MSI N9600GT-OC T2D512 review

Written by Димитър Динчев a.k.a. Veseliq

Friday, 14 March 2008

 

Page 3 - Test configuration

The test configuration was provided by our partners from Solytrade , with the idea that it will be serving for our soon to come NVIDIA 3-WAY SLI review. The machine is serious in order not or bottleneck the videocard, but bear in mind that simpler dual core processor would provide you with different results, lower presumably...

Hardware:

• XFX 780i 3-way SLI Motherboard
• Intel QuadCore Q6600 @ 3GHz 9x333
• A-DATA DDR800 2x2GB @ 1066MHz 12-5-5-5
• 36GB Western Digital Raptor 10 000 RPM
• Corsair TX750W PSU

Software:

• Windows Vista Ultimate x86
• NVIDIA 174.16 x86 WHQL Drivers (for 9600 GT)
• NVIDIA 169.25 x86 WHQL Drivers (for 8800 GT, Ultra)
• NVIDIA 169.32 x86 WHQL Drivers (for 8800 GS)
• AMD Catalyst 8.2 WHQL Drivers (for HD 3850, HD 3870, HD 3870 X2)

Videocards we tested:

• MSI N9600GT-OC T2D512
• 9600 GT 512MB
• 8800 GS 384MB
• HD 3850 512MB

The ones in BOLD are the mid range videocards - around 320 leva (~160 Euro), right where MSI N9600GT-OC T2D512 will be making a stand for it's place under the sun


• Sapphire HD 3870 X2 1GB
• Sapphire HD 3870 512MB
• Albatron 8800GT 512MB
• XFX 8800Ultra 768MB

As it was written in XFX 8800 GS Alpha Dog XXX 384MB review, we would very much like to include the 8600 GTS, but alas the card supplied to us for testing was passive cooled MSI one with massive cooler on the back of it connected with heatpipes. Attempts to test the GeForce 8600 GTS in question were made ever since the G92 8800 series review as well as with the HD 3800 series review too, while we were testing with MSI P35 Diamond. It's radiator was overshadowing the high radiators on the Corsair XMS memory. Now determined to test it I used my own memory - 2x2 GB ADATA, that is capable of more than the above mentioned Corsair even without meddling big radiators, but this time the motherboard - XFX 780i had a huge, tall chipset cooler that was interfering with the card's positioning, so yet again it was left untouched. That as far as the current test is concerned is hardly a loss, since it performs pathetic compared to the other cards we are reviewing.

List of tests:

• Crysis DirectX 10 SP Demo
• World in Conflict DirectX 10 Demo
• Company of Heroes: Opposing Fronts
• Lost Planet – Extreme Condition DX10 Demo
• Unreal Tournament 3
• Call of Juarez DirectX 10 Benchmark
• 3DMark06

Resolutions / settings, that we choose for the tests were based on the fact that the card is supposed in the middle class and isn't performing all to well under more demanding resolutions /settings than the following:

• 1280x1024 without Antialiasing
• 1280x1024 with 4x Antialiasing
• 1680x1050 without Antialiasing

We tested without no changes on the drivers of the cards with only two exceptions with HD 3870 X2 in Crysis and Lost Planet, where we manually disabled Catalyst A.I., due to the horrendous artifacts in the games. If any other remarks were made they are noted in each test. Let the testing begin now...