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Posted: April 24, 2002
Written by: Davey McWatters
MSI GeForce4 Ti4600
MSI has been around for some time. Today, they are mostly known for their motherboards; although, they have been in the graphics card industry for a while as well. Today, we will be looking at their current top of the line graphics card based on nVidia’s GeForce4 Ti4600 GPU. It includes everything from VIVO to DVI, which most other Ti4600 based cards do as well. The core is clocked at 300mhz and the memory is at 2x330Mhz for a 660Mhz DDR speed. Let us look at what MSI includes in the box with their Ti4600.
 
The box is full of information about the card and the contents inside the box. Having enough on the box is an important factor as it lets people know exactly what they are buying. On the back of the box, it lists the specs of the GeForce4 Ti4600GPU and it lists the software bundle. The specs are:
Specifications:
- NVidia 4th Generation GPU – GeForce4 Titanium Series
- NVidia nfiniteFX II Engine
- Dual programmable Vertex Shaders
- Advanced programmable Pixel Shaders
- 3D Textures & Shadow Buffers
- Z-Correct Bump Mapping
- nVIDIA Lightspeed Memory Architecture™ II
- nVIDIA Accuview™ Antialiasing
- Video In/Out
- 128MB DDR High Speed Memory
 
The manual MSI includes with the card goes over everything you need to know to get your new video card up and running. They even cover how to use multiple monitors with nView and setting up your VIVO software. They also include a case badge that says “Geared by MSI” if you wish to let everyone know you have an MSI product in your case.
The software bundle MSI included with the card is very good. They include enough games and programs to get your card up and running and show off the cards power. On the main MSI utilities CD, they include the driver and capture driver as well as a few utilities. The utilities included are MSI 3D! Turbo Experience, MSI Live Update, MSI GoodMEM, MSI LockBox, and MSI WMInfo. The also include two utilities for your video capturing needs which are WinProducer and WinCoder. For gamers, they include full versions of No One Lives Forever, Aquanox, Sacrifice, and their 7 in 1 games collection. The 7 in 1 Games Collection includes demos of Ballistics, Tom Clancy’s Rogue Spear-Black Thorn, Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon, Comanche 4, Fallout Tactics, Swat3: Close Quarters Battle, and Serious Sam: The First Encounter. MSI includes a much better software bundle than does many other manufacturers.
   
The card is very similar to nVidia’s reference Ti4600 card. MSI didn’t use their red PCB on this card for some reason. We may see something special on a future card where they will use the better looking red PCB. MSI has modified the heat sink to give their card a unique appearance. They have added a clear piece on to the top of the heat sink to allow the airflow from the fan to move through the heat sink and over the RAM chips. It works well for a stock heat sink.
MSI has used the Samsung 2.8ns high speed RAM for its ability to run cooler at high speeds. It’s among the many quality RAM products available; therefore, it should offer us a good bit of room for overclocking. MSI has decided not to apply heat sinks to the RAM; however, you can pick some up elsewhere if you desire.
Like the reference board, MSI has used three connectors on their card. They include: VGA, DVI, and the VIVO connector. If you want to use dual VGA monitors on the card, you will need to purchase a DVI to VGA adaptor. Some manufacturers include that with their cards, but MSI has chosen not too. It won’t set you back much. They cost around $10 or cheaper on Pricewatch.
The VIVO connector is very nicely built. It has both composite and s-video in and out. MSI included an s-video cable in the box, but they did not include a composite cable for some strange reason. The included s-video cable is very short for what most people will need to run to their TV or other device.
Installation
As with all GeForce4 Ti4600 video cards, this card is very long. It is much longer than older GeForce2/3 cards. This could pose as a problem for some users if their motherboard is poorly designed and allows the graphics card to block the memory slots or IDE connectors. The card fits fine on my Asus A7V333.
Other than being huge in size, the installation was very easy. I began by installing MSI’s included VGA drivers. They seemed a bit sluggish to me so I downloaded nVidia’s Detonator XP 28.32’s and had huge performance gains. Maybe MSI’s next driver release will offer better performance.
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