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MSI Radeon X1900 GT 256MB PCI-E Review |
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Written by Mavke
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Tuesday, 20 June 2006 |
Hardware Zone shares a review on the MSI Radeon X1900 GT 256MB PCIe video card. It may be early days yet but response to ATI's latest chipset, the Radeon X1900 GT and the intended rival to NVIDIA's GeForce 7900 GT, seems rather muted. At least that's our gut feeling since sales figures aren't available. The fact that not many manufacturers seem to be shipping this chipset would appear to support our instincts. Either ATI and its partners are unable to produce enough, or there is just not that much interest in this chipset. Has ATI lost the battle for mind share for this generation's graphics cards? Does NVIDIA's GeForce 7600 GT come to mind first or the Radeon X1800 GTO?
 MSI Radeon X1900 GT 256MB PCI-E Review
The good news is that reality is hardly ever a stark choice between black and white. So the majority may know or have heard of the GeForce 7900 GT, but ATI is no slouch in the marketing department too and most would know about the rivalry between the two. Comparison shoppers would explore alternatives and realize that the GeForce 7900 GT is not the outright champion in benchmarks as some would think initially. The Radeon X1900 GT can actually hold its own in certain benchmarks and games. Discerning users may prefer the Radeon X1900 GT for its ability to reproduce HDR rendering and anti-aliasing together.
Frankly, both sides, ATI or NVIDIA are great in some benchmarks and ordinary in others, with OpenGL games still the Achilles' heel for ATI. So what are the games that you play or intend to play? That's the question you should ask yourself before deciding since the scores are tight for many benchmarks. Other criteria like noise and heat are also important and here we can say that the leaner core of the GeForce 7900 GT is cooler though the fans for both are mildly audible and comparable in noise. As for the price, the GeForce 7900 GT has the advantage of greater market exposure due to its earlier launch.
As for the MSI Radeon X1900 GT, it's no different from the first Radeon X1900 GT that we saw from GeCube. A negligible variation in performance is in line with the reference origins of both cards. Even the limited overclocking margin is almost the same, as both cores eked out 620MHz reluctantly. In the end, we had the MSI winning that battle with a slim 40MHz DDR lead in memory clock speeds, which is unlikely to translate into any concrete gains in frame rates. In short, just like many graphics products nowadays, the hardware from most vendors are identical reference models.
So as long as they work without any problems, their performance should be comparable across all brands in any given category with little deviation. Hence besides performance, we are left with other factors to win us over. MSI has kept up with its standards for a high-end card like the Radeon X1900 GT, adding a decent game, a suite of DVD applications and its assorted programs and utilities. It is without doubt, the winner in both quality and quantity compared to the GeCube. As for how much the MSI Radeon X1900 GT would set you back, we were unable to get an exact quote.
Seeing as how most brands are hovering around the $289-299 mark and based on our experiences with MSI products, it should not be too far off the mark. So if the Radeon X1900 GT strikes the right balance for your needs, the MSI Radeon X1900 GT is the typical representative, reasonably competent and nicely bundled.
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