Performance testing began with the resolution of 1680x1050, which is native to most 22" widescreen LCD monitors. These monitors generally range in price from $200-$300.
With the horsepower behind the GeForce 8800 Series, older titles like Doom 3 and Far Cry are tested with 8x antialiasing. Here, the MSI NX8800GT delivered outstanding performance even though the GeForce 8800 GTX had a 20% higher average frame rate. The biggest advantage was 24%, which occurred when supersampling transparency antialiasing (SSTAA) was enabled in Far Cry. Notice the performance hit in Far Cry when moving from multisampling transparency antialiasing (MSTAA) to SSTAA.
On the other hand, the NX8800GT outperformed the GeForce 8800 GTX in Dark Messiah, which is based on Valve's Source engine and matched the performance of the GeForce 8800 GTX in the role-playing title Gothic 3.
Game Performance at 1680x1050
In most cases, the performance of the MSI NX8800GT was close to the GeForce 8800 GTX in the following tests, which were conducted with either 4x or 8x antialiasing enabled. The results in Oblivion, which also made use of high dynamic range (HDR) along with maximum quality in-game settings, were impressive.
Again, note the effect on performance when MSTAA is compared to SSTAA in Oblivion.
