Chipset Features
◊
256-bit
3D and 2D graphics accelerator
◊
Integrated
second-generation Transform
and
Lighting engines
◊
34
million triangles per second setup engine
with
Z-cull and Z-clear
◊
1.1
billion texels per second and 540 million
pixel
per second fill rate
◊
NVIDIA
Shading Rasterizer with 24 of 26 DX8
pixel
shading functions and full set of
OpenGL
1.3 pixel combiner operations
◊
32-bit
color with 32-bit z/stencil
◊
Cube
environment mapping
◊
DirectX®
and S3TC® texture compression
◊
Digital
Vibrance Control
◊
Enhanced
TwinView dual-display architecture
supporting
any combination of notebook LCD,
desktop
VGA monitor, DVI display or TV set
◊
Dual
CRTC/Simultaneous Dual Display
(same
or different surfaces)
◊
Integrated
dual LVDS Transmitter
supporting
LCD panels up to 2048x1536
◊
Integrated
350 MHz Palette-DAC
for
analog VGA monitors up to 2048x1536
◊
Integrated
NTSC/PAL TV encoder
supporting
resolutions up to 1024x768
◊
Integrated
TMDS transmitter for Digital Visual
Interface
support with scaling and filtering
for
flat panels up to 1600x1200
◊
DVD-
and HDTV-ready MPEG-2 decoding
up
to 1920x1080i ATSC format
◊
MPEG-2
hardware decode, including Inverse
Discrete
Cosine Transform and Motion
Compensatio
Compatibility
◊
Supports VIP1.1 interface
◊
Supports Microsoft® DirectX® 8.0,
7.0, 6.0,
and 5.0 (IDCT)
◊
Fully compliant support for OpenGL 1.2
for all Windows operating systems and Linux®
◊
Up to 6.4 GB/second memory bandwidth
◊
Supports 128-bit DDR, 64-bit DDR,
and 32-bit DDR SDRAM
Support
Memory
64MB DDR SDRAM
Supports
super high resolution graphics
modes
640x480 8/16/32 bit
colors with 150Hz
800x600 8/16/32 bit
colors with 150Hz
1024x768 8/16/32 bit
colors with 120Hz
1152x864 8/16/32 bit
colors with 120Hz
1280x1024 8/16/32 bit colors
with 100Hz
1600x1200 8/16/32 bit colors
with 85Hz
1920x1200 8/16/32 bit colors
with 75Hz
2048x1536 8/16/32 bit colors
with 60Hz
First
Look:
The
card is certainly striking to look at with the Red pcb board and Gold
cooler , installing the card was no problem , but , and its a big but
, this card seems to have some conflicts with the Epox 8K3A MB , and
if you already have this combo , then here is the driver
combination that worked best for me , Nvidia 28.32 drivers , VIA 4in1
4.38 drivers and Direct X 8 .
Benchmarking
:
EPOX
8K3A / XP1600 = 10.5 X 166 / MAXTOR ATA133 7200RPM / SAMSUNG PC2700
256MB / C-MEDIA SOUND / NVIDIA 28.32 DRIVERS / VIA 4.38 / DIRECT X 8 /
WIN98SE
Using
3Dmark2001 to benchmark this card , at default best performance
settings , the card returned a 3Dmark2001 score of
5694 3Dmarks . Next I tried 2x Antialiasing to see what
sort of performance hit this card would take , returning a 3Dmark2001
score of 2281 3Dmarks ,
which is over a 50% performance loss , if you decide to use this
feature .
Overclocking
:
Now
we get to find out just how much extra performance can be squeezed out
of this card , with the Core at 270mhz and the Ram at 400mhz for
factory settings , Im going to start at :
Core
300mhz Mem 440mhz = 6445 3Dmarks
Core
310mhz Mem 460mhz = 6578 3Dmarks
Core
320mhz Mem 480mhz = 6722 3Dmarks
Well
those overclocking results are not to bad at all , overclocking the
card has given us over 1000 3Dmarks in return , from 5694 to 6722
3Dmarks , a very good result in deed .
Conclusion
:
This
card comes boxed with more goodies than you can shake a stick at , the
unfortunate thing is that Epox 8K3A owners should avoid this card ,
updating from the Via 4in1 4.38 drivers to the latest 4.40 drivers , I
was unable to get the MSI GF4mx440 card to run properly at all ,
putting back my GF2ti / no problems what so ever . Also when trying
out Direct X 8.1 the benchmarks at stock settings dropped to 4966
3Dmarks ( done prior to installing Via 4.40 drivers ) a serious loss
in performance I must say , in fact my GF2ti out benchmarked this card
with Direct X 8.1 installed giving 5055 3Dmarks and with the new Via
4.40 drivers installed the GF2ti score increased to 5200 3Dmarks
. Well
shit happens , and in all fairness this card ran just fine on a Jetway
1402 P4 Motherboard I was testing , with a 1.7GHZ P4 cpu the
benchmarks were around 5077 3Dmarks , and ran as stable as could be .
Every now and then you will find components that dont work to well
together , this is such a time , and its no ones fault , and I have
given the configuration of drivers I used that gave no problems for me
, so If your not a 8K3A owner and you are looking for a GF4mx440 ,
then the MSI card deserves your attention .
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