Conclusions
The Radeon HD 4830 ends up being an impressive card, and MSI really did a good job with it. I appreciate companies that aren’t satisfied with the reference version and do their own thing with a VGA chipset.
Video card power supply heat is beginning to be an issue, and most manufacturers have begun adding a heatsink to the area to try to cool down those hot components. Rather than take the easy and less expensive route, MSI went to the trouble of creating an entirely new power supply section with four phases instead of two, which allows the power supply components to run much cooler. And to eliminate the possibility of squealing chokes, MSI has replaced the ferrite chokes with solid state ones that can’t squeal.
MSI’s GPU cooler seems to be very effective, though I really don’t know how hot the HD 4830 GPU gets compared to other current GPUs. Temps were the best I’ve seen on a gaming card with the stock cooler in a long time.
Performance of the R4830 approached that of the HD 4850. I was quite impressed, I really didn’t know what to expect from the 4850’s little brother.
The R4830 overclocked like a champ, even though it already had been overclocked at the factory. The beefed up power supply and effective GPU cooler obviously allowed for plenty of extra headroom for additional overclocking. The overclock was very effective, giving a significant performance boost over the factory clock, and taking the performance numbers even closer to the performance of the HD 4850.
I found nothing not to like about this card. I guess the only thing I can think of is that some people might would like a DVI/HDMI adapter included, but keep in mind that this is a budget-priced card and more stuff in the bundle usually means increased price.
The MSI R4830-T2D512 OC sells for $127.99 at my favorite online retailer. That’s the same price as the geForce 9800GT, which the 4830 soundly trounced in my testing. The Radeon HD 4850’s price has dropped to around $150, and the $25 difference may make for some hard decisions in which card to purchase. ThinkComputers.org gives the MSI R4830-T2D512-OC a 10 out of 10 score.
Pros:
– Performance approaching the Radeon HD 4850
– Very effective cooler
– 4 phase power supply and solid state chokes address heat and squealing issues found on other cards
– Excellent overclocker
Cons:
– None that I found