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MSI GeForce4 Ti4200

In a sea of budget video cards, the Ti4200 is the big fish we are all looking to land. But with so many fish in the ocean, what makes one Ti4200 different from another?? Which is worthy of your hard earned cash?? MSI thinks they know...

MSI, as we all know, is not only a top-notch mainboard manufacturer, but they are also a popular video card provider among the performance crowd. How does a company like MSI become popular with the enthusiast crowd? Well, in today’s market there are only a few ways to get your card recognized over the countless others out there, and even then, there are no guarantees.

Generally speaking, the video card market right now is literally a sea of different manufacturers that produce identical cards, made from identical chipsets, but under different company names. Many smaller companies purchase reference design boards from a single manufacturer, package them with their company branding and then sell them. Few companies actually produce their own boards, and even then, the performance of both end products is almost identical.

So with performance being almost the same ranging from one card to another, how does a company distinguish their product from the masses? There are a few ways of making your video card a popular choice with the enthusiast crowd: low price, lots of extras, and of course its overclocking potential.

1.) The low price card is offering you the same video card as most of the other manufacturers simply at a lower price. Whodathunkit? Often these cards come with little more than an installation CD. Profits are made through volume sales.

2.) The card offering the large bundles and extras often use the added value of the bundled games, programs, and utilities to lure in potential buyers. These cards often include other added features like the aftermarket heatsinks, video out and in configurations, and colored PCBs to help entice customers who like the flashy cards.

3.) The OC factor is now becoming something that is sold out of the box as Gainward has shown us recently. While MSI is not selling pre-OCed cards, we will certainly look into the potential that their Ti4200 has.

The MSI Ti4200 falls directly into the second category…in a big way. The card comes overloaded with games, programs, aftermarket coolers, cables, adapters, and last but not least, the fire engine red PCB. Let’s take a look at the standard features:

From MSI:

The Card:

The MSI MS-8870 is the chrome clad, fire engine red beast you see here. A nice package for what is now a mainstream card!

The card itself is roughly the size of a GeForce2 card, carrying the same basic design and cost saving 6-layer PCB as opposed to the 8-layer used by the more expensive Ti4400 & Ti4600. TSOP (Thin Small Outline Package) memory is apparent as well, as BGA memory is not needed at the slower memory speeds. Most of these design choices are made solely due to cost constraints.

You have to like the looks of the red PCB even if it has no real benefit other than cosmetic. Card companies have learned that consumers really like the “good looking” cards to use in their custom cases or simply to match other components in their system.