VGA Card Buyer's Guide 07/2003

MSI FX5900-TD128, Continued

The TV-Out functionality is handled by the on-chip TV-encoder of the FX 5900. The TV can be connected directly to the card in the case of S-VHS. Composite video output is also available using a short adapter cable. A 2 m S-VHS cable ships with the card. The card also houses a separate Silicon Image panel link transmitter chip (Si1166C), which allows DVI output up to UXGA resolution (1600x1200).

The software bundle is very extensive and extraordinary. In addition to the aforementioned 3D! Turbo Experience tool, MSI ships a number of other utilities with the board. These are: Live Update 2 (automatic check for + download + installation of new BIOS files and drivers), MSI Secure Doc (file encryption utility), MSI GoodMem (a tool to flush the system memory), MSI LockBox (security software which allows the user to lock the computer when he / she leaves the workstation), and MSI WMI Info (a system information tool).

On top of these utilities, MSI's bundle also includes the programs E-Color 3Deep, TwinSoft BeTwin (a tool for managing multiple user accounts on a PC), Trend PC-Cillin (Anti Virus software), Media Ring Dialer, Virtual Drive (VirtualDrive Copy DVD and Virtual CD-ROM ), RestoreIT! (RestoreIT! Data Recovery & System Backup ) as well as MSI 3D Desktop, Supreme Foreign Language Learning Machine (a language learning software), and Intervideo's WinDVD 5.1 software DVD player.