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Albatron 7300GT 256MB


Date
: 09/5/06 – 04:11:49 AM

Author
:

Category
: Video Cards

Page 1 : Index

Manufacturer:
Albatron Technology

Price:
$80.00 – $90.00 USD

Albatron has been popping up here on OverclockersOnline.com for the last little while now with a handful of mid-range video cards sporting NVIDIA chipsets. The reason for this is the always expanding line of video card chipsets available. It seems the universe is the only thing that is expanding faster than the SKU list at both NVIDIA and ATI/AMD. This just means more competition amongst chipset levels and better prices/performance for everyone.

Albatron has been a successful manufacturer and global distributor for a long time but the name Albatron Technology has only been around since 2002. Since that time they have become a very strong player in the video card and motherboard market. Today I will be taking a 7300GT off the shelves of the Albatron GPU division and seeing what it can do for me in gaming and everyday life.

The 7300GT is the best of the lowest of the newest of NVIDIAs chipsets. No, you were not supposed to understand that but I will explain. The newest budget line of Graphic Processing Units from NVIDIA is the 7300 series. Of that series, the 7300GT is the strongest followed by the 7300GS, 7300LE, and finally 7300SE. I will compare gaming performance to a pair of ATI cards both older and of the same age and feature set.

Page 2 : Package

I received a retail sample from Albatron complete with the package one would buy in the store. It is their standard design for the 7300 Series and the same package Simon received an Albatron 7300GS in.

The only differences are going to be what is listed here on the side. The biggest difference is that the 7300GT is SLI capable for a very budget orientated gaming solution that is scalable by buying one at a time. The other stand-out feature of the 7300GT over the other 7300 series cards is that it utilizes a 128-bit memory interface as shown in the image above. I will discuss this further in the specifications section.

The only other section with any details of what is inside is on the UPC sticker, here on the side.

Much like a motherboard manufacturer has for details on the UPC sticker, Albatron has included the important specifications. The above image concludes that the Albatron 7300GT we have here does in fact have DDRII memory onboard and not the faster 2ns DDRIII RAM. Since it wasn't advertised on the front I assumed as much anyway.

The backside of the package does not contain any specific information about the video card, just the 7300 series. I will go over all of these features in the next section.

Page 3 : Specifications & Features

The NVIDIA graphics card line-up boosts many of the same features from top to bottom with the 7300 series being closer to the bottom than the top. That means that even the low-end cards such as this 7300GT are still great cards for all-around use because they incorporate things such as Pure Video and all the effects that the 7800 and 7900 series cards support. We start with a basic list of specifications from the Albatron web site:

Complies with RoHS(Restriction of Hazardous Substances) standards

Page 4 : Contents

I mentioned earlier that my package looked a little roughed up but felt solid so I wasn't worried. It turns out I was correct in not worrying.

The card is centered and protected by plenty of open space and double walled, thick cardboard. Resting on top of the card was a little card with some basic information on it. Underneath, of course, is the video card in an ESD bag. Below that is where the accessories reside.

Included with the 7300GT is a very basic package and for a budget card that is the normal spread. A small manual outlining installation, connections, and things of that nature are also included. We also get a driver CD and our TV out connection which is a dongle that has component out and S-Video out. The other card is the backside of the insert from the upper section of the package.

Resting safely in the ESD bag is our passively cooled Albatron 7300GT. There are no signs of any wear or tear from the trip so I think it is safe to assume everything made it here in good shape. This goes to show that a smartly designed cardboard box can secure anything.

Outside of the light inhibiting bag the card jumps alive with color as the deep blue PCB offsets the very large, dark grey heatsink. The heatsink appears to cover both the core and memory with yet another set of heat dissipating fins around the backside.

Chemi-con KZG capacitors are used exclusively throughout the PCB with the exception of a single Sanyo Oscon polymer capacitors (or Oscon look-a-like). The Chemi-con get a thumbs up in my book and proven to be a decent mid-range/high-quality capacitor used on many high-end motherboards in lower power roles.

The other obvious stand-out is the SLI bridge at the top of the Albatron card. I will have to try to secure a sample of another 7300GT to get some SLI benchmarks run. At around $80-90USD a pair of these cards could be a formidable duo depending on what benchmarks look like from today.

The main feature of this card is that it runs passively by way of the large heatsink and the single heatpipe sticking out of the top and then snaking its way along the backside of the card. The heatsink itself on the front-side is large but not thick and the card will surely only take a single slot.

Un-like the front-side, the rear of the card has a little depth to it thanks to the cooling fins attached to the single heat-pipe. The heatpipe is your standard 1/4" width and likely capable of transferring 50w of heat. This in combination with the large heatsink should be plenty to keep the 90nm core of the 7300GT cool. I would think the core is big enough to efficiently use two heatpipes side-by-side but that may have been overkill.

Here we see very little on the back of the PCB aside from the backing plate and cooling fins on the heatpipe. The fins are held securely in place by the rail that has the Albatron badge on it. They are not rigid but slight touches won't bend them as they have a tiny bit of give. Overall it is a good design but the installation section will be the judge.

