Nominally, the entry-level graphics cards by the standards of 2007 included the NVidia GeForce 7300 GT. The characteristics of this accelerator are more closely related to the mid-range graphics card 7600 GS. It is to this discrete device that this review is devoted, in the framework of which the test results will also be presented.
Equipment. Positioning
The delivery list for this adapter included the following components:
- Discrete graphics card with integrated cooling system.
- Manual.
- A disk with drivers recorded on it. Also on this digital drive you can find special diagnostic utilities and, of course, documentation.
- Warranty card.
Features NVidia GeForce 7300 GT nominally assigned to the group of entry-level devices. Most often, such an accelerator was used in gaming systems of the appropriate level. But also it could be successfully used as part of a budget graphics station. In the latter case, the accelerator performance was extremely low, and its use significantly reduced the speed of information processing in specialized software. Therefore, in this form, this accelerator was used extremely rarely.
Characteristics
The NVidia GeForce video card of this model is based on a microprocessor labeled G73-V. This chip includes 8 stream modules, 1 TMU, and 4 vertex processors. All its elements operate at a clock frequency of 350 MHz. The characteristics of the NVidia GeForce 7300 GT indicated that this adapter could be manufactured with either an AGP connector or a newer PCI-E rev. 16x.
The G73-V chip was manufactured to 90 nm tolerance standards. By the standards of 2007, it was the most advanced technology for the manufacture of silicon crystals. The silicon base of the chip included 158 million transistor core components. The thermal package of the accelerator, even in the most intensive operating conditions, did not exceed 65 watts. That is, for its power supply, only power from the system board is sufficient. Also, the small value of the heat package allowed it to work with a radiator.
RAM
The nominal amount of RAM in the NVidia GeForce 7300 GT is 256 Mb. But it was also possible to meet on store shelves modifications of this accelerator model with a video buffer truncated up to 128 MB. The type of chip used is DDR2. Nominally, they operated at a frequency of 667 MHz. The capacity of the RAM switching bus was 128 bits. As a result, such a device provided a bandwidth of 10.7 Gb / s with respect to RAM.
Performance
In the test utility PCMark'05, the NVidia GeForce graphics card of this modification scored 3422 points. At the same time, it was significantly inferior to mid-range devices GeForce 7600GS and GeForce 8500GT, which scored 4048 and 4639 points, respectively. Therefore, it is not necessary to rely on the high speed of this accelerator in the gaming environment initially.
In the FEAR game, this adapter was able to produce 38 fps with a low picture quality and a resolution of the output image of 1024 × 768. That is, this is a perfectly acceptable mode of operation of a computing system. For comparison, the 7600GS and 8500GT in this case were able to issue 47 fps. That is, the difference in productivity was a solid 25 percent.
Graphics adapter reviews. Its relevance
Reviews NVidia GeForce 7300 GT characterize as an energy-efficient, affordable and reasonably productive device. These are its main advantages. But the disadvantages can be attributed only to the fact that it is based on outdated architecture.
If at the time of release such an accelerator could be safely classified as a gaming device, now this solution can only be applied in the office when processing the simplest program code. It is advisable to purchase such an accelerator only in case of repair of a low-performance system unit. At the same time, the integrated video card for some reason ceased to function.
Information in conclusion
As part of this review material, not only the characteristics of the NVidia GeForce 7300 GT are analyzed, but also the possible cases of using such a graphics accelerator are given. At the time of its appearance on the shelves, such a device was classified as gaming. But now its performance is only enough to implement various undemanding office tasks. Moreover, in the case when the video card integrated into the computer simply does not function. In other cases, such an accelerator is not allowed to buy.