Final thoughts and rating
One of the most difficult problems that any component manufacturer has to overcome, especially when based on a technology provided by a different company, is how to differentiate its products from the competition, such that a potential purchaser will sit up and take notice. Nowhere is this more evident than in the graphics-card space, where ATI and NVIDIA constantly churn out new GPUs that are then taken on by partners. One GeForce GTX 275 is the same as another, right?MSI is hoping that it can take select high-end GeForce cards and differentiate them by implementing custom cooling by way of twin-fan Frozr technology. One such card is the GeForce GTX 275, and MSI is releasing both standard and pre-overclocked Frozr-equipped models.
Looking at the pre-overclocked model, which is clocked in at around five per cent above a reference card, 3D performance is good at a 1,920x1,200 resolution, beating out a Radeon HD 4890 1GB in our battery of tests. The cooler, too, is good, and manages to keep the card from making a racket when under load.
However, two important, yet related, factors take the shine off the MSI N275GTX Frozr OC. The first lies with the price premium that's inevitably charged for custom-cooled designs. Here, that's manifested by a £60 premium over an albeit-slower reference GTX 275. The second also centres around price, insofar as the general competition in this space has seen massive upheaval in recent months.
As a buying guide, it's scary to think that you could purchase two Radeon HD4870 512MB cards and still have plenty of change left over for a triple-A game. What's more, a Radeon HD 4870 X2 2,048MB can now be purchased for £230, and that, obviously, is an intrinsically faster card.
The downward pressure on mid-range graphics cards has been such that MSI's N275GTX Frozr OC - an implicitly good card - only makes financial sense if priced £40 lower, at £179. As it is, it's a quality product whose buying attractiveness is severely compromised by, right now, an untenable etail price.
The good
Better-than-reference cooling
Pre-overclocked
Decent performance at 1,920x1,200
Quiet-ish under load
The not so good
Cooler doesn't exhaust all the hot air out of the chassis
Relatively expensive. Two Radeon HD 4870 512MBs would leave significant change
Bundle is kind of generic for a high-end, customised card - given the price.
HEXUS Rating
We consider any product score above '50%' as a safe buy. The higher the score, the higher the recommendation from HEXUS to buy. Simple, straightforward buying advice.
The rating is given in relation to the category the component competes in, therefore the card is evaluated with respect to our 'high-end components' criteria. It's a good card that's held back by a high etail price.
MSI N275GTX Twin Frozr OC 896MB
HEXUS Where2Buy
The MSI N275GTX Twin Frozr OC 896MB can be purchased from QuietPC.com at a cost of £217.
HEXUS Right2Reply
At HEXUS, we invite the companies whose products we test to comment on our articles. If any company representatives for the products reviewed choose to respond, we'll publish their commentary here verbatim.