We saw in the early photos that the Albatron 7300GT was a single DVI, single VGA card which suits my CRT using ways but even the PowerColor X1300 that I reviewed was dual DVI for dual digital displays. I think it is almost time that manufacturers run dual DVI outputs if possible, even on these lower end video cards. LCD monitors are so cheap now that it may play a role in buying decisions for this market.

The next step is to take the heatsink off and see what we have for memory and the core. I also want to see the underside of the heatsink and see what it exactly contacts on the video card. Getting the heatsink off looks to be simple enough with just four screws here, and two more up top to remove the bracket. After that, I had to slide the heatpipe out and off came the cooling apparatus.

It is nice to see thermal paste under the heatsink on the GPU core and not just some solid gum like substance. The inset photo shows the core when cleaned off and ready for re-installation of the heatsink.

This is the hardware that was removed from the 7300GT. The heatsink is just a solid copper piece that interfaces with the GPU core. The heatpipe simply sits right on top of the GPU core. It is held in place by a channel in the aluminum heatsink that is attached to the thin copper plate. The heatpipe can slide up and down with thermal paste in the channel acting as the thermal interface to the heatsink. That is why the bracket is needed at the top, to hold the heatpipe in place and the fins that are attached to it.

The only thing left to look at is the memory that is onboard. Hynix is obviously the brand and here is the part number:
HY5PS561621A
. You can view the full spec sheet at the Hynix web site. The memory is nothing special being a 400MHz part so we shouldn't expect much for an overclock as that is the rated frequency of the memory on this card.

Page 5 : Installation & Overclocking

Normally a video card installation is very straight forward and simple. With the heatsink on the backside I wasn't 100% sure it would be so I went and found the widest CPU cooler I could and threw it on the LanParty motherboard I will be using for testing and proceeded to install the Albatron 7300GT.

Before sliding the card in the first PCI-E slot, I honestly thought I would have to turn the Thermalright Ultra-120 around to make it work. Of course, after slipping the card in the top X16 slot it was evident that it would not be necessary to turn anything.

The fins do come right up against the CPU cooler but they definitely fit together. The heatpipe and fins will only take up the single slot as well because the X4 slot just above the video card is useable without the Ultra-120 there by a full sized expansion card.

Here we have the system up and running without making very much noise at all. Speaking of noise, the chipset heatsink has never been so open before on this motherboard so it should be able to keep its fan a little bit slower with the extra breathing room.

I went with the newest NVIDIA driver package as there are no NVIDIA cards in the comparison charts to match driver sets with. Installation was a breeze and within a couple of seconds thanks to the Coolbits hack, I was checking the maximum core and memory overclocks of the 7300GT.

I wasn't expecting much overhead for overclocking so when the core kept going right up to about 510MHz I was a caught a bit off guard. After some scanning in ATI Tool and gaming, I settled on my stable overclock at an even
475MHz
which is a nice
19%
overclock on the core. The memory didn't fare as well only getting up to 480MHz before showing signs of instability. I settled on
460MHz
for the memory which equates to
DDR 920
and a
17.5%
overclock.

Page 6 : Test System

Like the rest of the video cards benchmarked in the results, I will use the following list of components setup on a bench and not a case:

We have a pretty interesting comparison here with the X700Pro and X800GTO being older SM2.0 cards while both the X1300Pro and the 7300GT are newer generation cards with all the enhancements available. Performance wise I think the 7300GT should easily out-pace the X1300Pro and maybe keep up with the X700Pro? I guess we will let the benchmarks decide.

All benchmarks were executed three times and the results averaged for the scores on the following pages. The synthetic benchmarks were run manually with the program defaults used. The gaming benchmarks for DoomIII, FarCry, and Half-Life 2 are custom time demos using BenchEmAll. I still use the Guru 3D's benching program for Battlefield II and F.E.A.R. results are derived from the in-game benchmark. Before I do any benchmarks though, I will show you just how hot this GPU gets…or should I say, how cold it stays?

After a half hour of looping the DeepFreeze test in 3DMark 06, we see a whopping 45C on the core. That screen shot was taken immediately after dropping out of 3DMark. That heatsink and heatpipe certainly do their job, this was done at the overclocked frequencies too. Now, there is plenty to look at and we start with the synthetic results which include Futuremarks 3DMark 01se, 03, 05, and 06 as well as SpecView Performance for 3D rendering benchmarks.

Page 7 : Synthetic Performances

For all results both synthetic and on the gaming pages, the other video cards are at their stock speeds. The one thing to keep in mind when comparing 3DMark 06 results, the 7300GT will get a SM3 score where the ATI cards compared will not and therefore be lower. Basically toss the 3DMark 06 comparison out the window.

I have to admit that I was not sure just how the 7300GT would perform against the other 256MB cards but it clearly shows that it can almost compete with the X800GTO. When overclocked, the scores between the 7300GT and X800GTO come close to touching and the X700Pro falls back. The gaming benchmarks should be interesting based on these 3DMark results, I fully expect the 7300GT to beat the X800GTO in more than one game.

