MSI StarForce GeForce 2 GTS, 32MB DDR w/tv out for $140. !!!RETAIL!!!

[the_man]

Yep.
I just orderd one as well.
For another review, checkout: MSI GeForce 2 GTS

 

[slimfast]

not a hot deal, just check pricewatch, lots
of MIS floating around with ~$140.

 

[Hgabriel]

Maybe not hot, but still the lowest if you add shipping.

 

[Wolfgang]

Does anyone have any experience with the TV-out on this card?

Is it high quality? OR is it run of the mill, with splotchiness and pixelation or areas where there are subtle gradations of color?

I'm looking for a good card to do TV-out of DivX AVI files. I've tried the Voodoo3 and an ATI 3d Turbo Pro PC2TV, and both had low-quality TV-out, each suffering sometimes severely from the problem noted above.

Thanks! This could be a great deal if the TV-out works WELL.

 

[ElFenix]

holy crap the MSI K7T Turbo is only $113! cheapest on pricewatch is $112, and thats with ripoff shipping!

 

[DoobieOnline]

Man, Newegg is on a roll. I got the 3DPower GF2 Pro before it went out of stock for only $200 shipped and it's doing a great job for me. Great price on the MSI GTS 32MB, especially for retail with TV-out!

 

[ElFenix]

anyone know the warranty on their OEM processors, by any chance? i emailed them tonite but i don't expect a reply until tomorrow.

 

[RobsTV]

For those looking for TV out to use with DVD's, watch out.
The GeForce2 cards use a feature called twin view for TV out.
DVD playback requires hardware overlay.
Only the primary 15pin output supports hardware overlay.
Twin view, using the second output, (RCA and Svideo) does not.
So you can not use the TV out to watch DVD's on a TV.

Of course you could skip TV output, and just get a scan convertor.
They connect to the 15pin port, and eliminate these type of problems.

 

[TheRouterNinja]

nice deal, good work, bumpbump.. =)

 

[Wolfgang]

RobsTV, quick question:

Hardware overlay or no, if TV out displays whatever is on the monitor, and one uses (say) Windows Media Player to watch a DVD, then won't it go to TV-out?

Or are you saying just that the TV-out may not work with some DVD accelerator cards?

Myself, I can live with that, but what frustrates me utterly is the abysmally low quality of the TV-out signal from any boards I've tried -- as thought they have an 8-bit palette for Tv-out or something. Crude banding, color-gradation pixelation, etc.

It's really deceptive marketing, in my view, to deliver such stunningly low quality on such a basic, easy, decades-old technology. This isn't at all hard to do for those skilled in the relevant art -- it's just even easier to do it inexcusably badly, it seems.

 

[RobsTV]

TV out does NOT display what is on the monitor as a rule.
TwinView treats any output other than primary 15pin as secondary.
It is similiar to having 2 seperate video cards in your PC, and 2 monitors.
As such, with Windows, only Primary display can be used for certain functions.
This is the same no matter what type of video cards you use.
With 2 video cards, and 2 monitors, you can only play DVD's on the primary display.
Draging Windows media player, Real Player, etc., over to the second display just shows blank.

 

[lzpoof]

Umm , RobsTV , have you actually tried this yet with verifiable results ? Cause Twinview is NOT a feature of the GTS. It's specific to the MX. Wouldn't make much sense not to advertise it if it's on the GTS's too. With the Ati All-inWonder I had, the Tv-out displayed EXACTLY what was on the monitor on the Tv-out. The ability to do 2 separate signals is the exception, not the norm. I have also done the same experiment with a TNT1, a TNT2, and a voodoo rush. As for being able to watch movies on one or the other video source, you can do this with any source on a multiple monitor system. You just can't go fullscreen with a window in a secondary display (might be alleviated with twinview). The 'function's that can't be activated on a secondary display in a system usually are Directx acceleration , opengl acceleration, and ironically mulitmedia functions such as tv-in,tuning,and tv-out (hardware DVD may be in there too, but I haven't heard it yet). Since you're saying that a twinview obeys the rules of multiple display systems in windows 98, then a tv-out wouldn't even be able to be used as a secondary display , at least according to windows rules. Twinview is a new technology and doesn't have to follow the old rules exactly.

This is beside the point anyway as Geforce GTS's don't have twinview anyway. This is an MX feature only, unless someone has come up with a new hack. If anyone has a GTS and can display 2 different desktops on their monitor and their tv-out, please prove me wrong here .... cause I'd love to be able to do video editing and send a separate video window to my tv with a GTS and still have the program controls separately on my main monitor.


EDIT: I just tried using a DVD player on the secondary display from a Toshiba laptop with a Savage chipset. The DVD would not play on the secondary display, so probably add hardware DVD to the list of no-nos for secondaries. Movie files will play ok though. Twinview on Geforce MX cards may produce the same results of the Savage here.

