MSI R4850-t2d512 PCIe 2.0 Ready GFX Card

[Spykar]

MSI Introduction:

Micro-Star International Corporation, Ltd. is one of the IT industry's leading manufacturers of computer hardware products and solutions, including world's top five and Taiwan's top three motherboard manufacturer, Taiwan biggest and world's top five server manufacturer, and has been the leading graphic card manufacturer for the past four years. Today MSI is pressing forward with the development of new products, such as notebooks and consumer electronic products. The sales of MSI's MP3 product has been growing rapidly, making MSI one of the top MP3 product suppliers in Taiwan since 2004. Through world class engineering, manufacturing & design innovation, MSI is dedicated to providing leading-edge hardware products and robust solutions that are easy to implement and integrate while also enhancing overall performance, value and ultimately the individual end user's personal digital life experience. With great annual worldwide sales in 2005, MSI ranks 26 in the Taiwan Top 1000 Companies for 2005.

MSI have now come up with their updated HD4850 video card which was a single slot cooler to a HD4850-T2D512 Quad Piped Dual Slot solution. With more operation on low temperature working and a smooth card which is also coupled with the renowned higher expected performance makes this video card truely a winner.

The HD 4850-T2D512 video card as a product proved economical and more powerful, and to add more is popular. This video card consists of higher bandwidth CrossfireX which also adds the demand, and the low price means a low Multi graphics card setup can be obtained. One thing that I realised about this video card is that the fan control is tremendous, and this is because the video card may be generating a lot of power from it.

Now entering MSI world. The company already launched an R4850 on the market, which was a much of a regular desinged and specification. But in subjective of slightly increase in temperature, MSI have developed a new updated version of this video card by including a dual slot heat pipe solution in the new version. I have to say that the new card is reaaly an eye catching one and also by technical terms it has new cooling solutionwhich is alos a priority. MSI has designed this quad heat pipe solution in order to keep the temperature and the level of noise low, so let's check if have done it.

[Spykar]

Key Features:

Support Memory:

• 625MHz Core
• 512MB GDDR3 1986MHz Memory

Video Output Function:

• Dual-link DVI-I x 2
• TV-Out (via S-Video to Composite)/HDTV-out
• VGA (via DVI to D-Sub adaptor)
• HDMI (DVI to HDMI adaptor)

• Designed to run perfectly with new PCI Express 2.0 bus architecture, offering a future proofing bridge to tomorrow's most bandwidth-hungry games and 3D applications by maximizing the 5GT/s PCI Express 2.0 bandwidth of twice that of first generation PCI Express. PCI Express 2.0 products are fully backwards compatible with existing PCI Express motherboards for broadest support.

• MSI graphics cards offer the HDMI functionality to provide access to premium digital content. HDMI enables gaming enthusiasts to seamlessly connect to their LCD monitor to bring the ultimate multimedia experience.

• Only 1 single HDMI cable is required while streaming audio/video data to flat-panel display devices, such as Plasma/LCD TVs, or projector.

Optional Feature:

• The HDCP provides a robust, cost-effective and transparent method for transmitting and receiving digital entertainment similar to DVI/HDMI-compliant digital displays. HDCP encrypts the date transmitted between the DVI/HDMI connector on the graphics adapter and the display.

[Spykar]

MSI R4850-T2D512 Specification:

1. Both support the latest specifications of Blue-Ray and HD DVD(High Definition DVD).
   
2. It comes with the latest GPU and DDRIII superior processing performance in which users can easily enjoy the high-definition video of 1920x1080(1080p/i).
   
3. Dual-link DVI is able to drive the industry's largest and highest resolution flat-panel displays up to 2560x1600 and with support for Hign-bandwidth Digital Content Protection (HDCP).
   
