Just when it seems that a hard launch date has finally emerged for the eagerly anticipated DirectX 10 graphics core from ATI, we were disappointed with new information suggesting that the R600 is to be delayed till the second quarter of the year, meaning we are likely looking at a close to mid-year launch at the earliest. Ominously for ATI, the first signs that NVIDIA is slowly loosening its restrictions on its GeForce 8 series have appeared, with the new 320MB budget version of the GeForce 8800 GTS coming in overclocked flavors. If NVIDIA also manages to bring over its overclocking edge, the GeForce 8 series could have another advantage over the R600, ATI's upcoming parts. - Hardware Zone

MSI GeForce 8800 GTS 320MB OverClocked Review

Outwardly, there is no way of telling that the MSI card has only 320MB or that it is even overclocked. For unlike the packaging and its OC sticker to denote its overclocking pedigree, there is no indication on the card's decal. Only when you flip to the other side and examine the model name would you have a vague idea, and that's provided you understand the long naming convention used by MSI. In this case, the HD on the model name implies that this card is HDCP compliant, like any GeForce 8 card now while the OC means that it is overclocked. However, to find out the overclocking, plug in the card and install the drivers.

Instead of the default 500MHz core clock, the MSI has been elevated to 575MHz like the Foxconn but whereas the Foxconn runs at 1800MHz memory speed, the MSI is slightly slower at 1700MHz effective. This is of course a fair bit higher than the 500/1600MHz on the standard GeForce 8800 GTS so one should be able to discern the differences between the standard and the MSI card. Meanwhile, with the same physical dimensions and two slot cooler as the original GeForce 8800 GTS 640MB, this MSI card should run as quiet and about as warm as the reference design.

During our benchmarking, we noticed some peculiar results. Namely, despite having a lower memory clock than the Foxconn, the MSI actually came out on top on many occasions. This prompted us to wonder if MSI had tweaked this GeForce 8800 GTS card in some way. To find out, we used an NVIDIA BIOS editing tool known as NiBiTor, which could show us the core, memory and shader clock speeds. As you might know, the new unified architecture on the GeForce 8 means that the conventional vertex and pixel shaders got replaced by general purpose shader processors, which NVIDIA dubbed stream processors.

For the GeForce 8800 GTS, there are 96 of these processors, running at a default clock of 1200MHz. The MSI GeForce 8800 GTS 320 MB OC edition however had its stream processors overclocked to 1350MHz, the equivalent speed of shaders found on a GeForce 8800 GTX. A check with the Foxconn confirmed that unlike the MSI, the shaders on the Foxconn were at the standard 1200MHz and that only its core and memory clocks have been overclocked. No wonder the MSI managed to emerge the faster card of the two. This internal shader clock setting is presently opaque to users.

The fact that there are no DirectX 10 games in retail stores yet may be the saving grace for ATI and its much delayed next generation graphics architecture. The sales of Windows Vista, the only operating system to support the DirectX 10 API, have also been slower than Microsoft expected and this just means that there is hardly any impetus to upgrade to a DirectX 10 graphics card right away. Of course, NVIDIA's GeForce 8 cards do not merely support DirectX 10 but also perform much faster than other contemporary graphics cards in current games.

Like we mentioned before, the 320MB onboard memory is likely to be a bottleneck for some games and settings but if you're satisfied with its capability, it's still pretty good value for its performance. Vendors have also been tweaking this new SKU like never before, hence we have now seen two GeForce 8800 GTS 320MB cards and both of which are overclocked. The MSI OC edition goes further by having overclocked stream processors that have clock speeds on par with the GeForce 8800 GTX. This kind of overclocking is usually invisible to consumers since NVIDIA's nTune utility does not display this information.

We have no idea if MSI's move to overclock the shader units is but the start of a new trend among vendors. However, the results speak for themselves, there are improvements from doing so and combined with the usual core and memory overclocks, will significantly boost the performance of a GeForce 8 graphics card. Finally, a price of $309 is only slightly more than the recommended retail price of $299 for a standard GeForce 8800 GTS 320MB. Once you factor in the overclocking and the attractive game, the MSI GeForce 8800 GTS 320MB OC edition looks like a really good deal.