The Chip — NVIDIA GeForce2 Pro
by Matthew Witheileron December 5, 2000 12:47 AM EST
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IndexThe ChipThe CardDrivers & the TestQuake III Arena PerformanceMDK2 PerformanceUnreal Tournament Performance16-bit vs 32-bit PerformanceCPU Scaling PerformanceWin2K & Overclocking PerformanceFinal Words
The Chip
Since the GeForce2 Pro is
based on the same core as the GeForce2 GTS, it shares many things in common
to the GeForce2 GTS. In fact, the GPU side of the GeForce2 Pro is identical
to the GPU of GeForce2
GTS. Let’s refresh our memory on what this entails.
Many of us will recall the
April 2000 introduction of the GeForce2 GTS GPU. Promising unparalleled speed,
the GeForce2 GTS core proved to be essentially a 0. 18 micron version of the
original GeForce 256. In fact, the only item which changed from the GeForce
256 is the rendering pipelines. The GeForce2 GTS still features 4 rendering
pipelines, just like its older brother, but unlike the GeForce 256, the GeForce2
GTS core is able to process two textures per pipeline in a single clock. This
is a rise of one texture per pipeline when compared to the GeForce 256’s single
texture unit per pipeline. On the number side, this translates to rendering
power equal to twice that of the GeForce 256 at the same clock speed.
As we mentioned previously,
the GeForce2 GTS core is manufactured on a 0.18 micron process, which allowed
it to carry a 200MHz core clock. However, as we realized with the GeForce 256
as well as the GeForce2 GTS, increasing the core clock proved to be relatively
ineffective in the fight for greater performance. The reason being that before
the card is given the opportunity to hit its maximum fill rate, which is determined
by the GPU’s core clock speed, it is limited by the amount of memory bandwidth
that the GPU is provided with.
The reason we mentioned
this is because NVIDIA is aware of this fact as well. In order to differentiate
the GeForce2 Ultra from the GeForce2 GTS, NVIDIA hand picked those chips which
could hit the 250MHz operating frequency of the Ultra. This 25% increase in
core clock speed didn’t buy the Ultra all that much performance, but it was
necessary to justify the $500 price tag.
With
the GeForce2 Pro, being positioned as solution more powerful than a GeForce2
GTS but less powerful and also cheaper than a GeForce2 Ultra, the core clock
remains the same as the GTS, stuck at 200MHz. With a 200MHz clock the GeForce2
Pro boasts the same 1.6 Gigatexel/s fill rate as the GeForce2 GTS, but in most
situations the chip will never have the opportunity to reach that fill rate
because of limited memory bandwidth.
This brings us to the only
«upgraded» aspect of the GeForce2 Pro design over the GTS, that is
the 200MHz DDR memory clock (effectively 400MHz). At 200MHz DDR, the GeForce2
Pro features a 20% higher memory clock than the GTS (166MHz DDR) resulting in
a theoretical maximum of 6.4GB/s of bandwidth to and from the on-board frame
buffer. For the sake of comparison, a regularly clocked GeForce2 GTS features
5.3GB/s of available bandwidth while the Ultra can boast an impressive 7.36GB/s.
By featuring the same core
that is on GeForce2 GTS boards NVIDIA doesn’t have to worry about having to
hand pick low-yield parts that work properly at higher clock speeds, resulting
in a cost per chip identical to that of a GeForce2 GTS GPU since they are the
same part. This can’t be said for the Ultra which, by definition, uses a specially
picked chip that will end up costing more for a manufacturer to purchase from
NVIDIA.
The issue of cost rears
its head yet again in the Pro vs Ultra comparison when you take a look at the
decision to outfit Pro based cards with memory capable of hitting 200MHz rather
than the 230MHz chips used on Ultra boards. In all actuality however, Ultra
boards have to use 4ns (500MHz) DDR SDRAM because of currently low-yields on
the parts in spite of the fact that they are only clocked at 460MHz. This ends
up inflating the cost of Ultra cards quite a bit as 4ns DDR SDRAM isn’t that
easy to come by, however it is necessary to allow the Ultra to offer a significant
performance advantage over the regular GTS.
