MSI Radeon ATI 128mb 9250 AGP Video Card

Wednesday, January 25th, 2006 | Reviews, Video Card Reviews

The MSI Raedon ATI 128mb video card offers a wide array of features, including ATI’s SMARTSHADER, VIDEO IMMERSION, and FULLSTREAM technologies. Unlike some video cards in its class the MSI Radeon 9250 offers Quad-Pipe Pixel Power – a programmable graphics environment with four autonomous rendering pipelines that provides pixel processing power to provide a boost to 3D graphics environments – up to 1.1 billion pixels per second.

ATI works with what they call ‘ATI Add-in-Board Partners’. AIB partners produce graphics cards that utilize ATI graphics, but are enhanced with technologies specific to their individual companies. For this particular card, MSI was engaged to integrate the standard ATI 128mb 9250 AGP graphics processing unit (GPU). MSI has only recently delved into the graphics card manufacturing business. Historically they have produced everything from main boards to optical storage devices to servers. The manufacture of video cards was a logical next step.

Some of the ATI technology integrated with this MSI video card follows:

SMARTSHADER
CPUs historically have played a leading role regarding graphical output due to their flexibility and programmable nature. The ever improving speed and versatility of graphics cards has lessened this burden, but an optimal graphical effect has still been challenging to develop. Enter SMARTSHADER. This technology allows programmers to model 3D objects and landscapes more fluidly than was previously possible. It is important to note, however, that since the release of SMARTSHADER, ATI has developed two subsequent versions; SMARTSHADER 2.0 and SMARTSHADER 2.1.

VIDEO IMMERSION
VIDEO IMMERSION, as you may suspect, is all about the video. ATI’s VIDEO IMMERSION technology provides advanced DVD playback. Like SMARTSHADER, a subsequent version of VIDEO IMMERSION has been released, V2.0.

FULLSTREAM
FULLSTREAM technology shifts gears from VIDEO IMMERSION. Rather than focus on DVD playback, FULLSTREAM’s function is to facilitate the viewing of streaming video. When streaming video does not have sufficient bandwidth, it becomes blocky and is affected by pixilation. FULLSTREAM steps in to detect the edges of these visual blocks and smoothes them over to provide a cleaner, crisper video stream.

Specifications:

GPU – RADEON 9250
Maximum Resolution – 2048 x 1536 @ 85Hz
Video Memory – 128MB
Memory Type – DDR
Interface Type – AGP
Interface Speed – 8X
Connector(s) – TV/S-VideoVGA

In the Box

MSI Radeon 9250 128MB Video Card
S-Video Cable
DVI to VGA Adapter
Manual
Driver CD

In Sum
The MSI Radeon 9250 video card is designed to be an economy unit. That said, it is a 128mb card and does take advantage of MSI extensive hardware manufacturing experience and ATI’s graphical technology expertise. While a 128mb card will not entirely free a processor from sharing responsibility with respect to graphics output, performance will be sufficient for most applications, particularly if graphics settings are toned down to mid-range or below.