Jan 27
Memory Clock: 1800 MHz Memory Interface: 64 bit Bus: PCI Express 2.0 x16
Thermal: Fansink support NVIDIA PhysX technology, NVIDIA CUDA technology
Support NVIDIA PureVideo HD technology NVIDIA 3D Vision Surround Ready
Microsoft DirectX 11 and OpenGL 4.1 Design Low Profile
support HDCP – High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection
MSI nVidia GeForce GT 520 1GB DDR3 VGA / DVI / HDMI Low Profile PCI-Express Graphics Card
List Price: $ 74.15
Price: $ 49.69
January 27th, 2012 at 09:50
Excellent budget graphics card,
I bought this graphics card to replace my PNY GeForce 9600GT card I bought several years ago. I wanted something with more power, while keeping the cost down. I mainly use my computer for watching videos and other multimedia tasks. However, since Duke Nukem Forever and Rage are coming out soon, I wanted to get a better graphics card to be able to play them to their fullest potential. I still could play both of these games with my old PNY card, but I thought it was time to upgrade, so what the heck. Anyway, the card runs all the videos and other graphic related stuff I have used so far flawlessly. The fan on it runs very quietly and keeps the card cool. It also takes up less space in the tower, since it’s a low profile one. I suppose you can say this card falls in the “mid-range level” for quality and performance. MSI is a quality company that makes high quality PC components. I have now owned several different PC components made by them and have not had any issues with them. So, if you’re bargain hunting for a mid-range PC graphics card or are a budget PC do-it-yourself person, I highly recommend this card.
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|January 27th, 2012 at 10:37
So far so good,
Installed it a couple of weeks ago, and so far no problems. I never know the best card to get for my needs, but since my old one was ancient, I see a huge improvement.
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|January 27th, 2012 at 11:22
Great card, but MSI could have done better,
This is an excellent card for general HTPC use, and LIGHT gaming. It is not the card you want to be using to run crysis in 1080p. But will play blu-rays perfectly, even the 3d ones. The problem that I had with it was that MSI could have done a better job putting it all together. First of all, there were low profile brackets included, but no friggin screws to even screw the card into a case. Do they expect you to have one of those cheap cases with those cheap plastic card mount brackets. Second of all, DONT install the driver that is on the cd. Go to nvidia dot com and download the latest driver because the included drivers did not work for me, the cd wouldnt even launch the MSI software that is on it, without manually going thru the cd to find the setup.exe. The included driver will not work (at least the windoze 7 32bit one that i tried). the screen always goes blank and you get an error message saying that the driver crashed then recovered. just download the new one and it works fine. There is a nifty tool called Afterburner included for overclocking the card, and for manual fan control. Not really that useful because this is an ENTRY-LEVEL card, and is not meant for gaming. The only other issue that I had was that the VGA connector on the card is mounted a little close to the top of the bracket. It was a bit difficult to get the plug to go on all the way without playing around with it for a minute. The plug seems to hit the case because the connector is so close to the top of the bracket. I suppose that is not a huge deal because VGA connectors are basically obsolete. I ended up using an HDMI cable anyways. All around good product from MSI. I have never had a problem with an MSI product. The motherboards from the past 3 systems i’ve owned including the system i have now are all MSI. never had a problem. Comes with a 3 year warranty(which i think is amazing) if you ever do have a problem. In 3 years this card will be a dinosaur anyways. I give it 4 stars because of the lack of screws, and the problems with the included driver cd.
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