The Pro attempts to maintain
a balance between these two extremes by requiring 4.5/5ns DDR SDRAM chips (4.5ns
= 222MHz DDR while 5ns = 200MHz DDR). This helps reduce the cost of implementing
a GeForce2 Pro design because of the higher yield and more readily available
memory requirements.
The picture that is being
painted here seems to be much more attractive than that of a GeForce2 Ultra,
simply because you get characteristics similar to an Ultra but at decreased
price. While you can find GeForce2 Ultra cards in the $400 — $500 price range,
with the average price falling closer to $465, GeForce2 Pro based solutions
can be had for approximately $100 cheaper. The cheapest Ultra we’ve seen being
$420, while we’ve seen GeForce2 Pro’s go for less than $310.
At that price point, the
GeForce2 Pro is much more reasonable than the Ultra, so what’s the catch? It
turns out that the reason NVIDIA didn’t make that big of a deal out of the launch
of the GeForce2 Pro is because it was originally intended to be an OEM-only
solution.
In spite of this, one manufacturer
sought to bring it to the retail markets and take advantage of the GeForce2
Pro’s unique price/performance combination.
Enter the Hercules/Guillemot
3D Prophet II GTS Pro based on the GeForce2 Pro GPU…
Index
The Card
IndexThe ChipThe CardDrivers & the TestQuake III Arena PerformanceMDK2 PerformanceUnreal Tournament Performance16-bit vs 32-bit PerformanceCPU Scaling PerformanceWin2K & Overclocking PerformanceFinal Words
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GeForce2 GTS PRO — Technical City
NVIDIA
GeForce2 GTS PRO
Buy
- Interface AGP 4x
- Core clock speed 200 MHz
- Max video memory 32 MB
- Memory type DDR
- Memory clock speed 400 MHz
- Maximum resolution
Summary
NVIDIA started GeForce2 GTS PRO sales 26 April 2000. This is Celsius architecture desktop card based on 150 nm manufacturing process and primarily aimed at gamers. 32 MB of DDR memory clocked at 0.4 GHz are supplied, and together with 128 Bit memory interface this creates a bandwidth of 6.4 GB/s.
Compatibility-wise, this is single-slot card attached via AGP 4x interface.
We have no data on GeForce2 GTS PRO benchmark results.
General info
Of GeForce2 GTS PRO’s architecture, market segment and release date.
Place in performance rating | not rated | |
Architecture | Celsius (1999−2005) | |
GPU code name | NV15 A5 | |
Market segment | Desktop | |
Release date | 26 April 2000 (22 years ago) |
Technical specs
GeForce2 GTS PRO’s general performance parameters such as number of shaders, GPU base clock, manufacturing process, texturing and calculation speed. These parameters indirectly speak of GeForce2 GTS PRO’s performance, but for precise assessment you have to consider its benchmark and gaming test results.
Core clock speed | 200 MHz | of 2610 (Radeon RX 6500 XT) |
Number of transistors | 25 million | of 14400 (GeForce GTX 1080 SLI Mobile) |
Manufacturing process technology | 150 nm | of 4 (GeForce RTX 4080 Ti) |
Texture fill rate | 1.600 | of 939.8 (h200 SXM5) |
Compatibility, dimensions and requirements
Information on GeForce2 GTS PRO’s compatibility with other computer components. Useful when choosing a future computer configuration or upgrading an existing one. For desktop video cards it’s interface and bus (motherboard compatibility), additional power connectors (power supply compatibility).
Interface | AGP 4x | |
Width | 1-slot | |
Supplementary power connectors | None |
Memory
Parameters of memory installed on GeForce2 GTS PRO: its type, size, bus, clock and resulting bandwidth. Note that GPUs integrated into processors have no dedicated memory and use a shared part of system RAM instead.
