Unreal 2 review
Red Faction 2 review
MSI FX5950 Ultra review
The Geforce 4 MSI FX5950 Ultra is regarded as one of the top gaming card on the market. with 256 MB of memory and the powerful Nvidia FX chipset, the card is a gamers paradise come true. Installation to the AGP port was painless, and the driver install was smooth as glass. I wish to note that I used the drivers from Nvidia for use in my testing. The card features the following specs as provided by the manufacturer Microstar.
Advanced pixel shades deliver 2x the floating-point pixel shader performance of previous generations.
• Support for MicrosoftR DirectXR 9.0 (DX9) pixel shader 2.0+
• Support for DX9 vertex shader 2.0+
• Long pixel programs up to 1,024 instructions.
• Long vertex programs up to 256 static instructions with up to 65,536 instructions executed.
• Dynamic, conditional execution and flow control.
• Architected for Cg and Microsoft HLSL for maximum compatibility with nextgeneration content.
• 128-bit, studio-quality, floating-point precision computation through the entire rendering pipeline.
• Native hardware support for 32-bpp, 64-bpp and 128-bpp rendering modes.
• Up to 16 textures per rendering pass.
• Support for sRGB texture format for gamma textures.
• DirectX and S3TC texture compression.
• Optimized for 32-bpp, 24-bpp, 16-bpp, 15-bpp, and 8-bpp modes.
• True-color, 64x64 hardware cursor alpha.
• Multibuffering (double, triple, or quad) for smooth animation and video playback.
The MSI FX5950 Ultra has provided me with simply the best visual gaming experiences I have ever had. The card was far superior to any card that I had previously tested for dynamic lighting effects, smoothness of animation, and speeds at higher resolutions. Testing the card on City of Heroes, the effects unfolded with a dazzling light show without any loss of framerate or hesitation even on the games highest graphical settings. Also unlike the comparable Radeon cards, the MSI FX5950 Ultra blew them away as the framerates were higher, the detail level was greater and the gameplay was smoother. IN massive combat with over 25 characters and their powers being animated the gameplay never once slowed down allowing for unprecedented gameplay. I also tested the games Far Cry, Painkiller, Manhunt, Lineage II, True Crime The Streets of LA. I used the Beta version of Ground Control 2 in my testing as well as the demo for Unreal Tournament 2004, and the sheer number of images the card was able to render as well as the detail was staggering. From the hazy city skyline and building details of City of Heroes to the massed armies and weapons trails of Ground Control 2, this card could do it all with ease.
Despite rigorous testing with all manner of programs and settings I had zero problems with the card as I was able concentrate on gaming not drivers, settings, and performance. I have tested many cards in my day, and I must say that this card impressed me as no other card has. I could find no fault with it, nor compatibility issues with any program while running it. Final Verdict, MSI FX5950 Ultra card is a fantastic piece of hardware that is a must for any gamer looking for top performance on a budget while looking to avoid any complications or compatibility issues that can arise on other cards in the price range. I cant wait to try this game on the pending Doom 3, Half Life 2, and City of Villains
gareth@nwlink.com