Digital Trends

MSI NX6800 128MB

September 15th, 2004 | by Dan Gaul

Setup and Performance

Installing the NX6800 only requires a few steps more than normally associated with a regular video card. First of all, because the NX6800 is based on Nvidia's 6800 chipset, it has system requirements that are a little more demanding than older cards. This means you will need to have a 600MHz or faster computer which at least 64MB of RAM and a 350Watt power supply. The power supply requirement itself is a huge deal. You may be able to get away with your 250 or 300 watt power supply as long as it's from a well known brand, but we recommend upgrading your power supply just to be safe. Honestly, if you're going to be purchasing this card, you really should have a system significantly better than its listed minimum requirements. Nvidia's 6800 ultra video card requires at least a 450-watt power supply which is very demanding by today's standards. To put things into perspective, ATI's new X800 video cards are able to run on lower power 250-watt power supplies, and promise similar performance to the 6800 series of cards.

MSI uses a software utility which automatically updates the video cards drivers. We found this utility to work as designed, but it's also not a necessity. The reference 6800 card drivers from Nvidia's website will work just as well. We had no problem running the NX6800 using the Nvidia drivers. The NX6800 installed without a hitch and posed no problems with any of the games we benchmarked it with.

This is the part of the review that is probably the most important: just how fast is the NX6800, and is it worth upgrading your current video card? In our benchmarks the NX6800 was on par with the Radeon 9800PRO on most of the lower end resolution settings, but where the NX6800 started to pull away was in the higher resolution benchmarks which feature anti-aliasing. The Nvidia 5700 series card we used which features 256MB of memory compared to the Radeon 9800PRO and NX6800 128MB, simply could not compete. In all of our benchmarks the 6800 Ultra card led the pack, but where it separated itself from the NX6800 was again in the higher resolution benchmarks. So if you have an ATI Radeon 9800PRO, upgrading to the NX6800 is not a wise choice, instead we would recommend skipping ahead to the 6800 Ultra series where you will notice a significant difference in performance. And if you have an Nvidia Geforce FX 5700 or 5900 video card, then upgrading to the NX6800 should yield better performance. The NX6800 performs within a few frames per second of the ATI X800 PRO video card. Spending an extra $100 and choosing an Nvidia 6800 Ultra over the 6800 will give you about 10-20 more frames per second at the highest resolutions — which is crucial for the hardcore gamer. For complete benchmarking results please click on the performance tab above and below this review.

Conclusion

For those looking to upgrade their video card, the NX6800 should be at the top of your list. If money is no object and you would prefer the top-of-the-line 6800 Ultra video card, we recommend you still stay with the MSI brand. MSI has taken a regular video card and presented it in such a way that you feel like you are getting a complete gaming system. The NX6800 is a solid performing card for its price range, but when you add in the amount of software and the quality of the board itself, the NX6800 stands apart from the crowd.

If you have a Radeon 9800 PRO or XT then we do not recommend upgrading to the NX6800 or any other 6800 based video card. Your best performance gain will be seen when stepping up to the 6800 Ultra video cards or the ATI X800 line. However, if you have a 5700, Radeon 9600 or slower video card, then you should see a significant increase in your gaming performance when upgrading to the NX6800.