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Overall Rating:  82%
Abstract: MSI Computer have given us the
opportunity to test out one of their latest PCI Express videocards, the ATI
Radeon X600 based MSI RX600XT-TD128 videocard.
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MSI RX600XT-TD128 PCI Express VIdeocard Review
Late last
year, videocard manufacturers slowly began to separate their businesses
from nVidia-only, or ATI-only videocard lines. At the time, nVidia wasn't
producing the best products, and so the manufacturers who were only producing Geforce FX videocards were feeling the pinch in
their market share. Yet, looking back the move makes sense. After all, would you expect a manufacturer
to only produce AMD motherboards? Or, only Intel motherboards? No, I don't think
so.
MSI Computer used to be entirely on the Nvidia
side of the fence, but the company now produces videocards utilizing
both sets of graphical chipsets. With the emergence of the PCI Express slot, the videocard
sector has been churning out PCI Express videocards like
there's no tomorrow... even if the demand is still somewhat lethargic.
The increased cost of upgrading to a socket 775
Intel Pentium 4 platform is largely to blame for this, but with expectations
that AMD will adopt PCI Express in the future, the last days of AGP 8X do seem
do seem to be here.
In this review, MSI Computer have given us the
opportunity to test out one of their latest PCI Express videocards, the ATI
Radeon X600 based MSI RX600XT-TD128 videocard. Along with
the X600 core comes 128MB of DDR memory, a pair of video outputs (analog and
digital) and even an S-Video output. The necessary cables are included, along with a
surprisingly large amount of bundled software (14 CD-ROMs in total).
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MSI
RX600XT-TD128 |
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| Includes: |
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Users Manual, S-Video to
S-Video cable, DVI to analog converter, Users Manual, Driver
CD, 3D Desktop CD, WinDVD CD, WinDVD Creator CD,
RestoreIT!/Virtual Drive CD, 3D Album CD, Media Center CD, 14
Game Demo CD, Uru CD |
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Both MSI and ATi consistently use red
PCB's for their videocards as a matter of branding, so it's no surprise RX600XT-TD128 is red. If
you enjoy playing your video games on an adjacent TV, you'll appreciate the fact that the RX600XT-TD128 videocard
suports a S-Video output and comes with a SVideo-to-SVideo cable that is two meters in
length!
In general, videocard
software packages have increased in value, but I'm still quite surprised at just how
much software MSI is bundling with the RX600XT-TD128 videocard! Along with the default ensemble of DVD playback
applications comes; XIII, URU and Prince Of Persia: The Sands of Time.
With respect to the
cooling solution on the RX600XT-TD128 videocard, things are kept simple. The
little ATI X600XT core is cooled with MSI's "Starforce heatsink fan." The little cooler runs pretty quiet
too.
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