MSI GEFORCE 5900 XT

"In this article we test the MSI GeForce 5900 XT against the Sapphire Radeon 9600 XT using the following software:- 3dmark 2001 SE, 3dmark 2003, Comanche4, GL Excess, Quake III Arena, Serious Sam the Second Encounter, Unreal Tournament 2003 and X2 The Threat."

THE MOST AFFORDABLE PRICE AND PERFORMANCE FROM THE FX 5900 GRAPHICS FAMILY MEMBERS

MSI ignites the cinematic revolution with the most powerful members of the NVIDIA® GeForce™ FX family-the GeForce 5900 XT graphic card with 2.8ns Ultra Speed DDR memory. Powered by the second-generation NVIDIA® CineFX™ 2.0 engine with the industry's only true 128-bit precision processing-MSI GeForce 5900 XT graphic card take cinematic quality special effects to new levels!!!

GENERAL SYSTEM INFORMATION

PROCESSOR	AMD ATHLON XP 3000
VIDEO CARD	MSI GEFORCE 5900 XT
	SAPPHIRE RADEON 9600 XT
ATI DRIVER	CATALYST v4.2
NVIDIA DRIVER	FORCEWARE v53.03
MOTHERBOARD	ASROCK K7S8XE+
MEMORY	512MB CRUCIAL PC3200 DDR
OPERATING SYSTEM	WINDOWS XP SERVICE PACK 1
DIRECTX VERSION	v9.0b

NOTE - HQ MEANS THAT 4x ANTI-ALIASING AND 8x ANISOTROPIC FILTERING HAS BEEN ENABLED.

UNREAL TOURNAMENT 2003

ANUBIS

	124
	121
	110
	77

CITADEL

	57
	57
	55
	46

ORBITAL

	112
	111
	103
	91

MSI GEFORCE 5900 XT SAPPHIRE RADEON 9600 XT
MSI GEFORCE 5900 XT (HQ) SAPPHIRE RADEON 9600 XT (HQ)

BENCHMARK SETTINGS
1024x768 Resolution
Character Shadows Enabled
Decals Enabled
Dynamic Lighting Enabled
Detail Textures Enabled
Projectors Enabled
Foliage Enabled

COMMENT - "A close result with 4xaa/8xaf disabled however with 4xaa/8xaf enabled the MSI GeForce 5900 XT shows it's strength and finishes with a 14%-30% lead over the Sapphire Radeon 9600 XT."

X2 THE THREAT

DEFAULT QUALITY

	87
	72
	51
	39

MSI GEFORCE 5900 XT SAPPHIRE RADEON 9600 XT
MSI GEFORCE 5900 XT (HQ) SAPPHIRE RADEON 9600 XT (HQ)

COMMENT - "A very good looking game which uses advanced features like antialising, bumpmapping and realtime shadows. The normal results here just have bump mapping enabled while the HQ results have everything enabled. Using default settings the MSI GeForce 5900 XT is 18% faster than the Sapphire Radeon 9600 XT. With all of the eye candy turned on the MSI GeForce 5900 XT increases it's lead over the Sapphire Radeon 9600 XT by an impressive 24%."

BENCHMARK SETTINGS
1024x768 Resolution
Fullscreen Enabled
Auto Quality Enabled
Anti-aliasing Disabled
Bumpmaps Enabled
Shadows Disabled

UNREAL TOURNAMENT 2004

RANKIN

	77
	73

CONVOY

	51
	47

TORLAN

	70
	58

COLOSSUS

	103
	98

BRIDGE OF FATE

	104
	92

0xAA & 0xAF 4xAA & 8xAF

BENCHMARK SETTINGS
Direct3D Render Device
1024x768 Resolution
32Bit Colour Depth
Texture Detail Normal
Character Detail Normal
World Detail High
Physics Detail High
Decal Stay High
Full Character Shadows
Full Fog Distance
Decals Enabled
Dynamic Lighting Enabled
Detail Textures Enabled
Coronas Enabled
Trilinear Filtering Enabled
Projectors Enabled
Foliage Enabled
Weather Effects Enabled

COMMENT - "These are very impressive results for the MSI GeForce 5900 XT which clearly show it can handle this game without breaking a sweat. To really show this game in all of it's glory you can even enable 4xaa & 8xaf and with the MSI GeForce 5900 XT it hardly slows the video card down at all."

CONCLUSION - "The MSI GeForce 5900 XT is a first class video card, it's performance even with all of the eye candy turned on is excellent. Although the MSI GeForce 5900 XT and Sapphire Radeon 9600 XT are fairly close in price the MSI GeForce 5900 XT managed to beat it in EVERY single test we did. The difference in performance was even more impressive with 4xaa/8xaf enabled which gives amazing image quality but still the MSI GeForce 5900 XT delivered smooth fluid gameplay. Unreal Tournament 2004 arrived too late to be included in this review."