Sapphire X1600 Ultimate vs MSI NX7600

Conclusions

So how do these two cards stack up when all is said and done?

Gaming performance: There's little to choose between these cards in the two quick benchmarks that we ran. Both are capable of delivering decent performance when set to reasonable resolutions. If you're running an LCD with a 1280x1024 resolution (or a widescreen 27" or 32" TV that is 720P resolution) then you're going to get really good value for money when it comes to gaming. Although the MSI was faster at Lost Coast, the Sapphire was slightly faster at FEAR.

Video acceleration: Both NVIDIA and ATI have gone great guns to get their video acceleration from a standing start to this in the space of a year or so. Whilst ATI was first off the mark with Avivo, NVIDIA has caught up. Both deliver top-range image quality in HQV when looking at DVD and standard definition playback. Whilst both firms would argue back and forth about small details, when you take out the fact that most Brits have no use for cadence correction then there is really little to choose.

The ability to play 1080p video is fantastic, with no dropped frames and no tearing. This is a great reason to have a decent video card inside your home theatre box, since even the fastest CPUs are incapable of this under Windows.

Both cards performed almost identically when it came down to decoding HD. However, the one area we saw a difference was at 1080p - the MSI was clearly better in terms of CPU utilisation, although the output was the same.

Value: We come down, then, to price. Sapphire's card is only announced today, and hasn't quite hit retail. Howver, the XT version (on test here) will be going for around £105 and the Pro version for around £80. Sapphire's own X1600 XT with an active (read: whiney) cooler is £93, so paying a tenner extra for silence is definitely a good move.

MSI's card is cheaper than the XT, at £83 from Savastore.

Final thoughts

Both these cards represent very good value for the price. Gaming performance is admirable, video decoding is excellent. The Sapphire has good performance in FEAR, as well as the better of the two heatsinks and more tweaks in Avivo. However, the MSI has a clear edge in price which is hard to ignore, as well as faster performance in Lost Coast and 1080p decoding. Overall, we can happily sit on the fence on this one - which one you plump for will depend on your preference for a better cooler over better price.