|
Columns | Projects | Reviews |
|
George Ross, March 22, 2009
The 540 GTX adds DDR3 memory and increased clock speeds over the 530 GT and promises to have the same performance as S3 graphics used the same benchmarketing tables for both cards just replaced the 530 with 540. Something else worth noting about the 540 GTX is that it only has 256MB of memory whereas the 530 GT has 512MB.
The 540 GTX is packaged adequately to protect it from the riggers of shipping. The Chrome 500 series ships with a uniquely styled box that if used properly keeps the card from moving so much in the box.
The accessories are nothing to write home about just a warranty card, DVI to D-Sub adapter, driver CD, and WinDVD 8 BD. At least you get a high definition codec included that is nice although the WinDVD bundle is a limited time offer.
Lets see how the 540 GTX stands against some other entry level graphics cards namely the 9400 GT, the HD 4350, and the 530 GT. Just for kicks I added an overclocked 8800GT in the mix to highlight just how underwhelming all of these entry level GPU's are when compared to a fine mainstream product. Here are the rest of the particulars of the test system.
| Processor | Intel Core 2 Quad Q6700 @ 3.6GHz | ||||
| Motherboards | GIGABYTE GA-EP45C-DS3R | ||||
| Memory | OCZ 4GB DDR3 1600 (PC2 12800) @ 720 MHz (DDR 1440) 7-7-7-28 Dual Channel Mode | ||||
| Hard Drive | Seagate Barracuda ES.2 ST3250310NS 250GB 7200 RPM 32MB cache SATA 3.0Gb/s | ||||
| Video Card | ASUS EAH4350 Silent Radeon HD 4350 Catalyst 9.3 w/ Hydravision |
SPARKLE GeForce 9400 GT 182.08 Driver |
S3 Graphics Chrome 530 GT v0363 Driver |
S3 Graphics Chrome 540 GTX v0363 Driver |
EVGA GeForce 8800GT @ 738MHz Core 1836MHz Shader 1000MHz Memory 182.08 Driver |
| Optical Disk Drive | Pioneer DVR-111DBK | ||||
| Power Supply | Rosewill Xtreme RX750-S-B 750W | ||||
| Operating System | Windows Vista Ultimate x64 SP1 | ||||
The 540 GTX has put up some impressive numbers besting its sibling the 530 GT by 30% in overall frames per second, and doing the same to the HD 4350 by 15%. The 540 GTX did lose out to the 9400 GT by 13% in overall frames per second.
Let us go off topic now and look at how the two GPU titans fare against each other. The last time I looked the HD 4350 had better gaming performance than the 9400 GT. This has however changed with the newer GeForce driver 182.08.
The 540 GTX has excellent video playback capabilities better than the HD 4350 when playing back 1080p video, and better than the 9400 GT when playing back a standard DVD.
