- Back to homepage
- Related articles
  Related articles

Entry level VGA round-up, 7 Geforce 8400GS compared

Videocards/VGA Reviews by geoffrey @ 2007-10-12

Home users and budget minded enthusiasts have been getting watered down version of high end hardware for years now, the latest Geforce 8 series recently got the same treatment, with NVIDIA introducing the 8400GS part, this lowly priced VGA card comes HDTV ready (for HTPC usage) and has a GPU with DX10 compatibility. We test 7 offerings from different manufactures and compare them to the low end range from ATI to see which one comes out on top. Read on to find out which card gives you the most bang for the buck!

Gainward Bliss 8400GS

Gainward Bliss 8400GS

Madshrimps (c)

Inside the box

Madshrimps (c)

Gainward GeForce 8400GS

Manual

Driver disk

HDTV cable

Specifications

Madshrimps (c)

GPU core: NVIDIA G86
- core frequency: 459MHz // shader frequency: 918MHz

GPU Memory: 4x64Mb Elixir DDR2 RAM
- DRAM frequency: 400MHz // Memory interface: 64 bit

DVI, Sub-D VGA & HDTV-out

PCI-Express

DX10, OpenGL 2.0

More Pictures

Madshrimps (c)

Gainward is the first sample which arrived at my doorstep. A small box holds an even smaller video card, like many other entry-level video cards the size of the video card didn't really impress me. Gainward combined their electronics with a cherry red heatsink, the heatsink itself is covering most of the PCB and should perform well enough to hold a low clocked 65nm G86 GPU at reasonable temperatures. A downside here is that the heatsink is wider then the board itself, this makes this card less HTPC compatible where some cases require low-profile video cards.

Madshrimps (c)

You will not have noticed it be now, but once I've seen multiple 8400GS samples you might see that Gainward's card comes with a slightly different board layout. The card itself comes with NVIDIA reference clocks though; I don't see the reason why exactly Gainward has chosen for a self-made PCB design. Look at the two IC located right at the back side of the board, it is the easiest way to spot difference between other board designs.

Madshrimps (c)

Comment from Sidney @ 2007/10/12

Better than my X1300

Comment from Massman @ 2007/10/12

Great article, Geoffrey !!

Comment from Sidney @ 2007/10/13

Nicely structured/presented, making me want to buy one.

Comment from geoffrey @ 2007/10/14

thx guys

All information and graphics contained in Madshrimps are sole property of the Madshrimps crew and may not be reproduced or copied in any manner without written permission from us.