Reviewed by: yanusbfd
02-05-08
Duration of ownership:
3
Months
Strengths: Cheap with rebate, good analog output quality, quiet
Weaknesses:64-bit memory path, gets hot
Overall Evaluation: I've just finished trying out a trio of low-end PCIe graphics cards based on NVIDIA chips, and this is the third of the batch that I fired up. I like to keep a range of spare components around in the case of failures in my main systems or in those of my friends and family, and these three cards could all be had for ridiculously low prices thanks to manufacturer rebates.Unlike many of the reviewers of this card, I don't care about nor do I comment on performance in games. However, I do a lot of image editing in Photoshop Elements and other programs, so I'm primarily concerned with how any video card performs in these applications and in Windows, in general.I'm also trying these out in my soon to be new system. While I didn't intentionally build it this way, my soon to be new system is fairly quiet. It's housed in an Antec Solo case and has an Antec EarthWatts 430 power supply. The processor is an Intel Core 2 Duo 4400 with the stock cooling solution. The PCIe video card I intend to use is by VisionTek and has an ATI X800 GPU with a 128-bit memory bus. The Antec power supply, Intel heat sink, and VisionTek video card fans are all fairly quiet. Even with the side panel of the case open, there is only a minor whirring, which is mostly drowned out by the noise from my old system (Intel Pentium IV 2.6 GHz, Antec TruePower II 480 power supply, and fanless ATI 9600-based video card).So, the first thing I noticed when I installed this card into my soon to be new system was that it was still quiet. Most low-end NVIDIA cards have a fan, and it's usually quite loud. This XFX card is passively cooled by a sizable two-piece heat sink on the front and back of the PCB.As other reviewers have noted, this heat sink gets hot. In normal use, though, it did not seem to run any hotter than DDR2 DIMMs, which seems entirely reasonable. The heat sink on the back of the PCB does, however, extend several millimeters beyond the PCIe slot and almost touches some tall electrolytic capacitors that are part of the motherboard voltage regulation circuitry. I have an Intel DP965LTCK, the layout of which is quite intelligent and generally provides plenty of clearance for plug-in components. I can imagine that similar capacitors might not be as carefully placed on some motherboards and could interfere with the seating of this card.Performance under Windows XP and Photoshop Elements was fine. I tend to work with large images, and the sample image I edited during testing did not conspire with the video card to slow system performance. The fact that this card only has a 64-bit wide memory path seems to matter little or not for imaging applications.This card has very sharp analog output quality, the best of the three cards I tested. As you can see from the picture provided by PriceGrabber, this card has the DB15 connector attached to the PCB via a ribbon cable. This can lead to poor video quality, because each wire in the ribbon cable acts as an antenna, picking up stray electrical noise within the system that interferes with the analog output driven by the DAC in the GPU. Higher-end and better quality video cards keep the DB15 connector soldered to the PCB, where the signals from the GPU DAC can be shielded by keeping them adjacent to appropriate ground traces and the PCB ground plane.For whatever reason, the ribbon cable connected DB15 port on this video card does not seem to affect analog output quality. Although I'll be connecting my soon to be new system to my flat panel monitor via DVI, I'm currently using the monitor's ability to switch between its analog and digital inputs as part of a poor man's KVM. This card was connected to the monitor using the analog port, and image quality was virtually indistinguishable from that of the DVI-connected ATI 9600 card in my current system, at 60 Hz, no less (anything higher is pointless, because most LCD monitors only refresh the panel at 60 Hz, regardless of video card setting).So, this card rates better average. Performance is fine for regular PC users and certainly seems suitable for any kind of image editing. Analog output quality is very good, a nice bonus if using this card with a CRT monitor or LCD monitor without DVI. Points get deducted for the lack of a 128-bit wide memory path, although, really, you have to upgrade to the GeForce 8500GT to get this.The current price for this or several other 8400GS-based cards is about $45 before any rebate, which seems perfectly reasonable for a PCIe video card with nice output quality. The kicker here, however, is fanless. Nearly all of the 8400GS-based cards currently available have a fan, and I wouldn't be surprised if most of them are quite noisy. In fact, from what I can tell, only this card, one from Asus, one from Gigabyte, and one from MSI are available without a fan. You have to be be careful, too, because all of these manufacturers, including XFX, have versions available with a fan, so buyer beware.
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