MSI NX6800GS-TD256E Review --- TheThirdMedia Hardware

Introduction

There have been constant speculations and rumors about a mid-range GeForce 7 series graphics card for some time now. Such talk has only intensified after NVIDIA's second card in the GeForce 7 series turned out to be the GeForce 7800 GT, which still fell into the high-end category. The company showed no indication of replacing its ageing high-end GeForce 6800 cards with a GeForce 7 series alternative though persistent rumors hinted at a GeForce 7800 GS that was supposed to be it. Instead, NVIDIA blindsided almost everyone with its introduction of the GeForce 6800 GS, a cheaper, short-term replacement for the existing GeForce 6800 and even the GeForce 6800 GT.

MSI's newest GeForce card is its take on the NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GS.

From the reference NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GS that we reviewed, this short-term SKU looks to be quite a bargain, thanks to its competitive performance and price ratio. The GeForce 6800 GS could match the GeForce 6800 GT in the benchmarks but its recommended retail price is significantly lower than the GeForce 6800 GT and thus also taking over the segment that the plain GeForce 6800 once occupied. NVIDIA has also managed to maintain its promise to have the card widely available at launch and this too, seems to have been fulfilled, judging from the quick response that we have had from vendors when it came to review units. First up, we have the MSI NX6800GS-TD256E, a standard GeForce 6800 GS from one of the largest graphics card vendors in the business ?Micro-Star International. To refresh your memory about this SKU, here are its technical specifications:

MSI-NX6800GS-TD256E Technical Specifications

GraphicsEngine	NVIDIA GeForce 6800GPU Stock 3D GPU clock= 425MHz Stock 2D GPU clock= 350MHz 12 pixel renderingpipelines 5 vertex pipelines(geometry engines) 256-bit DDR memorycontroller CineFX3.0 Shading Engine Vertex Shaders Support for DX9.0 Vertex Shader 3.0 DisplacementMapping VertexFrequency Stream Divider (GeometryInstancing) Infinitelength vertex programs (supported inhardware) Pixel Shaders Support for DX9.0 Pixel Shader 3.0 Full pixelbranching support MultipleRender Targets (MRTs) Infinitelength pixel programs (supported inhardware) Texturing EngineFeatures Up to 16textures per rendering pass Support for 16-bit and 32-bit floating pointformats Support forsRGB texture format for gamma textures DirectX andS3TC texture compression Full128-bit FP Precision Graphics Pipeline Native supportfor 32 / 64 / 128 bits per pixelrendering modes UltraShadow IITechnology (accelerates shadowcomputations) Intellisample 3.0Technology 16x AnisotropicFiltering Adaptive TextureFiltering Rotated GridAntialiasing Fast antialiasingand compression performance Loss-less Color,Texture and Z-Data Compressionalgorithms (in real time) Fast Z-clear High-resolutionCompression Technology (HCT) increasesperformance at high resolutions. Advanced Video andDisplay Functionality Dedicated on-chipvideo processor MPEG videoencode and decode WMV9 decodeacceleration Advancedadaptive de-interlacing High qualityvideo scaling and filtering IntegratedNTSC/PAL TV encoder support resolutions upto 1024x768 with built-in Macrovision copy protection DVD and HDTV-readyMPEG-2 decoding up to 1920x1080iresolutions Dual 400MHzRAMDACs that support resolutions of2048x1536@85Hz Dual DVO ports forinterfacing external TMDStransmitters and external TV/HDTV encoder Microsoft VideoMixing Renderer (VMR) nViewMulti-display Technology Digital VibranceControl (DVC) 3.0 NVIDIA High-PrecisionDynamic-Range (HPDR) Technology Advanced thermalmonitoring and thermal management
GraphicsMemory	256MB Graphic DDR SDRAM Default memory clock =500MHz (1000MHz DDR) 256-bit memoryinterface
RAMDAC	Dual integrated 10-bitper channel 400 MHz DACs thatsupport resolutions of 2048x1536@85Hz Integrated 165 MHzTMDS transmitter (DVI 1.0 compliant andHDCP ready)
Connectors	1 x analog VGAconnector 1 x DVI-I connector 1 x 9-pin mini-DINconnector
Drivers& Software	Driver support forWindows 98 / Me / 2000 / XP Colin McRae Rally 2005 MSI Multimedia(Drivers & Utilities CD)
OtherInformation	16-lane PCI Expressexpansion slot required PCIe Molex power connector required



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