Overclocking

Overclocking should net you some extra performance, but beware of the risks. Never jump straight to the highest overclock, and make sure you move up a little at a time.

2D Stock Speeds	3D Stock Speeds

Like the past GeForce FX cards, there are two clock speeds depending on what you are doing. Stock 2D speed is 300MHz Core/906MHz Memory, while the 3D speed is bumped up to 475/906. There isn't really much point in overclocking the 2D, so concentrating on the 3D, we managed a final overclock of...

553MHz Core/1.04GHz Memory

Overclocking is nice and all, but let's look at some numbers and see what kind of performance we gained from OCing.

Splinter Cell OC Results @ 1024

Compared to our stock speed Splinter Cell numbers, we see an increase of about 6fps at no AA/AF.

Image Quality

No AA/AF	8AA/8AF

3D image quality was pretty good, and gamers shouldn't have any issues with the quality.

2D Image quality is on par with the FX5600 Ultra, which is to say it's not bad, but not as good as offerings from ATI and Matrox.

Final Words

The first impressions on this card were positive. The card is attractive to look at, and will look nice for those of you who have case windows. There is plenty of software included, although the game selection left a little to be desired. We don't really see the point in packaging games that don't demonstrate the card's strengths, and it's like buying a HDTV that comes with VCR rather than a DVD player. All the cables you need are included, as well as a DVI-to-VGA adapter for dual CRTs.

Performance was very good when you consider the target market and price point. We're not talking about FX5950 Ultra numbers here, but you're not paying 400$ either. Performance is very good for online gamers, who tend to stay under 1280x1024 resolution, though we still worry a bit given our Splinter Cell numbers. They are much improved when compared to the FX5600 Ultra, but Splinter Cell will be surpassed in terms of graphics intensity, and the question remains... how will Half-Life 2 and Doom 3 like the FX5700 Ultra?

At , the MSI FX5700 Ultra-TD128 falls in the upper range when . Granted, there are a lot of extras included with the MSI card, but if dumping the poor game bundle drops the price, we say go for it MSI. We will have to admit that the T.O.P. Tech cooling is quite impressive, keeping our card stable without making a racket.

Pros: Good performance (if you stay at, and below 1280), nice bundle, good overclocker.

Cons: Poor performance at higher resolutions and detail levels. One of the more expensive FX5700 Ultras.

Bottom Line: For the games of today, the MSI 5700 Ultra will do the job. Even for games that will come later on, the FX5700 Ultra is what we consider the bare minimum for playability. With the overclocking potential, you should be ok for the next few months.

If you have any comments, be sure to hit us up in our forums.

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