Anybody ever bought a card made by MSI?

W

WabeWalker

Supreme [H]ardness
Joined
Sep 3, 2007
Messages
4,508
I was all set to buy a GTX 285 - but the prices, and the benchmarks, in comparison with the GTX 275, don't warrant it. Correct?

My setup: Core i7 920, 3GB ram. I'll be gaming at 1680*1050. My present card is a 9800 gt which is performing admirably. GTA 4, Mass Effect, Far Cry 2, FEAR 2, Medieval 2, Vegas 2, Assassin's Creed, all run like butter.

I've not installed Stalker Clear Sky or Empire Total War yet - although both titles are on my shelf. I plan on buying the Crysis Maximum edition when it's published next month. The only game I own that's caused me problems, and which I couldn't run full-out, was Fallout 3. At the highest settings, Fallout 3 was choppy.

Anyhow, this is the card I've got my eye on. It's at Newegg Canada.

www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127429

I know nothing about MSI however. They any good?

There are only two other GTX 275 options at Newegg Canada and both are by EVGA - it beats me what the difference is between the two EVGA cards, because they look identical to me, except that one costs five dollars more than the other.

Which card should I buy? The MSI card or the EVGA card? The MSI card comes with COD 5, which I don't own. I plan on keeping this card for a long time, and am not interested in selling it when I'm finished with it.
 
Also, how long, from the time I put my order in, would it take them to ship to Vancouver, British Columbia?

Any Canadians, or Vancouverites, out there?
 
WabeWalker said:
I
There are only two other GTX 275 options at Newegg Canada and both are by EVGA - it beats me what the difference is between the two EVGA cards, because they look identical to me, except that one costs five dollars more than the other.
Click to expand...

One is the superclocked version with factory overclocks on the core, shaders, and memory.

I'd go with EVGA for warranty and support. Might as well get the superclock for 5 dollars more. But there are a lot people here with MSI without any problems.

Edit: looks like MSI comes with even higher o/c's on the core, shaders (not listed most likely), memory, and update cooling. Looks like the choice is yours, EVGA imho better warranty / support vs MSI game / better cooler(?).
 
Last edited:
I've had one MSI video card but it's been a while ( it was a 6600gt ) and I've had 2 MSI motherboards. I have nothing but good things to say about all 3 things I've had from them. They were all solid as a rock and performed very well. When I build my new system this summer I'll probably go with an MSI motherboard again. So if I had the chance I'd buy from them again without hesitating.
 
They screwed me on an RMA once, long story short I sent a broken video card and a month later I got the same card back, sent it back and a month later same thing happened. Kyle here helped me out and they upgraded my 7800GTX to an 8800GTX (when they were still new & amazing) and they also sent me my 7800GTX back repaired.

I'm not sure what happened, I imagine they just have a bunch of idiots in the RMA dept. but even after that I'd still buy from them.
 
I have had several MSI motherboards and several MSI graphics cards. Right now my mobile computer (computer that is easier to move around I guess) has two MSI 9600gts in it both running fine and they are open box products from newegg over a year ago. Also running a MSI mobo in it with a 650sli chipset. With that said I have never actually needed to or tried to rma a product through them so I guess even I don't know how great or bad their support is.
 
i had an msi 7800gtx, went through hell w/watercooling, heatsink swaps and worked fine for me until i sold it.
 
I have had an MSI gtx260 since November with no probs at all. I would certainly get 6 gb of system ram instead of 3 if I were you. horpefully you werent silly enough to get a 32bit OS at this point.
 
cannondale06 said:
I have had an MSI gtx260 since November with no probs at all. I would certainly get 6 gb of system ram instead of 3 if I were you. horpefully you werent silly enough to get a 32bit OS at this point.
Click to expand...

The computer I bought had a clean and basic version of VISTA 64 installed.

I went with 3GB of ram to keep the cost down. I have dual triple-channel ram, so adding in the extra 3GB should be simple - right?

Also, I'm now wondering about the ATI 4890 card?

I see that Stalker Clear Sky (a game I've been waiting to play) runs way better on the ATI card.

What do we think about the GTX 275 vs the 4890? The costs are identical, but the 4890 has a little more ram, and also runs Clear Sky better than the Nvidia card - a bit silly to buy a video card just because of one game though?
 
WabeWalker said:
Also, I'm now wondering about the ATI 4890 card?

I see that Stalker Clear Sky (a game I've been waiting to play) runs way better on the ATI card.

What do we think about the GTX 275 vs the 4890? The costs are identical, but the 4890 has a little more ram, and also runs Clear Sky better than the Nvidia card - a bit silly to buy a video card just because of one game though?
Click to expand...

Yeah there pretty much neck and neck at 1680*1050. You won't see a small/if any difference between the two. I'd go 4980 if you might increase your resolution in the future.
 
Last edited:
I don't think I ever owned a MSI video card, but I do have a MSI motherboard.

Anywaste, all ATI cards roll off the production lines of two or three OEM plants. They simply slap on the appropriate brand name (MSI, Asus, XFX, etc.) sticker and ship them out to their clients.
 
my wife has a MSI 9600gt, only thing that sucks about it is the fan stay at 100% until windows can load the nvidia profile to make it not sound like a jet.
 
i like msi rma, they dont require receipt and everything done fairly fast (4 weeks total turn around time).
 
