MSI NX7300GS TD256E

We'll be testing the games in this article using "High Quality" settings at resolutions of 800x600 and 1024x768, and we'll also be throwing in some scores using 2x Anti-Aliasing and 4x Anisotropic filtering as well. For the budget type card we're reviewing today, we feel these settings strike a good balance between performance and image quality. 

Performance Comparisons with Quake 4 Details: http://www.quake4game.com/

Quake 4

id Software, in conjunction with developer Raven, recently released the latest addition to the wildly popular Quake franchise, Quake 4. Quake 4 is based upon an updated and slightly modified version of the Doom 3 engine, and as such performance characteristics between the two titles are very similar.  Like Doom 3, Quake 4 is also an OpenGL game that uses extremely high-detailed textures and a ton of dynamic lighting and shadows, but unlike Doom3, Quake 4 features some outdoor environments as well. We ran this these Quake 4 benchmarks using a custom demo with the game set to its "High-Quality" mode, at resolutions of 800 x 600 and 1024x768 without anti-aliasing enabled and then again with 2X AA and 4X aniso enabled simultaneously.

Our first test is with Quake 4 running at 800x600. The MSI NX7300GS will start a trend here, falling between the Foxconn mobo's on-board video, the Nvidia GeForce 6150, and our XFX GeForce 6600 DDR2. With the visual quality of the Doom 3 engine, you'll need a decent card to fully enjoy a game like Quake 4, as 39.7FPS is just the average framerate. During a good fight, the framerates can drop into the low 20's.

The game becomes a little hard to play at 1024x768. The game still looks decent with Medium Quality video settings, so either using the lower resolution or reducing the image quality settings should offer a playable experience.