MSI GeForce GTS250 vs XFX Radeon 5750 XXX : Clash under low cost and efficiency

The world of graphics cards was once a very simplistic affair. You had CGA and EGA. Perhaps if you were lucky VGA.Gradually, like all technical breakthroughs, other companies leapt on the bandwagon and soon there were a few cards to choose from. Companies came and went and eventually two major technologies reigned supreme. GeForce from nVidia and the ATI Radeon.

So let us look at both the Graphic cards :

XFX Radeon 5750 XXX

Bus Type	PCI-E 2.0
GPU Clock	740 Mhz
Memory Bus	128
Memory Type	DDR5
Memory Size	1024 MB
Memory Speed	4800 Mhz
Thermal Solution	FANSINK
Minimum Power Supply Requirement	450 Watt w/ one 6-pin power connector
Outputs	HDMI, Dual-Link DVI, Display Port
Card Dimensions	7.25 X 4.376 X 1.5
Feature	Directx 11 support, DirectCompute 5.0, Open CL, Eyefinity Technology, Shader Model 5.0, OpenGL 3.2, Windows 7, DisplayPort, HDMI
Warranty
Package Contents	6 Pin Y Power Cable

It's priced around the market one would expect to find HTPC style cards with a little gaming performance in them. As we all know for an HTPC solution we require silence above all else. Normally a reference heatsink isn't the best design in the world as they are usually too loud and have an inadequate fan. However, they do have the benefit of exhausting the hot air out the back of the case.

A non-reference cooler seeks to redress these issues by either installing a larger fan and still exhausting out the rear, or by utilising so many heatpipes that although the hot air stays in the case, it's nowhere near as hot thanks to a large heatsink.

Whilst the XFX 5750 XXX is their premium pre-overclocked model, sadly they have chosen to retain the woeful HD5750 reference design. If you ignore the large plastic periphery it's basically a small, few pronged, heatsink with a fan in the centre of it. Unfortunately this is compounded by the totally needless plastic plate on the top. This serves to do precisely nothing but advertise themselves. Of course once you've brought the card you don't really need it advertising.

If you are the kind of case-modder whereby it's important to make it clear who either are your sponsors or whose hardware you've chosen, then you're unlikely to pick a 5750 to do it. In fact the only thing is does do is ensure the heat that is dissipated by the heatsink gets trapped nicely between the plastic shield and the board itself. All of this could be forgiven if it was whisper-quiet, but as soon as the card gets remotely under load the fan becomes akin to standing at Heathrow in August. Intolerably loud. As the XXX models cost significantly more than their standard brethren this is an enormous disappointment.

So maybe it's a gaming card? In standard guise the 5750 is around a hundred pounds, certainly a price we'd not expect to see gaming performance and so our results would indicate that as long as you understand its limitations you can play reasonable games with good quality at reasonable frame rates. Unfortunately this XXX model is priced £3 less than a standard 5770 and even overclocked it only produces results on a par with the basic 5770. The architecture also means that even with a hefty overclock the card is just too limited to obtain performance beyond expectations, as especially demonstrated in the Dirt 2 Maximum FPS test.

So if it is too loud for HTPC applications it must be a budget gaming card. But as a budget gaming card you'd be mad not to buy the 5770 instead.

We said at the beginning that the paucity of technologies has meant manufacturers need to saturate the market with barely different models in an attempt to cover every requirement. The side-effect of this process is that some cards will be wholly pointless because regardless of your application there is a better or cheaper one available.

That isn't to say that the XFX HD5750 XXX is a bad card, noise levels aside, it's just we can't see anyone who would want it at this price. With a proper custom cooler it might be quiet enough for HTPC or have enough overclocking headroom for the gamers. At £125 for a standard card with a mild overclock that we can easily better ourselves, we can't help but feel it's one model too many.

MSI GeForce GTS 250

Bus Type	PCI-E 2.0
GPU Clock	738 Mhz
Memory Bus	256
Memory Type	GDDR3
Memory Size	1028 MB
Memory Speed	2200 Mhz
Thermal Solution	QUADPIPE FAN
Minimum Power Supply Requirement	450 Watt w/ one 6-pin power connector
Outputs	HDMI,2x DVI(included Adapter), Display Port
Card Dimensions	7.25 X 4.376 X 1.5
Feature	Directx 10 support, DirectCompute 5.0,nVIDIA SLI ,Shader Model 5.0, OpenGL 2.1, Windows 7, DisplayPort, Dual Monitor support

MSI’s take on NVIDIA’s GeForce GTS 250 results in a dual-slot card built on a bright-red circuit board.  The card itself is sturdy and well-built, and the heatsink is firmly attached.  You can pick the card up from just about any point of contact without worrying about snapping a part off.  This may not sound surprising, but it’s nice to see after a negative experience involving the heatsink on an ATI HD4350.

The final product is an attractive video card, with the red board, gold and copper heatsink and black fan setup.  Granted, many people could care less how their video card looks, but if you’ve got an open system or a large window in the side of your case, consider it a bonus.  Speaking of the heatsink, it’s pretty large for what is, at its core, no more than a midrange card.  The combination of the large heatsink and dual-slot construction with the fan means that the card runs pretty cool at low fan speeds.  Gamers have for a long time put up with loud fans and hot cards as a consequence of being able to play the newest games.  Manufacturers are finally coming around to the fact just because consumers want acceptable video performance doesn’t mean that they want to listen to computers that sound like fighter jets.

One other thing to mention here is that you may see a huge difference between the 512MB GTS 250 and 1GB GTS 250 versions.  This is because for the 1GB variants, NVIDIA mandated board changes that are optional for the 512MB cards.  As a result of the new design, the 1GB GTS 250 has a significantly shorter (9 inches vs 10.5 inches) length than the older 9800GTX+ or 512MB GTS 250s that don’t choose to use the new design.  Moreover, many 512MB GTS 250s are simply rebadged 9800 cards with zero changes aside from labels and firmware.

Before we get into the nitty-gritty of numbers and charts, let’s take a closer look at the underlying technology of the new GTS 250.   As mentioned earlier, NVIDIA really started this revolution in graphics cards a couple of years ago with the 8800, which offered up a pretty high performance-to-price ratio.  There’s a reason that the GeForce 8800 commands over 11% of the video card share of all Steam users.

Looking at the Overall performance of both the cards they beat other cards of the same category...so TechioTaku recommends choosing MSI GeForce GTS250 if money matters a lot to you,if performance is required with a bit  higher price go for  XFX Radeon 5750 XXX .

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