Price: $115+ street
MSI is known more for their booming motherboard sales than their video cards, but like most Taiwanese motherboard makers, MSI makes a variety of NVIDIA-based video cards. Among them is their MS-StarForce 816, an NVIDIA GeForce2 MX-based card with the standard core features and the software basics.
MSI MS-StarForce 816
- 175MHz GeForce2 MX core
- 350 million pixels per second
- 700 million texels per second
- ~20 million polygons per second hardware T&L engine peak throughput
- 32MB of 166MHz SDR SDRAM on 128-bit bus
- 2.7GBps theoretical peak memory bandwidth
- 350MHz RAMDAC supports up to 2048x1536x32bppx75MHz
- AGP 2x/4X support with fast writes and AGP texturing
- Optional TV-out
The MS-StarForce 816 is based on the GeForce2 MX core. It runs with the standard 166MHz SDRAM memory and 175MHz core. TV-out is optional but not included on our tested card, and it comes with a passive heat sink solution. Physically, the card is very straightforward.
On the software side, the MS-StarForce 816 does little to set itself apart. It comes with DVD playback software and 3D!Turbo, an overclocking utility. The MS-StarForce 816 meets our software minimums and slightly exceeds them with the overclocking utility, but does not really set itself apart from the pack.