![[H]ardOCP](/images/blank.gif){kind=small}
- Date:
- Wednesday, April 19, 2006
- Author:
- Brent Justice
- Editor:
- Tim Daniel
- Google +1
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.
MSI RX1900XTX-VT2D512E:
The model name RX1900 XTX-VT2D512E may be long but it is very descriptive. From this name we can see that this is MSI’s ATI Radeon X1900 XTX (RX1900XTX)-based video card with Video In and Video Out (V), TV-Out (T), and 2 Dual DVI connectors (2D) with 512MB of RAM (512) on the PCI-Express bus (E). As you can see, the model itself is the code that tells you all the main features of the video card.
The Radeon X1900 XTX is ATI’s latest GPU based on the X1000 series technology. To learn about all the features that make up X1000 series technology, check out our tech preview. To see what is new in the X1900 series, click here. The main advantage to the X1900 XTX is its 48 pixel shader units, which accelerate pixel shaders. As games are becoming more and more shader intensive, we want GPUs with as much shader processing performance as we can get. Right now, the X1900 XTX is as good as it gets at processing shader programs.
The Primary features for games that you need to know about are its support for Shader Model 3.0, Floating Point 16 HDR support with Multi-Sample Anti-Aliasing capability, 2/4/6X AA levels with Adaptive AA, up to 16X AF with a special High Quality Filtering option, 16 texture units, and 48 pixel shader units with 8 vertex units. The reference clock speed suggested by ATI for the X1900 XTX are 625MHz for the GPU and 1.55GHz for the memory. The MSI RX1900XTX runs at these reference speeds.
MSI packages the RX1900XTX in a cool blue box with bold lettering so you won’t miss the major specifications of this video card. You will see it is an X1900XTX with 512MB of GDDR3 with VIVO, Dual Link DVI, and PCI-Express. There is also a label on the box that indicates the package includes the full version of the game King Kong. The back of the box goes into detail about the specifications of the video card.
When you slide the plastic box out you will find that the video card is simply sitting in foam with no antistatic bag. Now, while this foam is holding the card securely in place, we have some reservations about not putting it in an antistatic bag and having it so open in the box. The box itself is not very sturdy; it wouldn’t take much pressure on the front of the box to damage the video card since there is no cushioning between the video card and the box. All three cards we have here are packaged this way, and while ours were ok you never know what these cards really go through when they are shipped across the country. An antistatic bag certainly wouldn’t hurt.
The RX1900XTX resembles a reference X1900 XTX in design to the letter. The heat sink and fan is designed to pull in air from the front of the case and exhaust all the hot air through the back. It is a completely enclosed system and thus helps keep the inside of your case cooler. While the cooler works well, the fan itself can get quite annoying when the GPU heats up and the fan increases its RPM. There is a whine to the noise that just can’t be ignored. Compared to the X1800 XT, the X1900 XTX gets hotter; the X1900’s fan spins up to higher speeds sooner and for longer periods of time compared to the X1800 XT in our testing.
If you look closely at the heat sink, you will see that the actual heat sink itself is made of copper. The surrounding piece is aluminum, which covers the RAM. The shroud then closes everything so air can flow through. This heat sink isn’t just for show either; it is needed to keep this beast cool. External power is fed through the PCI-Express power connector. The X1900 XTX has dual-link DVI connectors.
The MSI RX1900XTX is a full Video In/Video Out capable video card. You can output to HDTV or capture in from composite or S-Video signals.
The bundle includes HDTV and composite and S-video cables along with a splitter that allows In and Out cables to be connected for video. Dual DVI to VGA connectors are in the box as well as a PCI-Express power cable.
We love full version games included in these bundles and MSI doesn’t disappoint, as they’ve included the full version of the brand new game King Kong. You also get a DVD player, PowerProducer, and a driver CD.