Memory type | DDR | |
Maximum RAM amount | 32 MB | of 128 (Radeon Instinct MI250X) |
Memory bus width | 128 Bit | of 8192 (Radeon Instinct MI250X) |
Memory clock speed | 400 MHz | of 21000 (GeForce RTX 3090 Ti) |
Memory bandwidth | 6.4 GB/s | of 14400 (Radeon R7 M260) |
Video outputs and ports
Types and number of video connectors present on GeForce2 GTS PRO. As a rule, this section is relevant only for desktop reference graphics cards, since for notebook ones the availability of certain video outputs depends on the laptop model, while non-reference desktop models can (though not necessarily will) bear a different set of video ports.
Display Connectors | 1x VGA, 2x S-Video |
API support
APIs supported by GeForce2 GTS PRO, sometimes including their particular versions.
DirectX | 7.0 | |
OpenGL | 1.2 | of 4.6 (GeForce GTX 1080 Mobile) |
OpenCL | N/A | |
Vulkan | N/A |
Benchmark performance
Non-gaming benchmark performance of GeForce2 GTS PRO. Note that overall benchmark performance is measured in points in 0-100 range.
We have no data on GeForce2 GTS PRO benchmark results.
Similar GPUs
Here is our recommendation of several graphics cards that are more or less close in performance to the one reviewed.
Recommended processors
These processors are most commonly used with GeForce2 GTS PRO according to our statistics.
Pentium Dual
Core T4500
50%
Pentium
N3700
50%
User rating
Here you can see the user rating of the graphics card, as well as rate it yourself.
Questions and comments
Here you can ask a question about GeForce2 GTS PRO, agree or disagree with our judgements, or report an error or mismatch.
Please enable JavaScript to view the comments powered by Disqus.
GeForce2 Pro Review / Graphics Cards
Source: AnandTech
It’s been over two years since Nvidia released the TNT GPU. TNT2, GeForce 256 and finally GeForce2 have since followed. And about three months ago, nVidia announced a new generation of the GeForce2 line — «GeForce2 Ultra». At the same time, another product was announced, but there was no information or press releases about it.
This mysterious chip was none other than the «GeForce2 Pro», a chip that confuses everyone. Since no fuss was raised around it, the majority of users had a misunderstanding of its positioning in a series of chips based on the GeForce2 core.
GeForce2 Pro has a core similar to that of GeForce2 GTS, the GPUs of both chips are identical. The GeForce2 GTS core, announced in April of this year, seemed to be just a GeForce 256 with a 0.18 micron process technology. All the same 4 rendering pipelines, but the GeForce2 has two texture units on each of them, while the GeForce 256 has only one. Thus, even if the chips had the same frequencies, in the multitexturing mode, the fill rate of the GeForce2 would be twice as high as that of the GeForce 256.
Since the chip is manufactured using a 0.18 micron process technology, it became possible to increase the core frequency to 200MHz. However, with all these improvements compared to the previous chip, the GeForce2’s performance was not as high as one might expect. The reason for this is insufficient memory bandwidth.
To make the GeForce2 Ultra different from the GTS, nVidia raised the core clock to 250MHz. The memory frequency was also increased, although the performance gain was not very significant, but after all, it was necessary to somehow justify the cost of cards based on this chip at $500.
The GeForce2 Pro is positioned as a solution that is faster than the GeForce2 GTS and less powerful and cheaper than the GeForce2 Ultra and has a core running at 200MHz, ie the middle variant. At this frequency, the maximum fill rate is 1.6GTexel/s, but it is unlikely to rise to this value due to the same limitations imposed by the memory bandwidth.
The only difference between the GeForce2 Pro and the GTS is the 20% increased memory frequency — 200MHz DDR (400MHz effective), instead of 166MHz DDR (333MHz effective). Thanks to this memory frequency, its theoretical bandwidth is 6.4GB/s versus 5.3GB/s for the GeForce2 GTS and 7.36GB/s for the GeForce2 Ultra.
