Video cards roundup: MSI versus Triplex (GeForce4 Ti4200-8x & Ti4800SE) Review
MSI GeForce4 Ti4800SE
At our test lab, we received an MSI GeForce4 Ti4800SE video card, to be more specific - its VIVO make (MS-8900). MSI has been long known for its video cards, and GeForce4 Ti4800SE based video cards are made to be the best buy. These cards come shipped in big colored cardboard boxes that along with the card itself have a splitter (the same as that for Triplex cards) to connect video equipment, cables, a DVI->VGA adapter and as many as 10 CDs.
We can't get appealed by the package bundle, so let's see what this video card is like.
The video card is made on a PCB covered with red lacquer. This card inherits the PCB design of Ti4600's, which means BGA video memory is also used in it. On the front side of the card there a big enough cooler which we'll be looking at in what follows. For now, let's take a look at the reverse side of the video board.
As you can see, about half the area of the video card from the rear is covered with a heat distributor plate. This plate adjoins the four memory chips on the reverse side of the video board and the section positioned right under the video card core. On the whole, the cooling system on the MSI Ti4800SE looks no less effective than that on Triplex GeForce4 Ti4800SE. But let's sort this out how the cooling system of the video card is designed.
 In general, the cooling system somehow resembles that of Abit OTES. A copper radiator made of thin plate bent into a sheaf of fins is placed on an orange aluminum plate, with the whole structure closed by a transparent plastic housing on the top. Note that the radiator base, the part adjoining the GPU and memory chips is made of aluminum and painted to look like "copper". Only the fins sinking most of the heat from the GPU are made of copper. Part of the air flux from the fan extends to all the fins, with the other part extended upwards to make the air cool that part of the aluminum plate which touches the two memory chips on the top at the front side of the video card.
 As you see, the memory installed on the front side is cooled forcedly by the air flux coming from the fan. The memory installed on the rear side of the video card is cooled only by the installed flat plate of the heat distributor. Sure, this cooling of the memory is not as affective as that of radiators installed on Triplex video cards, but the way it is is better than nothing. But in the end, the overclocking potentials of a video card depend on the type of memory chips installed.
Unfortunately, pretty cheap HY5DU283222F-36 memory chips made by Hynix are installed on this card. This video card features 3.6 ns cycle time, that is the rated clock speed is 550 MHz. That means, the memory already runs at its default speed and thus has no overclocking margin as Triplex cards do.
The GeForce4 Ti4800SE video chip itself is also fully marked. Unlike the Triplex GeForce4 Ti4800SE video card, an A2 version chip is installed here, so we'll see how good or bad the chip will be at overclocking.
On the MSI GeForce4 Ti4800SE, there is also a Silicon Image Sil64CT64 transmitter responsible for image output to the DVI-out and Philips SAA 7108AE that contributes to the functioning of the video-in and TV-out.
Well, it's high time we tested all the three video cards and find out which of them runs faster and overclocks better..
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