|
MSI RX700PRO-TD256E Review |
|
Written by Mavke
|
|
Wednesday, 10 November 2004 |
Hexus has published a review on the MSI RX700 Pro graphics card. I'm sure you'd just love to have a new ATI Radeon X800 XT Platinum Edition video card. I know I would. You also wouldn't see me turning away a GeForce 6800 Ultra card. The trouble I face, and I'm sure you do too, is a price tag on the wrong side of £300 and limited availability that now beggars belief. However, the benefit of having cutting-edge cards from both graphics card giants is the inevitable trickle-down technology effect on cards lower in the range. These cheaper cards often retain a large portion of what makes the best cards tick, such that previous generation's midrange cards are left wanting in both specification and performance.
 MSI RX700PRO-TD256E Review
Tricking down from the X800 R423 part is ATI's new midrange PCI-Express offering, the RV410 or X700. The name might not be so different from the present X600 but nearly everything internally is, including a native PCI-Express design. nVidia has already launched its all-new NV43 midrange part to general acclaim, so it's important that ATI does the same. Having excellence in the very premium sector is nice, but having the best range of cards in the crucial £150 category is more than nice, it's absolutely necessary.
As always, there's red-hot competition in the £150 marketplace right now. nVidia's laid down the gauntlet with its impressive NV43 range of GPUs. ATI has responded with its R423-derived X700-series of cards and MSI has been one of the very first manufacturers to deliver a complete package.
GeForce 6600 GT and Radeon X700 PRO are pretty similar in a number of respects. They're both derived from class-leading cards and both run with 8 rendering pipelines and sport 128-bit memory interfaces. Whereas nVidia differentiates its NV43 line by having just two base models, ATI has an X700 XT (475MHz core/1050MHz memory), X700 PRO (425/864MHz) and X700 (400/600MHz) variants, all with native PCIe interfaces. MSI's RX700PRO-TD256E fits right into the middle of ATI's midrange hierarchy but ships with a standard 256MB of onboard RAM.
Looking at our benchmarks, the 128MB GeForce 6600 GT's faster core and memory speeds generally put it in pole position until we really dial up AntiAliasing and Anisotropic Filtering. We'd kind of expect that, given that an X700 XT is its natural competitor. So in terms of GPU power in this crucial midrange bracket both ATI's RV410 and nVidia's NV43 are consummate performers. I'd give the performance nod to a 'GT at anything other than 1600x1200 4x AA/8x AF, though, and wouldn't consider anything else for Doom 3.
MSI has done a decent job in turning an RV410 GPU into a fully-fledged retail package. £160 or so buys you a competent midrange graphics card and a bundle to rival the best. Too often manufacturers overlook the bundle but MSI hasn't made that mistake. There's games aplenty and documentation is excellent. The choice you have to make is which PCIe GPU to go for. Both nVidia and ATI make compelling cases. If you decide that an X700 PRO best fits your needs and budget I can heartily recommend MSI's RX700PRO.
|
NiBiTor v6.06
