MSI StarForce 822 Retail GeForce3 64MB

AnandTech Video Card Rating

Performance

The revised StarForce 822 was able to perform slightly better than the other GeForce3 cards. The Gainward GeForce3 did remain performance king, however.

Price

Considering what is included on the MSI StarForce 822, the price is most right. Although there is no stripped down version of this card, it is only a few dollars more than a stripped GeForce3 from other manufacturers and offers full VIVO support.

Drivers

Using NVIDIA's reference drivers, the StarForce 822 follows the lines of many other GeForce3 cards. The inclusion of their 3dTurbo 2000 tools is a plus and the new overclocking utility is very useful.

Features

As we mentioned before, the VIVO card is the "base" card, making it feature packed. The large heatsink and useful memory heatsinks are very nice, and the VIVO functions are great.

The only two things we would have liked to see on the card, as an option if not standard, was a DVI port as well as an S-video in port. Although many gamers may not use a DVI monitor currently, the inclusion of a DVI port allows for greater upgradability. As far as the S-video input port, those not needing it may not miss it, but those with an S-video device may wish they had this input option as well.

Retail Availability

MSI promises that as card production ramps up on the new card, retail availability will be high. Even when compared to last week, more StarForce 822 cards are appearing on shelves.

Documentation & Software Bundle

The manual included with our MSI StarForce 822 was was actually more like a note-card and provided only basic instructions on card installation and driver setup. The included software was a bit better, as it includes Uled Video Studio for video editing as well as Idea Box for video effects. The MSI DVD software DVD player is similar to the retail software DVD players.