MSI N280GTX-T2D1GOC, GeForce GTX 280 Redux

by Dave Altavilla

NVIDIA's GeForce GTX 200 series of graphics cards, that launched about 60 days prior to the publishing of this article, have undergone a significant price reduction since they first debuted. At the time, NVIDIA flexed its GPU muscle with a high-end, single GPU graphics design that their primary competition (AMD) could only compete with by throwing two GPUs at the problem. As such, NVIDIA initially priced their flagship GeForce GTX 280 at a significant premium; $649 upon its introduction on launch day. Would you believe us, if we told you back then, that these cards would be selling for $200 dollars less in only about two months time? You can believe it today, however, as many etailers have cards on the shelf right now at $449 and even less, with rebates etc.

Since then, we've seen the launch of AMD's latest ATI dual GPU-based flagship, the Radeon HD 4870 X2. There's no question, in all of the numbers we've shown you, it's faster than any standard retail GeForce GTX 280. On the other the hand, AMD's Radeon HD 4870 X2 also costs $100 - $150 more currently, generates a lot more heat, consumes more power and in general has a more prominent acoustical signature, versus a GeForce GTX 280. So with that stage set, we'll take you through the ins and outs of another retail version GeForce GTX 280 from MSI, as well as compare and contrast it versus other cards above and below its price range. Journey on for our view of the GeForce GTX 280 redux and see how MSI's N280GTX-T2D1GOC shapes up in the current high-end 3D graphics landscape.


•MSI N280GTX-T2D1G Features

650MHz Core clock
2300MHz Memory clock
2nd Generation NVIDIA® Unified Architecture
PhysX™ Ready
3-way NVIDIA® SLI™ Technology
Microsoft® DirectX 10 Support
NVIDIA® CUDA™ Technology
PCI Express 2.0 Support
GigaThread™ Technology
NVIDIA® Lumenex™ Engine
16x Anti-aliasing Technology
128-bit floating point High Dynamic-Range (HDR) Lighting
OpenGL® 2.1 Optimization and Support
Dual-link DVI Support
NVIDIA® PureVideo™ HD Technology
Discrete, Programmable Video Processor
Dual-stream Hardware Acceleration
Dynamic Contrast Enhancement & Color Stretch
HDCP Capable
Integrated SD and HD TV Output


•Video Output Function

TV-Out (via S-Video to Composite)
HDTV-out
Dual-link DVI x 2
VGA (via DVI to D-Sub adaptor)
HDMI (DVI to HDMI adaptor)