NVIDIA GeForce2/3 Titanium Roundup - January 2002

MSI G3Ti500 Pro-VT

MSI G3Ti500 Pro-VT
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GPU	NVIDIA GeForce3 Ti 500
Memory	64MB EliteMT DDR SDRAM 3.8ns
Cooling - Core	Interlocking fan/heatsink combo
Cooling - Memory	(2) 17 fin interlocking RAMsinks
Temperature - Core	147 F / 63.9 C
TV-Out	Composite Philips SAA7108E
Video-In	S-Video and Composite Philips SAA7108E
Highest Overclock	260/580 MHz
Software/Gaming Bundle	Sacrifice, WinCoder/WinProducer
Average Online Price	$350

We noticed that the MSI G3Ti500 Pro-VT is essentially the same card as MSI's GeForce3 Ti 200 card, which turns out to be a good thing. The cooling setup on the card is composed of a heatsink/fan unit attached to the core via thermal grease and RAMsinks attached using thermal tape. The core temperature measured 147 degrees Fahrenheit, making it the second hottest card in the test. This may have played a minor role in our overclocking success with the card, as the 260/580MHz level which we were able to obtain ranked the card midrange when it came to overclockability.

The card still features the VIVO functions first introduced on the MSI G3Ti200 Pro-VT. This includes composite output as well as S-video and composite input connectors. Hardware monitoring is included as well, once again thanks to the Winbond W83L785R monitoring chip.

As far as features go, the MSI G3Ti500 Pro-VT distinguishes itself from the G3Ti200 Pro-VT by including VR glasses. The glasses are powered by a small slot card that uses a loopback VGA cable to go from the video card to the VR component, then utilizes a second VGA-out connector to supply the input to the monitor. The slot card is powered by a standard floppy power connector. Like we have said many times in the past, the VR glasses are a neat toy but the novelty of them usually wears off very quickly.

Slot card for VR shutter glasses support.