 

[RobsTV]

While much of my information does pertain to the MX, my interest in this came from this thread about no DVD playback using TV out on a GF2 GTS card.
DVDs dont output to TV **UPDATED**

My GTS card has no TV out, so I couldn't check it, but my MX card does have TV out, and the manual for the MX card states: "This card supports only playing PC game on TV-out. And there will be no output on TV-Out when playing DVD". Also, Geforcefaq.com verifies no DVD playback using TV out. So far, I have yet to see of anyone with a GTS or MX card play DVD's using the TV out on the card.

 

[kcbaltz]

I just got an email from newegg that the MSI 8815 is back in stock at $140 and ordered one.

 

[the_man]

slimfast,

What are you smoking?!?
This is the RETAIL version!
The next cheapest RETAIL version from pricewatch is $160
(with shipping).
So the $145 (including shipping) is HOT for this video card.
Smoke that.
- the man

 

[Brent]

RobsTV,

You -CAN- watch DVDs on a TV with a Geforce2 MX and TwinView enabled. Your statement about DVD-playback on an MX-based video card seems to be inaccurate. I set up a Thunderbird-based system for my grandparents with an Asus Geforce2 MX video card w/ TV-out and they can watch DVDs just fine! If you would like to discuss this in detail, feel free to toss an email to me at bksmith5@yahoo.com!

As for DVD-playback via a Geforce2 GTS card -- I have never tried it to know whether or not it works...

Just FYI!

-Brent

 

[Wolfgang]

Brent,

How's the quality on the generic TV out with respect to video (DVDs, MPEGs, AVIs, etc.) -- excellent (as good as a DVD player), good, fair, poor...?

And in particular, any color banding, esp. of dark scenes? Things that look fine on the monitor, but splotchy or banded on the TV?

Sounds like a lot of folks are interested in this. I know I am.

 

[Brent]

Wolfgang,

As far as my grandparents are concerned, the picture quality is superb. However, I have to admit that the right-hand side of the display area on the TV screen was showing a fair amount of bowing (also called "pincushioning," I believe?) and could not be easily corrected. However, the actual image wasn't showing a lot of banding. The nice part of the TwinView settings is that although you cannot control the refresh rate on both the TV and monitor (under Windows 2000, per the nVidia driver release notes), you can adjust the color settings. As I do not have easy/immediate access to another MX-based card, I couldn't tell you WHERE it was that I'd found those settings. I believe that I'd right-clicked on the TV icon on the TwinView tab in the drivers.

At any rate, I hope that this was able to answer your question!

-Brent

 

[Wolfgang]

Brent,

Thanks a lot for your reply! It's encouraging.

Less encouraging were the words from MSI tech support, that I just called. He didn't seem to be too familiar with what I was talking about, but he said the card uses the same TV-out chipset that everyone else uses, so if I see banding on the Voodoo3 and ATI cards -- which I and myriad others do -- he thought I'd see that same thing on the new MSI card. :^(

One concrete follow-up question: do you recall seeing any banding during -very dark scenes-, so that shadows would go brom black to gray SMOOTHLY on the monitor, but IN BANDS OR SPLOTCHES on the TV?

Thanks for the real-world insight you offer!

 

[K_Factor]

slvrbullet,

I also got one of these cards and it turned out to be a GeForce2 Pro with 64 megs of ram. I
think MSI made a mistake and put some pros in GeForce2 GTS boxes. That is the best $145 I
have ever spent on a video card.

 

[Bfavre444]

Damn lucky. Do you think they have any more GF2Pro's in wrong boxes selling at $140?

 

[K_Factor]

I got the card from Newegg. You can give it a try if you are in the market for
a video card. Even if it is a GTS, $145 is still a damn good price.

newegg.com MSI GeForce2 GTS link

 

[Bfavre444]

K_factor,
Is this MSI card recommended? I mean, performance and speed is probably the same since it's the same chipset. But the heatsink and fan, are they at least the same as the reference board HS and F or better? And the RAM on it?

See, untamo has the CL GF2 GTS for about the same price, and I'm comparing these two in terms of ram, stability and HS/F.

And to lzpoof, do you really think the GTS will not drop any more in price significantly in the next couple of months? You really think the GTS market will stay in the $140 area? Do you advise on buying a GTS now? Or wait?

 

[K_Factor]

Bfavre444

I would buy the MSI card over the creative just for the chance to get a pro. The MSI and creative cards are basically identical, but I don't think the creative card has tv-out. Being a skeptic, I am now 100% conviced that I got a pro in a GTS box. The bios on bootup says the card is a PRO with 64 megs of ram, nvidia's reference drivers say the card is a pro with 64 megs of ram running at 200/366, and there is a sticker on the board with the model number of MS-8815Pro.

 

[slvrbullet]

K- factor,

how is yours running. I bought this to put into a friends computer and it is giving it fits. THe card also seems to run very hot. Is that normal for the Pro? I am thinking about putting it in mine to see how it works since I know how the computer runs. The box that mine came in had a sticker placed over the original part number. The sticker had 8815 pro on it so I think these were probably early versions and newegg didn't pay attention to the box.