Video Card: MSI FX-5900 (TD-128) :: Conclusion

MSI is still the undisputed champion when it comes to sales in the VGA market but their partners at NVIDIA seem to be steadily losing ground to Canadian company ATI and each quarter finds them farther and farther behind as even the 5900 which is a premiere line VGA solution is still slower than the 9800 Pro. Okay let us talk price, the 5900 is about $150-$175 cheaper so that does give it a pricing edge but performance wise NVIDIA is still playing the catch-up game to ATI and the 5900 Ultra which is almost equal to the 9800 Pro is at the same price range of the RADEON product making it still second best in line at the same cost.

On a positive note NVIDIA does have many more partners in the gaming industry which helps them maintain quality control and better compatibility with the latest game titles ensuring gamers that their game will play on an NVIDIA product. NVIDIA is also known to maintain and reproduce their driver base at a much faster rate than ATI a fact that has helped propel them into being a household name to computer buffs worldwide. MSI makes solid VGA cards that are usually found at places like Fry's Electronics, PC Club or a variety of other retail outlets that sell PC hardware.

The final word is positive and the overall conclusion a solid one resulting in an Editors choice award. The gaming package is somewhat out of date as many of theses games especially Morrowind have been in just about everyone's bundle making it a rather boorish addition to the retail boxed product. The other software is good stuff and I liked the DVD software that provided 5.1 support for excellent sound playback but it helps if you have the right speaker system to take advantage of this support. MSI's unique design allows the card to run pretty coolly as its fan architecture cools not only the GPU but the memory as well which allows for moderate overclocking without a radical card modification. MSI provides tools for overclocking that work fairly well and their VGA software is basically the same as NVIDIAS but NVIDIA keeps releasing new drivers so you may want to check if there are any updates available on nVidia if you want the latest release. Thumbs up to MSI as this is a solid card worthy of mention and should appeal to both the enthusiasts and gamer crowd.

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