453-6.html

Under OS X I wouldn't have thought there's much in it for 2D applications until you install a card with Core Image support.

 

[desantii]

I had both and liked the 7500. Now have a Geforce 6200...that is an awesome card

 

[MagicBoy]

I've not used a Radeon 7500 in a Mac. Used a ThinkPad T42 with one at work for 3 years when they were new c2004ish. It was fine, although restricted to DirectX 7 feature set.

 

[Anonymous Freak]

The GeForce 2MX is a superior GPU, with a purposefully-hobbled memory bus.

The Radeon 7500 is essentially a slightly-faster "original Radeon" - not as good a feature set as the GeForce 2/2MX line, but not hobbled, so could be faster.

If you're playing games that came out right at that time or earlier, the 7500 would likely be better. If you're playing newer games, the GeForce 2MX would likely be slightly better, as it supports more GPU features.

 

[Cox Orange]

...but had been under the impression that the 7500 was the better performing card of the two. ...

Interesting question.
You'd need more Cube-Users to share their everyday experiences. I bet you can find them on cubeowner.com or is it cubeuser.com?