Bigbacon said:
my wife has a MSI 9600gt, only thing that sucks about it is the fan stay at 100% until windows can load the nvidia profile to make it not sound like a jet.
Click to expand...

That can be said for just about any brand and video card. Excluding passively cooled video cards of course.
 
jhartono0002 said:
i like msi rma, they dont require receipt and everything done fairly fast (4 weeks total turn around time).
Click to expand...

4 weeks isn't fast, but yeah MSI is ok in my books my 7800GTX stand 3 yrs of abuse and still working strong. Now see how long my 4890 lasts,
 
jhartono0002 said:
i like msi rma, they dont require receipt and everything done fairly fast (4 weeks total turn around time).
Click to expand...

oh you got through some crack, last time I delt with MSI (er... once, and that was for a motherboard.... jeez 5 years ago :O), they required the reciept and yeah, 3 week turn around. Totally average stuff.

Nvidia has 3 primier board partners: BFG, XFX, and EVGA, all of which seem to have razor thin profit margines with which they give 5 star customer support (how these companies are soluble I don't know). ATI has no such partners (or actually they've got XFX but theres a little bit of price gouging there). MSI, Gigabyte, and ASUS are the defacto board partners all of which have the most mundane and typical RMA pipelines --light years better than the schiesters at Sapphire and HIS.

As to the ongoing 260 vs 4870 debate, I just posted my thoughts in a similar thread:

Something that seems to have faded into the background is the HD4870's apt abillity to run AA. Remember when this card debuted people were calling it "free 8X AA" because the performance impact is so minimal. Any review not mentioning this isn't doing their job.

--this isn't to say the GTX 260 is by any means a bad card (or the weaker of the two). Nvidia's contender is the GTX 260 216, and it contends very well. My only point is that they trade blows, and the 4870 will outrun the 260 in games that were part of the ATI hardware relations program and/or AA is turned up to 8X. The 260 216 will outrun the HD4870 when no AA is enabled.

edit: I like X-bit labs because they always seem to gather mountians of data, and leave it to the reader to sort out, which I really enjoy:
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/vid...0_8.html#sect1
also that article is only a few days old.

Someone replied claiming I was wrong (I think, his post was a tad convoluted), citing thetechreport's findings in Farcry 2 (a member of Nvidias hardware relations program)

The issue he's linking us to is an unrelated one; at 2500X2000 the render backends start to get pushed harder than normal. These are the guys which take the rendered 3D image and pixelize it ("Z-cull"). Nvidia has 28 ROPs (down from 32) and ATI has 16. Normally these these things are a non issue since post Geforce5 era 16 ROPs at 500MHz has been enough to push however many pixels you need, but in the case of 2500X2000, seems to me the HD4870 takes a bit of a hit because of it.

JaguarSKX said:
I don't think I ever owned a MSI video card, but I do have a MSI motherboard.

Anywaste, all ATI cards roll off the production lines of two or three OEM plants. They simply slap on the appropriate brand name (MSI, Asus, XFX, etc.) sticker and ship them out to their clients.
Click to expand...

Thats not entirely accurate. The production line your talking about is usually foxconn, or occasinally ECS, Asus, Gigabyte or even MSI themselves. Most board partners don't have the capabillity of producing their own PCBs, but MSI does, and because of that they can up the profit by building the PCBs in-house and just buying the core package from Nvidia.

and OP, I'm writing this from Delta (...BC, Canada) :)
 
Last edited:
I got a MSI brand video card. MSI is just like ASUS making motherboard, video card, laptop and other stuff.
 
I bought a MSI 6800LE videocard a long while ago. It ran well( I wish their motherboards would work well for me...) and never gave me a problem.

If I had to choose either an Evga card or a MSI I would always choose Evga.
 
I had an MSI X1800XT. Ran for 2.5 years without a single problem.
 
Got two MSI 8800gt cards with the custom heatsink, have been running fine in SLI for a little over a year now. I would trust EVGA's warranty over MSI, but both make great cards.
 
I have an MSI X58 Eclipse, and I'll say, the only thing that BLOWS about MSI's warranty is that the warranty is 3 years of the date of manufacture. Sucks if it sits on neweggs warehouse shelf for a year before you buy it.
 
Fafeifa said:
4 weeks isn't fast, but yeah MSI is ok in my books my 7800GTX stand 3 yrs of abuse and still working strong. Now see how long my 4890 lasts,
Click to expand...

compare to gigabyte, thats fast. but again its not evga which smokin fast.
last week just got my xfx rma back (3 week turn around time), they sent me a working dusty video card, but it work cant complaint.

MrWizard6600 said:
oh you got through some crack, last time I delt with MSI (er... once, and that was for a motherboard.... jeez 5 years ago :O), they required the reciept and yeah, 3 week turn around. Totally average stuff.
Click to expand...

we can ask for advance RMA if they have the item in stock.
 
Last edited:
Bought a 9800GTX+ OC from MSI on newegg. Came bundled with COD5, HDMI cord, and it had an aftermarket cooler. First one was DOA. Second one worked great, especially for $135.

Currently own a 4890 OC by MSI. Great cards and even better prices. Came with free legendary game and was only $199 after rebate.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top