What makes one graphics card manufacturer different from the others? Is it the software bundling that comes with that board we are looking at? Yeah granted, getting games and/or software with our purchases does help somehow, but with the selection of games that come with a graphics card, and chances are we've already purchased those. Next up, is it because that graphics version is factory overclocked? This again makes a difference in our choices, as some people are still completely afraid of using software like RivaTuner to overclock their boards. We look at what that manufacturer uses for a heatsink on their video card. MSI has been one of the top manufacturers that uses an aftermarket cooler. - Bjorn3D

MSI GeForce GTX 285 OC SuperPipe Cooling Preview

The GeForce GTX 285 SuperPipe card is no exception to MSI's continuation of quality, not to mention their ability to think outside the box when it concerns their products. As we can tell the MSI GeForce GTX 285 SuperPipe is the same basic core and memory as the standard GeForce GTX 285's, but the speeds are a tad higher, MSI also adopted using 2GB of memory as well. The MSI does give us some quick general specifications of the SuperPipe edition on the front side of the box. MSI also included a picture of the GeForce GTX 285 SuperPipe graphics cooler. Flipping the box over, MSI gives us the details of the GPU cooler used.

So to overclock the MSI GeForce GTX 285 card we just had to use the Precision software. Starting off with a 680MHz core speed, a memory speed of 2500MHz, with a shader clock speed of 1476MHz, and we were not expecting to gain much more overclocking this graphics card. But we were surprised that the SuperPipe version was able to gain quite a bit more out of it. We managed to get to 725MHz on the core, a 1635MHz shader clock speed, and a minor gain on the memory to 2520MHz. Which is not to bad since this is already overclocked from factory. We ended up overclocking the shaders and the core separately from one another.

MSI has a winning video board with the GeForce GTX 285 SuperPipe edition. And throughout our reign of terror with this graphics card we did not once worry about any performance related issues nor did we have to turn any of my settings down on our games we did play. Using an aftermarket cooler is definitely a plus in our eyes because this will ensure that the graphics card will not overheat during our long gaming sessions. Most of the problems we encountered were driver related and we have to consider that we are using a beta operating system, and that in itself will have minor problems that could lead to such behavior.

Having a price tag of around $350, this card is the perfect canidate for those who are looking for a great video card with exceptional cooling capabilities. And being already pre-overclocked does add extra value to the product itself by giving added performance and improved gaming experience.