Date: June 7th, 2003
Article by: Roger (Hardware Reviewer)
Edited by: Nathan Glentworth (Owner, Head Editor)
Product was donated by: Chaintech America
<--CLICK FOR PRICES ON THE LATEST NVIDIA GEFORCE VIDEOCARDS IN AMERICA
<--CLICK FOR PRICES ON THE LATEST NVIDIA GEFORCE VIDEOCARDS IN CANADA

PRODUCT WALKTHROUGH & PICTORIAL (cont'd)

Next up we have our memory. There are 8 VData 32MB memory chips on the board (4 on each side). They operate at 400MHz, and are, as you can see, uncovered. There are no heatsinks on these babies, so keep that in mind when you are overclocking the memory core. This is again a cost-saving measure, however I do wish more manufacturers would hop on the RAM sink bandwagon. Especially when they know that most users will push their video cards hard; whether by gaming for hours on end, or by overclocking.

I will say this for Chaintech though, slapping 256MB on an FX5500 is a fantastic idea. It will allow people to own an inexpensive card that can still handle most newer games. I wouldn't suggest running Doom III or Half-Life 2 (once these games are released) on this video card without first overclocking it (and even then), but those are extreme examples.

Here is the back of the card. You can see the 4 RAM chips. I love the blue PCB.

The card sports an analog, a DVI and an S-Video output. Plenty of choices for everyone. You can set up dual monitors, or use the included S-Video cable to hook this baby up to your TV. Taking into consideration the card's support of CineFX and the 256MB, this card would make a very effective, yet inexpensive solution for an HTPC.

INSTALLATION

Installing the card is a breeze. Slap it into the AGP port and away you go. No external power needed. I downloaded the newest ForceWare drivers (60.85), and the card worked like a charm from that moment on without a single hiccup.

Once installed, you can quickly access your display properties by selecting NVIDIA Analog Display from a right-click on your desktop. Fast and easy.

The new drivers have a lot of great functions. You can tilt the screen so that you can view it in landscape or portrait mode. You can also enable many other hidden functions and take complete control of your desktop by enabling nView Desktop Manager.

If you're interested, Adobe Photo Album Starter Edition is also on the installation CD. It's a limited release, but you may find some use for it. It is actually quite a good application.