Conclusion

    We've looked at many features of this card, from the packaged software, to the drivers, dual display technology, quality of all aspects of the card, its overclocking ability, and also its 3D performance.  So what can we conclude about this card?

    First lets look at the software.  MSI was very generous in providing many pieces of software in this retail pack.  From full games (4), to DVD software, to video editing software, as well as some other interesting utilities.   Some of the software I found useless (GoodMEM, 3D Desktop, WMInfo, and Trend PC-Cillin) but some may have a need for a anti-virus program.  Overall MSI did a good job on the included software.

    What about the drivers, which are the only thing allowing you to use the card to its full potential.  Some of the older drivers didn't work or work well with this card (40.41, 40.72b) but the latest 41.03 drivers had allot of features that the older ones didn't.  I only found a few 'nitpicky' points about them, at least with my system you couldn't select more than 2X ansiotropic filtering, and also I would have liked for the independent display selection to be automatically selected, and as such be able to us all the Nview options with it enabled.

    This brings us to the dual display technology of this video card.   I liked the fact that the options for independent displays was present, as well as a rather obscure and hard to activate DVD MAX clone.  These are the two major features that I use in my normal computer usage as they allow for more desktop space with a smaller monitor or the ability to send full screen video to a TV or second monitor without having to maximize the video on the main display, thus allowing you to get on with your work.  However there is one point to remember, which is mentioned in the manual, you cannot use the bottom VGA only port at the same time as you are trying to use the video out features of this card, its an either/or situation, VGA or TV-out only.

    But one of the most important parts of any video card is its quality, because if the quality isn't good then its worthless.  The 2D quality was fairly good, but had problems displaying text correctly without squishing it.  3D quality was very good once 4XS AA was enabled, as it was looking very close to Matrox's 16X FAA in terms of removing and smoothing the 'jaggies'.  TV-out quality was very good, but I was unable to test it fully as the best TV-in I had was courtesy of the cards TV-in port.  The TV-in quality was better in some respects than that of the ATi TV Wonder, as it accurately represents the reference image, though it does 'smooth' the video (seen in text).

    The overclocking of this card was very impressive to say the least.   With both the core and memory gaining an additional 40%+ improvement from overclocking it shows that MSI was committed to providing a overclocking friendly board.   While these kinds of improvements probably will not be seen on every board, ever half of this improvement is still better than no improvement at all.

    Lastly the 3D benchmarks, which many people find the most interesting.  In most cases the MSI card can beat or tie the Parhelia but only when overclocked.  When AA and Ansio are turned on, the MSI scores plummet, sometimes performing at about half (or even less) the frame rate as it has without these features enabled.  In most cases with newer games the MSI card isn't really that playable with AA and Ansio enabled.

    So what kind of card is this?  To my eyes this is a basic all-around card with most anything the learning (very early on) video editor needs, apart from software.  This card has fairly good 3D abilities that allow it to perform well at 1024*768 in all games, though turning AA and Ansio on isn't always a good idea.   The price of this card is very attractive as it is only about $110(US) according to pricewatch.com (about the same price as some Ti4200's) but has many more features included, and here in Canada at my local parts dealers, it is far cheaper than any Ti4200 card available.

    However I did run into problems with this card, and more specifically the Intervideo WinProducer software which wouldn't install on my machine.   I e-mailed MSI's technical support and received an automatic reply (check FAQ's, forums etc.) which I did but I found no solution to my problem there.  Therefore I e-mail technical support back over two weeks ago and still haven't received a reply, and the solution was fairly simple (software needs a c: drive while I only use d: and up).

Good Points

• Video In/Out
• Good 3D Performance
• Great Overclocker
• Very nice software bundle
• Good dual display modes
• It's red :)

Bad Points

• 2D isn't the greatest
• Fairly bad support
• Some special requirements for dual display
• Older drivers have problems
• AA + Ansio performance fairly bad
• Some software problems
• AGP 8X Useless

Bottom Line:

    If you are looking for a good all-around card, then this may be the card for you.  It has plenty of extras (software, overclocking ability, etc) and good performance (for a MX), though its 2D quality may let it down.

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