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Remote Cont'd and Software
Unfortunately I cannot say anything regarding the range of the IR remote, ease of use of the program, or if the FM button is actually for FM radio. The MTS and C.C/TTX buttons are going to remain a mystery to both me, and you, dear reader - because MSI's program will not run. Their "Media Center Deluxe II" refuses to properly install on my computer, which is running windows 2000 at the moment, WINDEx.dll does not register. I searched the net a bit and found that Bjorn3D had the same problem as found here. I kept getting a scripting error, and couldn't use the software. Upon looking at MSI's spec page, I noticed in red bold letters under the Media Center heading "Notice: Only support WinXP OS now."
Screenshots of MSI's Media Center from the box
Also, when using the installer, I went to exit and found a typo. Now, I'm not really the nit-picky type - I'm just surprised. This is the retail version of the product and it left MSI with a typographical error, which just seems a bit unrefined to me. It doesn't really reflect poorly on the card in any way whatsoever, I'm just a bit surprised that MSI would allow it to happen.
Also bundled with the card are a slew of games and utilities.
Utilities:
InterVideo WinProducer/Wincoder Version 2.0
InterVideo WinProducer/Wincoder Professional User's Pack
Virtual Drive 7 Professional
Restore It 3 Professional
MSI 5.1 Channel DVD Player (Rebranded InterVideo WinDVD)
MSI 3D Desktop
Foreign Language Learning Machine
MSI Utilities:
GoodMem (Free Unused Memory)
LockBox (Data Lockup)
WMInfor (System Information)
ThinSoft BeTwin (Dummy Workstations)
Trend Micro PC-Cillin 2000
Games:
Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon
The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind
Duke Nukem: Manhattan Project
7-in-1 Games Collection (Trial Versions)
It might seem a bit silly, but I realized that if I had gotten this as a gift perhaps, I wouldn't know which card I had received without going through the quick user's guide and checking the features I could see against the different models. I just can't fathom as to why MSI doesn't put the model number on the packaging. Thankfully, the quick user's guide will tell you the difference between the FX5600-TDR128 and the FX5600-VTDR128, at the end of each description you find the bundled items of the package: the VTDR has 4 connectors on its' dongle, as opposed to the TDR's 2 connectors.
And of course, no MSI package would be complete without a MSI badge.
Test Setup
Motherboard: DFI LanParty KT400A
CPU: Athlon XP 1800+
Memory: OCZ PC2700 Overclocked to 400 Mhz
O/S: Windows 2000
Please note that the Ti4200 was tested on a different system, but I determined that the motherboard was not the bottleneck in the Ti4200 review, the card was performing at maximum output (I tried the card on a Pentium 4 2.4 Ghz and it performed the same)
Unfortunately, I do not have one of ATI's budget cards for comparison, so the Ti4200 will have to do. It should be noted that the Ti4200 was designed with 4xAA to be processed efficiently, and AA is a very large focus of the UT2003 testing. Image quality will be tested using the ATI 9700 Pro in dm_antalus in UT2003, and in j2kffa in Jedi Knight 2.
For a Direct3D test, I used the [H]ardOCP UT2k3 Benchmarking utility in my tests, in both high and low quality. High quality tests go from No AA to 8xAA, and from No Anisotropic Filtering to 8xAnisotropic Filtering.
For comparison with the 4200, I used the same settings I had previously used.
Next Page - Benchmarks
Previous Page - The Card
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MSI FX5600-VTDR128: We have a look at MSI's latest mainstream video card offering. Is it a suitable replacement for the Ti4200? That's what we'll try to determine today.
