Date:
Wednesday, April 19, 2006
Author:
Brent Justice
Editor:
Tim Daniel
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MSI High-End Video Card Comparison

Today we show you three high-end MSI video cards. NVIDIA versus ATI! We get to the bottom of the real gaming experience in Oblivion and others then take a dive into Widescreen gaming.

Introduction

Today we will be comparing the gaming experiences supplied by MSI video cards using the X1800XT, X1900XT, and GeForce 7800 GTX GPUs. But first a bit of background.

In today’s market place, there are video cards that encompass the entire spectrum of price points. You can purchase video cards ranging from the very value end at $100, to the mainstream realm at up to $250, to midrange-performance video cards typically around $350, and finally the very high end cards typically cost upwards of $500. This wide range gives you many options: first, you figure out what your budget is and then you figure out what is the best value for your dollar in that price range. The rule of thumb is typically you get what you pay for; the more money you spend the better gaming experience you will receive.

GPU Choices

In today’s computer world, your choices are very simple; there are only two competing GPU hardware vendors out there that have the features and performance for gamers, ATI and NVIDIA. With only two options to choose from, you can simply look at which one is going to offer you the better gaming experience at the same price point.

A long time ago in what seems like a galaxy far, far away, many add-in-board manufacturers only produced video cards from one Independent Hardware Vendor (IHV). At that time, it just wasn’t common to produce multiple lines of cards with GPUs from different vendors. In fact, many add-in-board manufacturers today only deal with one IHV. However, some add-in-board manufacturers have found it advantageous to diversify and produce two lines of video cards, one with ATI GPUs, and one with NVIDIA GPUs. It is a ‘best of both worlds’ scenario. There really is no way you can lose when you offer video cards using the only two GPUs for gaming. Micro-Star International (MSI) is one of these companies.

MSI

You see, back in the day, MSI was actually one of those companies that exclusively produced video cards from one IHV. When MSI first expanded into the video card business, they solely produced NVIDIA GPU-based video cards. As time went on, however, and the GeForce FX days were upon us and the ATI Radeon 9700/9800 was just simply the better product for gaming, MSI decided they needed to expand further. It has now been two years since MSI started producing ATI GPU-based video cards and they are continuing to make new cards based on the ATI X1000 series. They haven’t stopped producing NVIDIA-based GPUs either; they continue to also produce the latest GeForce 7 series video cards. This puts them at the advantage of appealing to either choice you decide to make between ATI and NVIDIA.

MSI’s entire NVIDIA GeForce line can be found here. You can see they produce anything from the new GeForce 7900 GTX to the 7800 series, 7600 series, 7300 series and the older GeForce 6 series cards. This means if there is anything from the latest GeForce 6 or 7 series you want, MSI can deliver.

If you are interested in ATI GPUs instead, MSI has you covered as well. Their ATI Radeon lineup can be seen here. You will see that if you want to go with an X1900 CrossFire they’ve got what you need; if you want a single card, they’ve got the X1900 XTX, X1900 XT, X1800 XT down to X1600 XT, Pro and X1300 Pro.

Today we are going to look at three MSI video cards in the high-end—two using ATI GPUs and one using an NVIDIA GPU. On the following pages, we will look at each card closer and then jump into gameplay analysis.