XFX 8400 GS 256mb
Game Quality screenshots and HD playback
Published: 7th August 2007 | Source: XFX | Price: |
Game Quality Screenshots
Me telling you that I am playing at these settings is all very well, but what do they actually look like? Well I've compiled a few screenshots of the games I played through (though not necessarily actually during the test run) to show you what to expect. Click each image for full-size.
Me telling you that I am playing at these settings is all very well, but what do they actually look like? Well I've compiled a few screenshots of the games I played through (though not necessarily actually during the test run) to show you what to expect. Click each image for full-size.
As you can see, Command and Conquer 3 looks pretty decent at this level of detail. Unfortunately whilst playing I was a little disappointed with CoD 2, but that may be just because I am used to it at Ultra-high resolution and detail.
FEAR and Quake 4 scaled very well, looking pretty nice at this level of detail.
Overall gaming at 1024 x 768 and 2 x AA was a pretty decent experience. Is it worth spending the extra for high resolution and detail? Depends on your aim I suppose, but I prefer higher resolution gaming.
HD Playback
HD playback is something that many people are pretty keen to get in their media centres and HTPC's. I tested the HD playback quality using both Windows Media Player 11 WMV HD content (Terminator 2 HD) and H.264 playback using the open-source movie Elephants Dream. I used my Dell 2405 FPW for 1080i and 720p playback. I made sure that I scaled down the screen to fit the content to properley judge the image quality. I used the PureVideo features of the GPU during the review.
WMV HD
Playing back WMV HD content was a good experience at 720p. The playback was smooth and glitch free. Moving up to 1080i there was the very occassional stutter, but this was only noticible as I was watching very closely.
H.264 Content
Playback of H.264 content was smooth throughout and was a pleasurable experience again. No stutter was experienced.
Generally I saw fairly low CPU usage during playback and luckily the dreaded whiney fan didn't kick in during play. I would say that the XFX 8400 GS is more than suitable for media centre HD content. nVidia's PureVideo made short work of both HD formats used.
Note that the XFX 8400 GS is HDCP-ready and could in theory be used with a HDCP TV.
Additionally after enquiring with XFX about the noise I have found out that an XFX 8400 GS is being produced without a fan, though pricing and availability is not available at this time.
Overall gaming at 1024 x 768 and 2 x AA was a pretty decent experience. Is it worth spending the extra for high resolution and detail? Depends on your aim I suppose, but I prefer higher resolution gaming.
HD Playback
HD playback is something that many people are pretty keen to get in their media centres and HTPC's. I tested the HD playback quality using both Windows Media Player 11 WMV HD content (Terminator 2 HD) and H.264 playback using the open-source movie Elephants Dream. I used my Dell 2405 FPW for 1080i and 720p playback. I made sure that I scaled down the screen to fit the content to properley judge the image quality. I used the PureVideo features of the GPU during the review.
WMV HD
Playing back WMV HD content was a good experience at 720p. The playback was smooth and glitch free. Moving up to 1080i there was the very occassional stutter, but this was only noticible as I was watching very closely.
H.264 Content
Playback of H.264 content was smooth throughout and was a pleasurable experience again. No stutter was experienced.
Generally I saw fairly low CPU usage during playback and luckily the dreaded whiney fan didn't kick in during play. I would say that the XFX 8400 GS is more than suitable for media centre HD content. nVidia's PureVideo made short work of both HD formats used.
Note that the XFX 8400 GS is HDCP-ready and could in theory be used with a HDCP TV.
Additionally after enquiring with XFX about the noise I have found out that an XFX 8400 GS is being produced without a fan, though pricing and availability is not available at this time.
Most Recent Comments
Aye indeed. I think the card fits well in it's niche and really is great vfm
It's hard to look at a card like this when you're playing around with uber high end stuff all day but I think I gave it a fair shout and it performed well for it.
Hope y'all think it's a fair review
Quote
It's hard to look at a card like this when you're playing around with uber high end stuff all day but I think I gave it a fair shout and it performed well for it.
Hope y'all think it's a fair review
Quote
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The card and packaging are as I expected. I`ve got 3 cards in this range previously (meaning below the x600), the 7300, 6500, 6200 (one of those may be wrong number) from XFX and they`ve pretty much been packaged as u`ve described. Box about the size of the card, low profile and the only difference being a passive old-skool looking sink. (which they seem to be implying the 8400 will have in the future)
I know this is around £30, but as time goes by it`ll push £20 as close as it can - especially around the dawn of the 98xx arrivals. There after u`ll catch them for less than £20. (I bought some of the above for £15-£18 pfft)
This card is what it is, as were the previous ones, I think we should appreciate that. It`ll work in a working desktop very well, a workhorse server type pc that u just basically want a display, and has the benefits of crossing to u`r htpc with some added kick.
£20-£30 - and knowing what u`r buying it for, they fill the gap for me. I am a little supprized it doesn`t play C&C a bit better, usually tho with this range of card u can get away with shutting everything down to minimum u can get away with it - but u have to appreciate that that is what u are doing.
Fits in the market well for me.Quote