Overclocking the GeForce2 MX

Memory bandwidth has always been a limiting factor for NVIDIA’s graphics cards.  The problem became very noticeable with the introduction of the GeForce 256 equipped with DDR SDRAM and the incredible performance improvement it offered over the same setup using SDR SDRAM.  As we mentioned in our GeForce2 MX Review, the GeForce2 MX is memory bandwidth limited far before it ever reaches its fill rate limitation. 

What this means is that while the GeForce2 MX may have a very flexible core when it comes to overclocking that won’t matter much at all since its performance is primarily limited by memory bandwidth.  So how can you increase memory bandwidth?  By overclocking the memory of course.

The default memory clock of the GeForce2 MX is 166MHz, this means that 6ns SDRAM is enough for a manufacturer to hit that 166MHz clock.  And while the original GeForce had the same memory clock, it is more likely that we will see 6ns on MX cards whereas most GeForce (SDR) cards actually shipped with 5.5ns SDRAM, which is rated at 183MHz.  With 6ns SDRAM, things become increasingly difficult when it comes to overclocking the memory, especially if you want to get a much higher clock frequency out of the chips. 

Unlike pushing the GeForce2 MX’s core, you cannot simply tack a heatsink on your memory and expect it to be able to overclock an additional 15%.  While we have even seen companies attempt to use RAM heatsinks as an overclocking tool, the nature of today’s SDRAM as a device that works much like a capacitor prevents heat from being the primary limitation when it comes to overclocking potential. 

Our reference design GeForce2 MX board came equipped with 32MB of 6ns Hyundai SDRAM (166MHz), but if you’ll remember back to our TNT2 days as well as the SDR GeForce days, which weren’t too long ago, Hyundai SDRAM has always been a wonderful overclocker.  Their 6ns chips were used on the Hercules Dynamite TNT2 and we managed to get those up to 190MHz and the chips on our reference MX board hit 210MHz fairly reliably.