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 Speeds	3D Speeds

An interesting thing about the FX5900 is there are two clock speeds. 2D speeds are 300MHz Core/850MHz Memory, while the 3D speed is bumped up to 400/850. There isn't really much point in overclocking the 2D, so concentrating on the 3D, we managed a final overclock of 440/905.

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

Compared to our stock speed Splinter Cell numbers, we see an increase of about 2 to 3FPS across all the non-AA resolutions, and the 8xAA/8xAF resolutions. Not much of an increase, so we'll leave it up to you if it's worth the risk in OCing.

Image Quality

3D image quality was excellent, and very close to the quality provided by ATI cards. To be honest, I don't see any difference actually, so for gaming, the MSI FX5900-VTD won't disappoint.

One area of reviewing we're trying to address more is 2D image quality. We spend an awful lot of time working on our PCs, and 2D video quality is very important.

We loaded up a 1600x1200 image we normarlly use in our video card reviews. I also pulled up several word documents with various sized fonts to judge the text rendering. The documents used white text on a black background, and vice versa. The screen resolution for all tests was 1600x1200 @ 85Hz on a Dell rebranded 21" Trinitron.

Scores are subjective, but having worked with many video cards here at the Lair, we got a pretty firm grasp on what card renders 2D better than the others. The scores will be out of 10, with 10 being excellent.

Compared to a couple of GeForce 4s we've looked at earlier, nVidia has stepped it up a notch in 2D rendering. I did find small text on black backgrounds difficult to read, but I've seen much worse.

Final Words

Todd's 2 Cents:

MSI has put together a nice package with their GeForce FX5900-VTD. If you're a fan of all inclusive packages this one's for you there are plenty of "extras" to go along with your card. The card is also very visually appealing which would be reason enough to convert any non case mod'ers over to the "dark side".

Although the cooling system does look nice it can make for a tight fit next to the north bridge on some motherboards. This isn't a major fall back as the fan-cooler unit on the back is removable. Surprisingly enough the card's Twin Flow cooling system didn't appear to make for any additional noise in our system either.

When it comes to performance the FX5900 leaves little to the imagination. As we all saw with the benchmark results she can do more than just keep up with, and in some cases, surpass the competition.

Hubert's 2 Cents:

For the money, MSI really packs it in, though I'm with Todd that MSI should update their OEM game list. I was pretty impressed with the speed of the card, especially in Direct 3D gaming. The OpenGL results left me somewhat perplexed, but the results were repeatable, so it looks like ATI has a small edge for Q3 engine gaming.

My final thoughts are this. This will make a nice card for people who are strictly gamers. 3D image quality is nice, and 2D image quality is passable. It's expensive, ringing in at , but compared to some of the competition, MSI's pricing can be as much as 70$ less for a FX5900.

PRO: Good performance, massive bundle, efficient quiet cooling, VIVO features.

CONS: Mucho $$, fan may interfere with the northbridge on older motherboards.

Bottom Line: If you're a gamer you won't go wrong with this one and it has plenty of options for you PC home theatre fans. If you're on a tight budget you might want to put this one the back burner or stock up on that Kraft dinner. If you got any comments, be sure to hit us up in our forums.

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