After playing withe ASUS Radeon HD 4850, it was difficult to imagine that
videocards could offer even better value for money in this generation... but
that's exactly what's going on with the MSI R4830-T2D512-OC graphics card.
Running about $150CDN ($100 USD, 55GBP), the MSI R4830-T2D512-OC
videocard manages to perform within 5-10% of its bigger brother, the RV770-based
Radeon HD 4850, while costing 35% less.
These performance levels relative to more expensive
videocards aren't something typically seen, particularly at this price point.
NVIDIA's nearest competitor to the Radeon HD 4830, the NVIDIA Geforce 9800 GT
(which is really just a re-branded 8800 GT), comes closest to the Radeon HD 4830
in terms of performance and price, but tends to be slightly slower under testing
and a little bit more expensive.
Given the results PCSTATS has seen in this review, it's
not hard to imagine the MSI R4830-T2D512-OC videocard making its way into a
mainstream computer system originally intended for home-office work. The R4830
isn't quite powerful enough to be running the latest DirectX 10 games with all
the eye candy and image quality settings turned up, but with a bit of adjustment
it's still capable of handling most games that mainstream gamers will throw at
it.
Aside from its performance, the other appealing aspect
of this card for mainstream users are its low power-consumption figures and
overclockability. The MSI R4830's low power draw was complemented by low
overall heat, and those two factors make for some great overclocking conditions.
The RV770LE GPU didn't let us down, giving ample overclocking headroom, moving
from 585MHz to 730MHz core clock speeds as well as memory speed increases from
1800MHz up to 2200MHz. At these levels the MSI R4830 was able to perform either
as fast or faster than the Radeon HD 4850!
For anyone who's looking to do some gaming but can't
quite manage the $200 price point of a Radeon HD4850, your videocard has
arrived. Add in some overclocking and the MSI R4830 could net you a healthy jump
in performance for an increased edge in your favourite games.
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latest reviews right here.
Find out about this and many other reviews by joining
the Weekly PCstats.com Newsletter today! Catch all of PCSTATS
latest reviews right here.
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