|
Instead of measuring memory in nanoseconds, as it was done way back when, memory nowadays is measured in Mhz as to draw a common denominator between the bus speed and the speed of the RAM. If we divide 1 second (or 1 billion nanoseconds) by the speed of the RAM, we can get the speed of the RAM. Here's an example:
10 nanosecond DDR RAM is rated at 200 Mhz.
1000 nanoseconds/1 second x 1/10 nanoseconds = 100 Mhz
A hertz is a measure of cycles per second. The prefix Mega means 1 million. So,
100 Mhz means 100 Million cycles per second - or 100 Million "transfers" or "calculations" or "completions" per second.
Since the RAM is DDR (Dual Data Rate), the speed is doubled - 200 Mhz.
We can use the same following equation to get the theoretical clock speeds for the RAM on the video cards:
1000 nanoseconds/1 second x 1/4 nanoseconds = 250 Mhz
500 Mhz is the theoretical clock speed for the 4ns RAM (used on the 128 Mb version of the Ti4200.)
The 64 Mb version of Ti4200 uses 3.6ns memory, so using the same equation:
1000 nanoseconds/1 second x 1/3.6 nanoseconds = 277.7 Mhz
The speed is doubled, bringing the clock speed to 556 Mhz.
But wait - this ram is running at 513 Mhz. Why would MSI underclock their memory? The card is an Nvidia chip - it's meant to deal with 500 Mhz memory. By using the better RAM, they can run the RAM at a higher speed than the specs call for - higher than the 500 Mhz mark, without damaging the RAM by maxing out its memory clock.
We can even overclock the memory more than the extra 56 Mhz, since RAM can be pushed a little farther than it's rated usually - the only thing that is sacrificed is of course, stability.
I overclocked the card to a CPU Clock of 290 Mhz, and a Memory Clock of 580 Mhz. I did not use MSI's utility simply because I found it to be quirky - it did not necessarily hold changes I made to clock speeds.
Compared to the stock 513MHz speed, in Quake 3 Arena, we broke 200 FPS at 1024x768 and pulling ahead of the MAX 1600x1200 by almost 20 FPS is a good performance boost - almost 20% in the case of 1600x1200.
Finally, the last non-anti-aliasing test which I performed was 3D Mark - achieving a whopping 10432 3D Marks. I personally have never broken the 10000 mark with 3D Mark.
Final Words
At present time, it seems that at stock Nvidia clock speeds, the majority of Ti4200's are almost all the same - utilizing the same reference board, differing only slightly in design and memory. So what sets this video card apart?
Pros:
Great looking red PCB
Free dual head support
Large bundle of games
Affordability.
Cons:
MSI Clock utility is clumsy
Cannot dual head with 2 DVI-I monitors
Bottom Line: At the time of writing, the Ti4200 costs approximately $150 USD. The only fault I can find with this card is the fact that you cannot go dual head with 2 DVI-I monitors. Then again, it does only boast a free dual vga setup. For it's features, performance, overclockability, and affordability, we at Viper's Lair give the MSI Ti4200 an Editor's Choice.
Agree? Disagree? Discuss it in our forums
Previous Page - Benchmarks
|
