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As noted in our review of the 440MX-8X cards, Nvidia originally introduced their AGP8X cards in the form of AGP8X capable Ti4200 and 440MX cards. It was just a matter of time before they would release the Ti4600 version of their cards with AGP8X support, and hence today we’re reviewing the MSI Ti4600 8X.

The Nvidia 8X family

In North America, manufacturers will be marketing their products as 4600-8X cards, while in the European market Nvidia has coined the name Ti4800 for their 8X enabled Ti4600 cards. This is not to be confused with the Ti4800SE cards, which are 8X capable Ti4400s. This confusing array of names is likely to cause stores and consumers no small amount of grief, but those of us in North America can at least rest easy with the fact that manufacturers MUST use the Ti4600-8X nomenclature in our market.

The card we’re reviewing is actually the MSI G4 Ti4600-VT2D8X. The "2D" portion of the name refers to the dual DVI outputs that the card sports. "V" stands for the Video-in function, and the "T" means the TV-out function. There's also a G4Ti4600-TD8X, which only has one DVI connector and another 15pin regular VGA connector. Aside from AGP8X support and dual DVI connectors, this card also features MSI's 4in1 video output connector and TopTech cooling system, the latter which was introduced for all their new video cards and features impressive cooling with very low noise output.

Features and Details:

MSI uses 2.8ns Samsung or Hynix RAM for the 4600-8X. The card is clocked at 300Mhz core and 660Mhz memory, though PowerStrip reported that the actual clock speeds were closer to 297Mhz and 648Mhz respectively. Compare that to say, the original MSI Ti4600, which was clocked at 300/650 core/memory - this means that aside from 8X support, the 4600-8X is spec'd out nearly identically against its previous incarnation.

The Ti4600-8X card has 2 very distinctive physical features. Firstly, the dual DVI connectors.

Few cards today offer dual DVI connectors, though we are certain that most owners today are unlikely to be able to take full advantage of both connectors, so this particular feature seems an excess that few people will pay for. Though... under the right circumstances, such as in certain work environments or in the hands of ultra hardcore enthusiasts, the dual DVI will allow MSI to advantageously position the VT2D8X against other similarly priced cards.