MSI NX 6800 Ultra T2D256

The MSI NX 6800 Ultra T2D128 is the first available graphics card we've reviewed based on Nvidia's NV40 core, which Nvidia hopes will help it regain market share against rivals ATI.

The T2D256 uses a large heatsink and fan combination that occupies two expansion slots and draws power from two four-pin Molex connectors. Nvidia recommends using a 550 watt power supply, so there's little hope of installing the card in a small form factor PC.

The T2D256 is an impressive feat of engineering. Its graphics processing unit (GPU) is clocked at just 400MHz, but is fabricated using a 0.13micron process that incorporates over 220 million transistors. By comparison, a Pentium 4 Extreme Edition processor has just 178.

More impressively, the card features DDR3 memory clocked at 550Mhz (1.1GHz). This gives it an enormous memory bandwidth of 35.2Gbits/sec.

Unsurprisingly, the T2D256 offered better performance than the X800 Pro reviewed on page 66. Default 3Dmark tests returned a massive 12,029. At 1,600 x 1,200 with 4x full-scene anti-aliasing enabled, it was enough to push Far Cry along at a heady 32.82 frames per second (fps).

It has a comprehensive software bundle, including games such as Prince of Persia, XIII and Deus Ex Invisible War, but £379 could prove prohibitively expensive for all but the keenest gamers.

Contact: MSI 0870 755 4747
www.msi.com.tw

Specifications:

• 400MHz graphics core
• 256bit memory Interface
• 35.2Gbits/sec memory bandwidth
• 6.4 600 million billion texels/sec fill rate
• 550MHz (1.1GHz) memory data rate
• 16 pixels per clock (peak)
• 16 textures per pixel
• 400MHz Ramdacs