Half-Life 2

The MSI NX6800-TD128E gives you enough speed in any resolution, outperforming the GeForce 6600 GT.

The Canals map from Half-Life 2 abounds in version 2.0 pixel shaders, so the results depend on the number of pixel pipelines and their frequency. The SLI configuration with two MSI cards is an exception: the second card brings in a very small performance gain.

When full-screen anti-aliasing and anisotropic filtering are enabled, the MSI NX6800-TD128E still shows a good speed, also in 1600x1200 resolution, and outperforms the GeForce 6600 GT thanks to the 256-bit memory bus.

There are problems here with the SLI technology: the performance either remains the same or degenerates against that of the single card.

The street fighting scenes in Half-Life 2 require more processing power than the Canals levels do. Our demo record also includes numerous special effects, so the performance is generally lower here. The MSI is however fast enough up to 1600x1200. Its speed is roughly equal to that of the GeForce 6600 GT.

The MSI NX6800-TD128E works fast in the lowest resolution of the “eye candy” mode, but lacks speed starting from 1280x1024. And still this graphics card is faster than the GeForce 6600 GT due to the 256-bit memory bus.