Using the «old» chip in cards based on the GeForce2 Pro, nVidia has made life much easier, while the GeForce2 Ultra uses a new core capable of running at a higher frequency.
You may get the impression that the price of GeForce2 Ultra is too high, because its memory frequency is 230MHz DDR versus 200MHz DDR in GeForce2 Pro. However, the G2 Ultra uses 4ns DDR SDRAM capable of operating at up to 500MHz, while most cards based on this chip have 230MHz DDR SDRAM (460MHz effective).
G2 Pro has 4.5 or 5ns DDR SDRAM (4.5ns — 222MHz DDR, 5ns — 200MHz DDR). The use of this memory makes it possible to reduce the price of motherboards based on GeForce2 Pro compared to GeForce2 Ultra.
After all of the above, a quite natural question arises — what will be the price of boards based on GeForce2 Pro? While GeForce2 Ultra boards are priced at around $400-500, the GeForce2 Pro will be about $100 cheaper (around $310), with performance close to the G2 Ultra.
In terms of price/performance ratio, the GeForce2 Pro is a much better deal than the Ultra. It remains only to find out if it is so good, and we will do it on the example of the board from Hercules/Guillemot — 3D Prophet II GTS Pro.
Key features:
GeForce2 GTS GPU chip:
- Clocked at 200MHz
- Manufactured in .18 micron process
- Everything else is the same as normal GeForce2 GTS
- A combined «radiator + cooler» option was used to cool the GPU
Memory 64MB DDR SDRAM:
- Made up of 8 DDR SDRAM
- Clocked at 200MHz DDR, i.e. equivalent to 400MHz SDR
- Each chip has a heatsink
Traditionally for Guillemot, the PCB and heatsinks are blue. The board is about 1″ longer than the reference Ultra boards, although a lot of PCB space is wasted. The board lacks a TMDS transmitter and, as a result, a DVI output. However, the board does have a Conexant BT869 video output decoder chipKRF. Guillemot, unlike other manufacturers, decided not to resort to the help of a daughter board and placed the video output directly on the PCB.
There are heatsinks (RAMsinks) on the memory chips. The question arises whether they are needed there, because Guillemot has installed memory heatsinks in the past, even in cases where it was completely unnecessary, but in this case there are suspicions that nViadia itself recommends doing this. Obviously, with the use of current technologies for the production of DDR memory, without cooling, it is able to work stably at frequencies up to 166MHz, but products that use a high memory frequency (such as GeForce2 Pro and Ultra) already need passive cooling.
After removing the heatsinks, it became known that the 3D Prophet II GTS Pro uses 5ns EliteMT memory. There are 4 8MB memory chips on each side of the board, giving a total of 64MB.
Due to the fact that the GeForce2 Pro core runs at the same frequency as the G2 GTS, the board has the same cooler/heatsink combination as the GeForce2 GTS boards.
Testing
Test stand | |
Processor: | AMD Athlon 1.1GHz |
System board: | ASUS A7V (KT133) |
Memory: | 128MB PC133 Corsair SDRAM |
Hard disk: | IBM Deskstar DPTA-372050 20.5GB 7200RPM Ultra ATA 66 |
CD/DVD: | Philips 48x |
Video card: (driver) |
3dfx Voodoo5 5500 AGP 64MB, — 1.04.01 beta ATI Radeon 32MB DDR, — D714-0831a-62B-SPD ATI Radeon 64MB DDR, — D714-0831a-62B-SPD nVidia GeForce2 Pro 64MB, — Detonator3 6. 31 nVidia GeForce2 Ultra 64MB, — Detonator3 6.31 nVidia GeForce2 GTS 32MB, — Detonator3 6.31 nVidia GeForce 256 DDR 32MB — Detonator3 6.31 |
OS: | Windows 98SE |
Testing: | Quake III Arena, MDK2 Demo, Unreal Tournament 4.32 Reverend’s Thunder Demo |
Quake III Arena
cards showed almost the same result.
