3DMark06

The MSI NX7300 GS trails the X1300 by a large margin at both resolutions.

Overclocking

Compared to other 7300 GS cards, the MSI NX7300 GS is slightly quicker thanks to its Dynamic Overclocking Technology. Depending on the load, core speed can increase by as much as 10%.

Due to the proprietary nature of MSI's drivers, our overclocking attempts were severely handicapped.

Final Words

The MSI NX7300 GS is really designed to compete against the ATI X1300 as well as onboard video solutions.

Image quality is very good, and compared to current onboard video setups, well beyond anything those solutions can offer. We were not able to spot any huge differences between ATI and NVIDIA here as far as gaming is concerned. The screenshot above is Doom 3 in action, and the one edge we feel NVIDIA has here is the game is a little brighter by default than it is on the X1300.

Image quality was a bit stronger in terms of lighting on the X1300, but it still looks pretty good. 2D desktop and DVD playback were quite good. S-Video was quite strong, as was DVI out to our Hitachi widescreen TV. Component outputs aren't offered with this card, but with DVI, the MSI NX7300 GS does at least offer a HD output. While the NX7300 GS lacks the pure speed of the much more expensive cards, the features are quite similar so you won't be sacrificing image quality for spending less than $100.

As for the speed, you will obviously not be able to play the latest games at high resolution. 1280x1024 is my personal minimum, and the NX7300 GS struggled for the most part. Unless you're playing an old title such as Quake 3, you'll be limited to 1024x768 and lower for an enjoyable game experience. Titles still look decent at 1024 and 800x600, but if you're a serious gamer where IQ and all the graphical doodads are important, you'll be better served spending a few hundred bucks more.

We won't be too hard on the MSI NX7300 GS for that reason though, since we're not expecting 7900GTX performance out of this product, but compared to the ATI X1300, it is a tougher choice. Both cards are priced the same, but the ATI is significantly faster at Direct X titles. We did some quick testing disabling TurboCache, and in turning the NX7300 GS into a 256MB card, the actual performance dropped significantly at the higher resolutions, averaging about 9% to 13% less. Part of this can be blamed at the fact we had only 512MB of ram installed.

DVDs and general HD WMV playback did demonstrate less blurring on the 7300 GS than on the X1300, though the quality does appear to be equal compared to ATI's All-In-Wonder 2006 (X1300). That card is more expensive though, and is not in the same market. For the money, MSI does include a full version video game and security software as well as some hardware extras, so in terms of value, you do get a nice return on investment.

What it's going to boil down to is which card will be cheaper when you're out shopping. Despite the slower Direct X performance, the does support more Direct X features than the X1300, at least where 3DMark06 is concerned. Honestly, we think you should base your decision on the games you play now. So long as you undertand the obvious shortcomings of sub-$100 products, the MSI NX7300 GS is not a bad choice, though depending on your needs, it may not be the best one.