Consider these results to be more of a comparison between ATI and NVIDIA chipsets than the different cards themselves. I don't personally use these programs so my interpretation of the results is useless. Your better off coming up with your own conclusions but clearly NVIDIA holds advantages as does ATI in specific tasks. What I can discuss is gaming benchmarks so we will begin to look at those now starting with Battlefield 2.

Page 8 : Battlefield 2 Benchmarks

My testing method for Battlefield 2 is awkward but still the best way to get a custom time demo benchmarked with accurate results, aside from playing with FRAPS taking a FPS average for you. I use the Guru3D benchmarking script and have setup my own time demo of a large map and plenty going on. Details for BF2 are cranked all the way up which will put an unnecessary load on the cards but it gives an accurate result comparable to real gaming action with each card I have found. Details can be turned down slightly for even more FPS if needed.

After the 3DMark results I was now ready for what we see here but not quite this good. When AA and AF are turned on, the 7300GT pulls ahead of the stock X800GTO rather handily. This was evident at all three resolutions tested, however, without AA and AF turned on the two cards are almost a dead heat when the 7300GT is overclocked and X800GTO is stock. Needless to say, the X700Pro appears to be out of its league with the 7300GT despite both being 256MB cards.

1024×768 with max details and no AA or AF allows for very solid game play no matter the situation. I even played a lot of BF2 at 1280×1024 on a Samsung 971P for a review with this card and found turning down a couple of the more taxing details allowed for silky smooth game play that looked great at this resolution.

Page 9 : DOOM III Benchmarks

Doom III has always run better on NVIDIA cards so these results should indicate a solid beating by the 7300GT. Anything less will almost be disappointing after seeing how it held its own in BF2.

No surprise here but watching the FPS drop off like they do as the resolution goes up is not what I hoped for. I figured it would happen because Doom III is still a very taxing game, especially for these lower end cards as we see here. Again though, 1024×768 is fantastic and 1280×1024 is very useable when overclocked or adjusting some detail levels slightly downward.

Page 10 : FarCry benchmarks

Far Cry is my favorite FPS game and the thought of the new Crysis engine makes me salivate like I do before thanksgiving dinner. The latest round of screen-shots and videos were so ridiculous that playing Far Cry almost didn't seem as good anymore. That of course went away after a few quick gun battles and my love for Far Cry was renewed until the new game drops.

I played hours upon hours of Far Cry with mostly max details at 1600×1200 and no AA/AF and the game was flawless. Never stuttering, hanging, or pausing just enough to make me get shot up. The shadows and trees are incredible at that resolution and I was pleased that the 7300GT could run those speeds. As for the benchmarks, The ATI cards show a bit of an advantage and the X800GTO easily keeps the 7300GT at bay.

Page 11 : Half-Life 2 Benchmarks

Like we saw in the Far Cry results. The system is the main reason behind that lofty FPS and Half-Life 2 should be even higher. These two games just don't tax a GPU as much as BF2 or, as we will see, F.E.A.R. does. With that said, turning up Anti-Aliasing is still going to bring the frames per second down quite a bit.

The results are very much like the Far Cry numbers we saw with the 7300GT staying just behind the X800GTO but even at stock speeds the 7300GT beats up on the X700Pro no matter what the conditions were. 1600×1200 should be playable with a few tweaks of details and leaving AA/AF off, much like Far Cry is.

Page 12 : F.E.A.R. Benchmarks

I thought I would throw in a next generation game just to show that the 7300GT is still just a mid-range to low-end card. The results we will see are going to be much lower than the previous pages. F.E.A.R. can cripple the most powerful of video cards so the 7300GT will have its hands full at the lowest resolution I ran of 1024×768.

Would you look at that, at 1024×768 the overclocked Albatron 7300GT was able to hold over 50 FPS in the in-game test. This generally results in decent and useable game-play. Keep in mind this is also with maximum details including everything but soft shadows so there is plenty to work with to get the FPS a good bit higher to play at that resolution. Forget about AA or AF and the minute you turn the resolution up you lose all playability.

Page 13 : Conclusion

I am not sure if it is because I wasn't sure what to expect from this card or the $80 price tag that most of these 7300GTs are going for, but I am quite please with the performance in gaming. A pair of these in SLI would be one cheap little combo that would be quick to surprise more than a few people. I hope to be able to round up another 7300GT and if I do, I will be sure to update with some SLI numbers.

The passive heatsink design does make the card slightly larger than normal, notably on the backside, but I didn't find that to be an issue in the test motherboard and I tried to find a CPU cooler that would interfere without success. As for the room needed for an SLI setup, shouldn't be a problem. I am not sure how the top card would do as far as temperatures goes but this card proved to run nice and cool.

I may just be overly pleased with this card but I think the performance, scalability of SLI, and passive/silent operation is blissful. Newer games will be required to run at low resolutions but for the price, that is more than acceptable, Keep your eyes out for 7300GT cards especially passive ones that perform well like the Albatron 7300 GT DDRII.

Advantages

Passive cooling = silent operation
Solid performance with little heat
SLI scalability
Very reasonably priced

Disadvantages

Not quite ready to tackle next generation games
I was hoping to see GDDRIII memory onboard

Overclockers Online would like to thank Albatron for making the 7300GT 256MB review possible.