First we must admit that this isn't the most exciting graphics board around, but that was not our intention either. So our main idea was to look at what a simple video card could bring on top of the integrated solutions, and keeping in mind the budget aspect. This particular video card is meant mostly to enhance the 3D and high definition TV capabilities of the media center PC's or office computers. This graphics card is in the low performance section, and so we can't expect high 3D performance, but we will compare it with the Intel 945GC integrated video chipset to see how it performs and if it is worth to upgrade to such a video card. And this simply since you are seeking for just that little extra performance. - ShopTalk

Albatron GeForce 8400 GS 256MB PCI Update Review

This card from Albatron comes packed in a very nice cardboard box. On the front part we can see the Albatron logo, along with some NVIDIA logos, a girl avatar, the card name and some features. We can also see the low profile specification, which means that this board can also be installed in cases which require half height PCI brackets. On one of the laterals, we can see some key features of the video card, the minimum system requirements and what is included in the box. While arriving at the back we just got a whole bunch of details and features, which in our opinion is nice to know but could be better outlined.

The card looks very simple, it has both DVI and analog outputs, but the analog output can be removed, because it is connected with a ribbon cable on the PCB. The card also features solid and electrolytic capacitors and the GPU is covered by a passive heatsink which covers half of the card. Over the passive heatsink, we can find a fan which is connected to the PCB with two wires. Unfortunately, the fan cannot be controlled via software and it runs at full speed at all times. The back of the PCB is pretty simple and we can see on the left two memory chips and the screws with springs which keep the passive heatsink in place.

Now there is an obvious difference in performance between the integrated chipset being the Intel 945GC and the card from Albatron. With their GeForce 8400 GS expansion card, we can even play older games like CounterStrike and also have support for the latest DirectX 10 technology. And about all anti-aliasing modes are supported and available, though we do not recommend people to use them, because the memory bus is only 64-bit wide and the performance hit is quite big. Albatron offers also higher performance cards on the older PCI interface, so if a specific user needs more 3D performance other options can be choosen.

The high definition videos can be played without any problems, when DirectX is enabled in applications. One of these applications that support this is Windows media player, which is the most usual application to play video files in Windows. And regarding power consumption, the Atom 330 platform consumes about 36W without the card installed in idle operation and about 46W with the card installed. In full load, the system consumes 44W and about 66W with the card installed, so, we still get a lot of advantages for very little extra power consumed. Overall, we consider this card to be a significant improvement over the onboard solution.