It's going to start raining NVIDIA N200 series graphics cards later today, and MSI seems to be more eager than most. Slightly ahead of schedule, its presented its N200-based GPUs, the MSI N280GTX and N260GTX.
MSI's top-end part, the N280GTX, packs 240 processor cores and 1GiB of graphics memory. The lesser N260GTX isn't a lightweight, either, it'll provide 192 processor cores and 896MiB of graphics memory.
Both cards make use of NVIDIA's second generation unified architecture and promise to deliver 50% more gaming performance than "prior-generation GPUs". The N200 series is PhysX ready and MSI promises a "totally new class of physical gaming interaction for a more dynamic and realistic experience".
Outside of gaming, the cards will make light work of processing tasks usually confined to a CPU. MSI states that tasks such as transcoding video will be seven times faster thanks to GPU processing.
We're well aware of the N200 series' promise, but does it deliver? We'll have the definitive verdict, and a UK price, in our forthcoming in-depth review, stay tuned!
Official press release: MSI launches N280GTX and N260GTX series graphics cards