If there is
one thing that is certain, it's that there is no other
channel of the PC hardware industry more heated in
competition and embroiled in controversy than the graphics
sector. This is a fierce market consumed with debates
over whose video card is on top. Those of us who
follow the industry often find ourselves glued to our
monitors with both great interest and excitement in the
daily goings on. While most PC Enthusiasts are
interested in what the best video card available is, that
doesn't mean that all of us have the money to buy such a
card. It is analogous to the love affair we have with
the automobile.
Certainly
each and everyone of us know someone who follows the auto
industry incessantly. You know who I'm referring to,
that one person who knows the name of each and every model
car that passes by on the road. When the latest Lexus
or Acura drives by they begin to overflow with envy and can
rattle off all you ever wanted to know about that particular
model's horsepower and top speed. Now let me ask you
this, most of the time when you think of a person like this,
do they actually drive a car like that? I think the
answer is most often "no". The same can be said for
the video card market, there are the BMWs and Porches and
then there are the Hyundais and KIAs.
Today we
are going to set the hype aside and focus a bit more on the
practical side of the video card market. We're going
to take a look at the latest "value" minded card to come out
of the MSI camp with a review of the GeForce FX5200 TDR128.
This is an affordable, yet capable video card that has some
extras one would expect to find with a "sportier" model.
Features
of the MSI GeForce FX5200 TDR128
Something Familiar with a Little Extra
Chipset Features ? 0.15u process
technology
? Advanced thermal monitoring and thermal management
? AGP 8X including fast writes and sideband addressing
CineFX Shading Architecture
? Support for DX 9.0
Pixel/Vertex Shader 2.0+
? Very long pixel programs up to 1024 instructions
? Very long vertex programs with up to 256 static
instructions and up to 65536 instructions executed
before termination
? Full instruction set for vertex and pixel programs
High-Performance, High-Precision, 3D Rendering Engine
? 8 pixels per clock
rendering engine
? 128-bit, studio-quality floating point precision
through the entire graphics pipeline
? DirectX and S3TC texture compression
High-Performance 2D
Rendering Engine
? Optimized for 32-,
24-, 16-, 15- and 8-bpp modes
? True-color, 64x64 hardware cursor with alpha
? Multi-buffering (double, triple or quad) for smooth
animation and video playback
Advanced Display Pipeline with Full nView
Capabilities
? Dual, 400MHz
RAMDACs for display resolutions up to and including
2048x1536@85Hz
? Integrated NTSC/PAL TV encoder support resolutions up
to 1024x768 without the need for panning with built-in
Macrovision copy protection
? DVD and HDTV-ready MPEG-2 decoding up to 1920x1080i
resolutions
? Dual DVO ports for interfacing to external TMDS
transmitters and external HDTV encoders
Digital Vibrance control (DVC) 3.0
? DVC color controls
? DVC image sharpening controls
The Card
Unlike its
predecessor, the GeForce 4 MX, the GeForceFX 5200 appears
well equipped for a budget class video card. The MX
series was almost immediately over shadowed by the lower end
Ti models, leaving it a bit lost in the budget video card
market. This time around, the FX5200 comes with a more
refined and mature GPU that's clocked at 250MHz. and
supports both DirectX 9 and AGP 8X. We were pleased to
see that 128MB of 400MHz DDR Samsung TSOP II memory is
available which will come in handy with more graphically
intensive games. The card offers both DVI and VGA
connections and is capable of dual monitor output powered by
dual 400MHz RAMDACs.
The GPU is
outfitted with MSI's Top Tech II cooling system which is
designed to adjust its speed according to the temperature of
the GPU. To handle the cooling more efficiently while
keeping fan noise to a minimum, the fan speed is throttled
based on the mode in which the card is running. In 2D
mode, for example, the fan defaults to 2000RPM and can
increase to 4200RPM. In 3D Mode the range is 5000RPM
to a top speed of 6500 RPM. The purpose of the TOP
Tech II is to provide acceptable cooling while minimizing
noise. When running at an idle 2D mode, the fan noise
is a mere 8db while under extreme 3D load it tops out at
26.5, still well below the majority of cooling packages
available.
For an entry
level video card, MSI put together a decent package with the
GeForceFX 5200 TDR128, offering a fair array of features and
power to handle the needs of the average user.
However, while the GeForceFX 5200 TDR128 is the main
attraction, there is more to this package than the card
itself.
Bonus Items
Complimenting
the GeForceFX 5200 TDR128 was an excellent bundle of
additional hardware and software. This has become a
common sight with MSI products, where the manufacturer aims
to please in all areas. Accompanying the MSI GeForceFX
5200 TDR128 was a infrared remote control which expands the
overall functionality of the card. A 9-SC TV-Out
Connecting Cable + Remote Receiver is included which
provides standard TV out capabilities as well as an infrared
receiver for the remote control. A DVI-I to VGA
adapter is provided to connect a standard CRT monitor to the
second video output. A Quick User's Guide is also
provided which covers all of the cards features and proper
installation of the hardware and drivers.
MSI wants to
ensure that the budget user need not have to run out and buy
a bunch of games to enjoy their new card. Several full
version games are included such as Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon,
The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind, & Duke Nukem: Manhattan
Project. The package also included lite versions of
such titles as The Sum of All Fears, IL-2 Sturmovik and
Serious Sam 2 to name a few. Along with a hefty
collection of popular gaming titles, the MSI GeForce FX 5200
TDR128 also comes with a good collection of versatile
utilities. Such titles as MSI 3D Desktop, Virtual
Drive 7 professional and Restore It 3 professional offer a
wide range of features such as a 3D World Desktop, Virtual
CD-ROM drives and restoring system configuration to original
settings. MSI also includes their 5.1 channel DVD
software and several other titles.
