The GeForce 8800 GT is a card that got everybody talking weeks before it came out, and after the first reviews it has become a card that many users desire. The stock shortages are a problem, but they will soon be solved, and the only question left is whether this is the card for you. Performance wise, ATI can't match NVIDIA's offer, but ATI will play the price card and offer their RV670 series at a lower price. However, performance wise it could not get close to GeForce 8800 GT. Until then, we will work with what we've got, and that's the MSI GeForce 8800 GT OC graphics card. Under its hood you'll find a G92 chip with 721 milion transistors, which is more than the GeForce 8800 GTX has. - FudZilla

MSI GeForce 8800 GT 512MB OC Edition Card Review

The MSI GeForce 8800 GT OC edition is faster than a reference GT card, and it's unlikely that the new Flextronics cards will boast much better clocks. As you probably know, all currently available GeForce 8800 GT cards were manufactured by Foxconn. If you look at the specifications, you'll see that our claims of MSI GeForce 8800 GT being faster than reference design cards were justified. Its core runs at 660MHz, which is 60MHz more than stock speed, stream processors at 1650MHz, a 150MHz faster than stock, and the memory at 1900MHz, again 100MHz faster than stock.

The G92 graphics chip is manufactured in the 65nm production process and its power usage is about 110W. Although the chip is small in size, it's got more transistors than the G80. As we've seen before, this card is better than the GeForce 8800 GTS, even when compared to the GeForce 8800 GTX it still holds its ground. The GeForce 8800 GT cards feature 112 stream processors, against 96 on the GTS version. Although the number of stream processors would suggest that GT is better than GTS, that is not the case. In the graphics pipeline, number of raster operation units plays an important role.

The GeForce 8800 GT is the first PCI Express 2.0 supporting card but if you're counting on DirectX 10.1, and planning a long term investment, then you must take into account that this card doesn't support DirectX 10.1. For casual users, this is not a big deal, especially knowing that most users still opt for Windows XP as an operating system of choice. The GeForce 8800 GT's processor features VP2, something that the G80 didn't include. This means PureVideo HD support when playing high definition video files, as well as post-processing entirely done in hardware so that the load is taken off the CPU.

So, MSI didn't put OC in the name just for fun, the card has actually been overclocked. Hardware wise, the MSI GeForce 8800 GT is no different from the reference cards, this card features the same cooler and PCB. Only thing setting it apart is the MSI sticker. Higher clocks on MSI's GeForce 8800 GT definitely help, and we see that in the benchmarks that the MSI card is the winner. Overclocking is not a problem, although the card is overclocked as it is. However, there are certain cards whose overclocked BIOS won't work at set frequencies. Thankfully, it's just the BIOS, which can easily be replaced.

It appears that the GeForce 8800 GT is a great choice and MSI offers two games, Lord of the Rings and Colin McRae. The card is overclocked to 660/1900MHz and an impressive 1650MHz shader clock. If that doesn't satisfy your hunger, when overclocked it will run even at 720/2060MHz speeds. In this scenario, MSI's card will beat the GeForce 8800 GTX cards that are far more expensive, and at €250 it definitely proves to be an excellent choice. Lack of DirectX 10.1 support is a handicap, but it won't be detrimental, at least for six more months. The card will get you a lot of bang for your buck.