When the resolution is increased to 1024×768, a difference in
the results of these cards. GeForce2 GTS at this resolution shows 100 fps,
and our subject — 115 fps — a performance gain of 15%. GeForce2
The Ultra outperforms the G2 Pro by 7 fps, but considering the price difference
of these boards is $100, then this increase in performance is not impressive.
At 1600×1200 the GeForce2 Pro has a very good result — 47
fps. This is 8 fps more than the GeForce2 GTS and 10 fps less than the
GeForce2 Ultra. Quake3 on this map in such a high resolution is quite
playable, which is very pleasing.
MDK2
We saw something similar in Quake3, when the most
The bottleneck of the system is the processor. Frame rate on nVidia cards
low resolution is almost the same.
At 1024×768 the GeForce2 Pro beats the GeForce2 GTS by 18 fps and
behind the G2 Ultra by 7 fps. Well, that’s very disingenuous…
At 1600×1200 the results of all boards are _absolutely_ identical with
their results in Quake III Arena — GeForce2 Pro outperforms G2 GTS by 8 fps
and lags behind the GeForce2 Ultra by 10 fps.
Unreal Tournament
The results at 640×480 prove once again that when testing
such powerful cards need to use a higher resolution.
At 1024×768, GeForce2 Pro and Ultra have the highest minimum frame rate.
In this test, they showed the same result. Average fps on these maps
also turned out to be the same.
At 1600×1200, the memory bandwidth becomes a performance-limiting parameter, and here the increased memory frequencies of the G2 Pro and Ultra come in handy, they outperform other cards by a wide margin.
When calculating the average fps at 1600×1200, the GeForce2 Pro results are impressive
less, the Ultra outperforms it by 7 fps, while the GTS trails by 8 fps.
Scaling
In 1024×768 resolution, performance drops when switching to 32-bit
the color on the GeForce2 Pro is approximately the same as on the GeForce2 MX and is
about 23%.
At 1600×1200 both cards scale almost the same, performance gain
will be 61% for GeForce2 Pro and 71% for GeForce2 MX.
We tested the board on systems with different processors and came
to the conclusion that the GeForce2 Pro reveals its potential only on powerful processors
— type Pentium III 800 and above.
Acceleration
GeForce2 Pro overclocks well, we were able to reach the maximum frequencies
core/memory — 230/465MHz. In fact, this corresponds to the frequencies of GeForce2
Ultra, it remains to get acquainted with the results of overclocking.
At low resolutions, the speed of the game is limited by the processor, so there is no
difference in performance between an overclocked board and a board running on standard
frequencies. At 1024×768 the performance difference is
miserable 6%, but at 1600×1200 it’s already 21%, the same results for boards based on GeForce2
Ultra.
Terminals
Priced at approximately $310, the GeForce2 Pro will fill the gap created by the fallen
prices for GeForce2 GTS and high price for GeForce2 Ultra. Performance Boost
on Ultra boards does not justify their high price, maybe GeForce2
Pro will have more luck?
Presumably yes. Price for GeForce2 Pro boards will be $100-150
more than the 32MB GeForce2 GTS and only $40 more than the 64MB GTS.
Of course, far from the people’s payment, which may soon become (and
maybe already) GeForce2 MX, but, nevertheless, a higher price compared to
with the G2 GTS justified.
On the other hand, if rumors are to be believed, it should appear soon
the next nVidia chip is the NV20, and therefore all previous products
become cheaper. It would be quite a shame if the board, now worth $300,
in a few months will drop significantly in price.
If the GeForce2 Pro came out at the same time as the G2 Ultra for a few months
back, it could be safely recommended as the best solution for hardcore
gamer. But now that the NV20 is on its way, it’s probably worth the wait.
and subsequently for the same money to purchase a faster payment.
Test results used Anandtech
Specifications and reviews of NVIDIA GeForce GTS 250 / Overclockers.
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