Doom 3	Source: id Software

Doom 3 is the most advanced OpenGL game to date. It takes advantage of the latest videocard technology and pushes the processing power of the CPU to its absolute limits. At its highest setting, Ultra quality, texture sizes pass the 500MB mark which means even tomorrow's videocards will have a hard time running everything. The frame rates in the game itself are locked at 60 fps so anything above that point is wasted. Each test is run three times and with the third run being recorded.

Doom 3 - 1024x768-32bit
Anti-Aliasing	FPS	Ranking
MSI RX800XL-VT2D256E 2x AA	84.7
MSI RX800XL-VT2D256E 4x AA	63.7
MSI RX800XL-VT2D256E 6x AA	40.4
Anisotropic Filtering	FPS	Ranking
MSI RX800XL-VT2D256E 2x AF	97.3
MSI RX800XL-VT2D256E 4x AF	97.2
MSI RX800XL-VT2D256E 8x AF	96.7
MSI RX800XL-VT2D256E 16x AF	96.5
Anti-Aliasing and Anisotropic Filtering	FPS	Ranking
MSI RX800XL-VT2D256E 2x AA, 8x AF	84.3
MSI RX800XL-VT2D256E 4x AA, 16x AF	63.1

Finally, 6X AA proves a little too much for the MSI RX800XL-VT2D256E in Doom3, but it does manage to boot out playable frame rates even with 4X AA and 16X AF.

A good solid videocard

The MSI RX800XL-VT2D256E is a video card with plenty of features as well as plenty of performance. The card packs rare dual-DVI ports, VIVO abilities, HDTV-out and a breakout box to take advantage of these features. Add a decent software/games bundle and you've got some excellent added value.

The performance of the MSI RX800XL-VT2D256E is exactly like that we have seen from previous X800XL-based cards, which is to say excellent. The card was consistently among the top five in our gaming benchmarks and pulled down excellent frame rates with AA/AF enabled in our advanced tests.

The RX800XL-VT2D256E did not prove to be a good overclocker, gaining some marginal increases in core and memory speed which did not translate into our benchmarks particularly well.

Our single other complaint about the card centred around MSI's decision to only pack one DVI-to-analog adaptor. This has the effect of restricting the RX800XL-VT2D256E to using dual-monitors only with one or more digital LCD screens. Owners of dual CRTs are out of luck.

At a price of $375CDN ($300US), the MSI RX800XL-VT2D256E is priced decently for a MSI RX800XL-VT2D256E card. If you have one or more LCD monitors, or are just looking for a good solid high-end videocard for gaming purposes, give it a long look.

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