Product on Review: MSI N465GTX Twin Frozr II
Manufacturer and Sponsor: MSI
MSRP: £249.99
Street Price: Not listed

When Windows 7 was released back in October last year and DirectX 11 promised us unparalleled visuals and performance on the gaming front, Nvidia were being plagued by problems. Their latest GPU architecture, codenamed Fermi, saw nothing but delays, and low yields with the 40nm TSMC manufacturing process were contributing to their growing issues. To rub salt in their already gaping wounds, ATI had already successfully released their flagship HD5800 series of cards and despite supplies not being able to meet demand, they were still several steps ahead of the competition. Finally, Nvidia officially released their DirectX 11 solutions in March this year with actual availability of the GTX470/480 cards coming later. The Fermi architecture promised even better performance and it was a complete redesign from their previous offerings, hence the delays. Upon release however, the GF100 chip was found to be power hungry and ran hot. In the aim of tackling both issues and releasing a mainstream graphics card to combat ATI's already complete line-up, Nvidia came up with the GTX465.

Using the same GF100 chip as its bigger brothers, the GTX465 retains all of Fermi's architectural benefits at a lower price point, with lower thermals and power consumption. Fermi wasn't designed solely for gaming but it is a concept that encompasses Nvidia yearning for high performance computing using the sheer parallel performance and capabilities of the GPU. As such Fermi is dubbed as their next generation CUDA architecture, which we will cover more on later.

It is widely known that the greatest number of sales come from mainstream and entry level graphics cards and since ATI already have every part of the market covered with DirectX 11 solutions, Nvidia had to act quickly and the result was the cut down version of their flagship cards in the form of the GTX465. In the UK market, its price point pits it against the highly popular HD5850 so today we'll be having a closer look at the two cards to find the winner.


Now onto MSI. MSI are well known for manufacturing some of the best motherboards on the market and they also have a vast number of products in their graphics card catalogue. More recently, they have been showcasing their own custom cooling designs to tackle the ever growing issue of heat in high end graphics cards these days. Their latest innovation comes with the Twin Frozr II cooler that aims to reduce heat by 16 degrees Celsius and noise by 21.5dB. Coupled with "Military Class" components and over volting capabilities, their GTX465 promises to deliver excellent performance and brilliant overclocking headroom.

A bit about MSI Established in August 1986, MSI has always focused on four core values: Producing meaningful products, ensuring high product quality, the best customer service and achieving customer satisfaction. MSI’s product portfolio includes designing and manufacturing a diverse range of mainboards, graphics cards, notebooks, all-in-one PCs, server/workstations, industrial computing, barebone systems, communication devices, consumer electronics, car infotainment products and others. “Quality Products Lead to Faithful Customers” is a motto that guides all that we do at MSI. Everyone at MSI goes all out to be the best of the best in research and development. Currently, 2,000 experienced engineers staff our research and development department. This talented team carries out its work with the latest research equipment, continuing to raise the bar on product quality and innovative product features. Graphics Card MSI graphics card is designed for 3D effect, heat dissipation, power control, reliability etc. With stringent design optimization to create the most reliable high performance graphics card without compromising on quality. Global acclaim made it the undisputed number one choice for magazines, website editors and players alike. MSI’s accumulated customer base exceeded 100 million users globally in the graphics card market. MSI’s brand leadership is well established in the mind of the customers. It is this driving force that propels MSI to constantly move forward. More here...

With that covered, let's get to the actual review.