The EVGA 7300 GS: A New Quality Budget Card From NVIDIA
by Josh Venning on February 20, 2006 12:23 PM EST- Posted in
- GPUs
Final Words
We've seen that although the 7300 GS performs well compared to other cards in its price range, it has trouble running games like Battlefield 2 at resolutions higher than 800x600 with the quality settings on high. If you are a hardcore fps gamer and you want to get the most out of a game graphically, then this card is not going to fit the bill. However, with lower quality settings enabled, it could prove to be a passable graphics solution, and the video features as well as the low price tag would make this card attractive for some. Right now, the EVGA 7300 GS can be found for about $80, which is definitely easy on the wallet.
While the 7300 GS might not work for many PC gamers, the fact that it is small and almost silent will probably make it desirable for those very concerned about power consumption or noise. This card might be a perfect solution for those interested in a card for their home theater system, given the low noise and the PureVideo decoding features. The 7300 GS will support HDV in the next driver, which will enable H.264 video decoding in hardware. Also, the 7300 GS could be a good upgrade for those who simply want a card for their office that would be dx9 compatible for Windows Vista.
The fact that this is a budget card will make it somewhat specialized, but parts like these are always necessary for some. While many gamers will find the card unappealing because of its limitations, it does have the ability to play games at lower quality settings and resolutions quite well, and for those who only dabble in gaming and don't feel like spending much money on an upgrade, this card might be a good choice.
The 7300 GS will most likely raise the bar for budget cards in the future, and while the card may not be the most exciting piece of hardware from NVIDIA, the EVGA version that we tested performs just how we'd expect and without any problems. These types of cards are important to game design, if not as much so as the extremely high end, but they also affect the kinds of games that developers create. Ultimately, games designed with efficiency in mind will benefit everyone, and not just budget gamers. Whether for the gamer on a budget, or the home theater enthusiast, the EVGA e-Geforce 7300 GS in the right place will prove useful.
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agent2099 - Monday, February 20, 2006 - link
Fanless heatsinks should be the standard for these budget cards.Egglick - Monday, February 20, 2006 - link
The 7300 is supposed to have all the same video features that the 7800 series has, so it should perform in the same way that a 7800 would to a X1900.The 7300GS is certainly a decent card for the price, but the X1300 is a better card. ATI has better video playback quality right now, and many of the X1300's are available with fanless heatsinks. Add to that that the X1300 has slightly better gaming performance and is available for the same price, and it's a no brainer.
Patrese - Monday, February 20, 2006 - link
The X300 is on the top of the chart on the Quake 4 graphic ate 1024x768 High Quality... it is a mistake, isn't it?BTW, could you post a picture of the card? It's kinda useless, but still I'd like to see it! :)
Josh Venning - Monday, February 20, 2006 - link
Thanks for pointing out the mistake, we're fixing it now. We've also added a picture, as per your request. :-)peldor - Monday, February 20, 2006 - link
The memory on the X1300 is also listed as 500GHz. I need me some of that!kalaap - Monday, February 20, 2006 - link
Why did you guyz take down the ASUS RD580 review?cpeter38 - Tuesday, February 21, 2006 - link
That has been HUGELY frustrating for me - both times they have taken it down WHILE I WAS READING IT!!!For a while, I thought I was having some weird computer issues - I actually rebooted twice. GRRRR!!!
brownba - Monday, February 20, 2006 - link
Why test an low-end $80 video card that utilizies system ram in a high-end system with 1GB of ram?Googer - Monday, February 20, 2006 - link
Because that is the same test system used for all benchmarks. If you changed it then the results would not be compairable to what a faster graphics card would do. The idea is to keep all variables the same except for the one that you are working on, it's all fundimental to the scientific method.
http://www.answers.com/scientific+method&r=67">http://www.answers.com/scientific+method&r=67
http://teacher.pas.rochester.edu/phy_labs/Appendix...">http://teacher.pas.rochester.edu/phy_labs/Appendix...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_method">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_method
artifex - Tuesday, February 21, 2006 - link
I think it should have been tested both ways: once for the database entry, where the testbed needs to be the same, but also once in a system budget gamers actually have.By not also testing on a lower end platform, you miss the opportunity to discover that maybe system bottlenecks make it so that all of these cards seem to have identical performance.