4. MSI Vivid is an easy tool to enhance image quality.
   
5. It can helps users to get better image quality in viewing " Digital photos, document & games "
   
6. Vivid brings the easiest way to optimize graphic quality.
   
7. Colorize your vision when browsing digital photos.
   
8. Sharpen characters edge
   
9. Enhance contrast when playing game
   
10. The MSI Live Update online is designed to automatically download and update the BIOS and driver when there's a new version online.
    
11. It helps reduce the risk of getting the wrong file and minimize the trouble of searching the files from MSI website.
    
12. Live Update 3 is a single utility software that automatically checks BIOS, driver and utility updates and installs for you , which can save your time for searching and lower the risk while updating.
    
13. MSI products are the first to be in conformity of the EU's RoHS (Restriction of Hazardous Substances) regulations, reducing heavy metals and toxic materials in the products.
    
14. This is an effort made for the Earth, and essentially for a clean future.

HDMI 7.1 Audio Output optional feature:

1. The ATI Radeon HD 4850 has a built in HDMI with HD audio support for one-plug HDTV connectivity.
   
2. This unique feature is enabled with an intelligent DVI to HDMI adapter. The benefit of this approach is to preserve the traditional dual-DVI-I connectivity with VGA support that gamers demand while offering a seamless connection for big-screen HD gaming.
   
3. No internal SPDIF or other audio cabling is required.

[Spykar]

RADEON HD 4850-T2D512

• Chipset Features:

1. GDDR3 memory
2. 256-bit GDDR3 memory interface
3. DirectX 10.1 support
4. 24x custom filter anti-aliasing (CFAA) and high performance anisotropic filtering
5. ATI CrossFireX multi-GPU support for highly scalable performance
6. PCI Express 2.0 support
7. Dynamic geometry acceleration
8. Game physics processing capability
9. ATI Avivo HD video and display technology
10. Unified Video Decoder 2 (UVD)
11. B uilt-in HDMI with 7.1 surround sound support On-chip HDCP
12. Upscale Beyond 1080p
13. On-chip HDCP
14. HDMI Supported
15. ATI PowerPlay technology
16. Energy Efficient Manufacturing Process

• Video Output Function:

1. TV-Out (via S-Video to Composite)
2. HDTV-out
3. Dual-link DVI x 2
4. VGA (via DVI to D-Sub adaptor)
5. HDMI (DVI to HDMI adaptor)

• MSI Developed Software:

• VGA Driver:

1. MSI Live Update Series ( Live VGA BIOS & Live VGA Driver)
2. Automatically online download & update VGA BIOS & Drivers, reduce the risk of getting the wrong files, and never have the trouble on web site searching.

• GoodMen:

Automatically release the system memory space, reduce the risk of system hang-up.

• LockBox:

Instantly enter the data lock mode when you must leave your system for a while.

• WMIinfor:

Automatically list the detail system configuration, it helpful for engineering service people.

• MSI VIVID:

Vivid brings the easiest way to optimize graphic quality. Colorize your vision when browsing photos. Sharpen characters edge! Enhance contrast when playing game.

• MSI Live:

Including all real time life information you need, such as Live MSI Product News, Live Daily Information, Live Personal Schedule Manager, Live Search and more.

• E-Color
• MediaRing
• ShowShift
• ThinSoft Be Twin
• Adobe Acrobat Reader
• Microsoft DirectX 9.0b

[Spykar]

Technical Specification:

Graphics Engine: ATI Radeon HD 4850
Bus Standard: PCI Express x16 2.0
Memory Type: GDDR3
Memory Size(MB): 512
Memory Interface: 256bit
Core/Memory Clocks: 625/1986 MHz
DVI Output: 2
D-Sub Output: 1 through DVI to VGA Adapter
TV-Output: 1 through S-Video to Composite
HDMI Output: 1 through DVI to HDMI adaptor
HDTV Support: Yes
HDCP Support: Yes
HDMI Support: Yes
Dual Link DVI: Yes
Display Max Resolution: 2560x1600
RMDAC's: 400
DirectX: 10.1
OpenGL: 2.1
Crossfire: Yes, CrossfireX Support
Features:

1. GDDR3 memory
2. 256-bit GDDR3 memory interface
3. DirectX 10.1 support
4. 24x custom filter anti-aliasing (CFAA) and high performance anisotropic filtering
5. ATI CrossFireX multi-GPU support for highly scalable performance
6. PCI Express 2.0 support
7. Dynamic geometry acceleration
8. Game physics processing capability
9. ATI Avivo HD video and display technology
10. Unified Video Decoder 2 (UVD)
11. Built-in HDMI with 7.1 surround sound support On-chip HDCP
12. Upscale Beyond 1080p
13. On-chip HDCP
14. HDMI Supported
15. ATI PowerPlay technology
16. Energy Efficient Manufacturing Process

[Spykar]

Testing Grounds:

Setup Used for Tesing:

Intel E6420 (2.13GHz) at 3.0GHz, 2x 2048MB OCZ Reaper DDR2 PC2-6400 at 900, Maxtor 500GB 16MB Cache HDD, Vista Home Premium SP 2

For Competition and analysis, the MSI 8600GT video card was preferred as to to explain the performance difference between previous generation card and new generation video card. A Dell 22 inch Widescreen Monitor was also used.

Games Tested:

Half Life 2 (Episode Two): Playing this game at advance possible seetings for few minutes which also includes HDR on outland 6 helps going down to get the car upside. In order to kill Zombies and Zombines galore, FRAP was used for compilation of a graph.

The R4850 video card is working to perform better than the 8600GT video card and it is not letting down. An advance settings reflects world at 1280x800 resolution as per games high settings with my Dell 22 inch Widescreen of advanced Textures, advanced other settings which also reflect at 1680x1050 resolution.

Crysis: This games Fame Per Second when hit on the scene and make every machine to drop their weapons, and still does. A combination of FRAPS and the Crysis Benchmark Tool was used.

The 8600GT video card tried hard, but on just medium settings it was not able to perform up to the mark. The motion blur helped a lot, but the experience provided by R4850 is far too better than expcted. Same resolution, but the maximum settings were advanced.

[Spykar]

Overclocking MSI R4850-T2D512

Combining AMD built-in driver for Auto Tune and having some manual adjustment, this card tested in order to check how long can a pressure is handled by this card. To start with, Auto Tune utilised the GPU at a normal 690 and the memory aspect to 1070, but this explains that a way too much for the system to be lock up as trying in order to adjust 3D settings within the drivers. Making it a initial point, few things were rolled down till it gets stabled at 665 / 1048 which was the final stable settings available, and thus it concluded in a GPU temperature which was below load of only 58C. It's quite natural to be different for all of us when trieing personally.

[Spykar]

Final Verdict on MSI R4850-T2D512

The MSI R4850-T2D512 512MB is really a impression maker.

I have a Dell 22 inch Widescreen monitor, and since I am trying to target for the middle ground with my available hardware, I generally have to wait for few years as per the hardware in order to get working games for some high resolution gaming. As i tried many of the games with the MSI R4850-T2D512 512MB, I been played at higher resolution and graphic settings. The best thing for this card is certainly at 1680x1050 resolution, 4xMSAA with each specific game which will be able to detect the original settings, but comparing R4850 with the 8600GT video card or even with the 9600GT from previous generations MSI cards where 1280x800 was the resolution with 2xMSAA is the general one and it's a huge step up to do.

With 7.1 Audio via HDMI available, UVD-2 for dual stream decoding, and the previously mentioned high performance, this video card is a worth choice for large screen TV gaming. It's a bit less costly too; not for budget gaming one's; but when you are considering the performance, it is actually a good value for your money, and with the availbailty of CrossfireX support you can also update to two or more cards as per time goes on for even higher and better performance.

Overall I am really interested in the MSI R4850-T2D512 512MB card and even higher end systems with lesser resolution LCD's like mine, you will be actually very happy with what you get as a performance from MSI R4850-T2D512 video card.