Bought a Chaintech Volari V3 128MB graphics card ($44)

Danny · Rated PG Joined: 19 Sep 2004 Posts: 4

I decided to create a topic on this since I think it deserves a topic by itself but also because I think I accidentlally deleted my previous post.

I just bought recently a Chaintech Volari V3 (128 MB) graphics card off Newegg for $44. I wanted to upgrade my old Geforce MX 4000 in my secondary PC.

Out of the box, the card was smaller than the Geforce MX and very silent : the card uses the "Low Profile" board format and is fanless.
The card comes with all the cables, the manual, drivers and Adobe Photoshop Album.

For a card costing less than $50, needless to say that I was not looking for a top performing card. Its framerates are nothing to drool about. That said, it did outperform the Geforce MX 4000 which were in the mini-PC : I jumped from about 200 points (Geforce MX 4000) to 600 points in 3D Mark 2003. Not bad for $44 in my opinion.
In games like Far Cry, the game looks much nicer than the Geforce MX : lush vegetation, nice water effects, etc.

As for features, the card has VGA Out (15 Pin D-Sub), TV-Out (S-Video) and more interesting, DVI output (that is one of the reasons why I chose the card since most cards in this price range don't have DVI). It also supports HDTV.
The card is software compatible to dx9 and has Vertex and Pixel Shaders support.

Last but not least, the 2D quality of the card is excellent. Image was crisp and clear even in high resolutions, and video playback was smooth and clear with vivid colors.

I do not use Linux, but for those of you out there who do, there are Linux drivers (RedHat and SUSE) for the card available.

Overall, this card is NOT a card for gamers, but those of you looking for a nice little card which is totally silent, capable to play games and have great 2D/Video image quality, this is a card I will definitely recommend.

I will update this thread with more findings if any one is interested.

**Doctor Feelgood** · Posted: Sat, 25 Sep 2004 10:12:10 Post Subject:

- I just noticed my response was still there, although your previous not was gone... making me look crazier than necessary / usual... so, I moved it here:

Danny · Rated PG Joined: 19 Sep 2004 Posts: 4

I tried to overclock the card from 200 Mhz to 253 Mhz and it works fine, despite the card not using a fan at all!

dadx2mj · Posted: Sat, 25 Sep 2004 15:40:41 Post Subject:

I am amazed you can play Far Cry on that card. The demo of Far Cry choked my 9600 Pro.

Danny · Rated PG Joined: 19 Sep 2004 Posts: 4

I didn't play in high resolution or use the highest graphics settings either : the game was very playable in 800x600 with the graphics settings on Medium.

The 9600 should be much faster than the V3, and their price is not the same too. Smile

Spire · Posted: Sun, 26 Sep 2004 01:03:12 Post Subject:

The demo was much worse and harder to run than the final release...

dadx2mj · Posted: Sun, 26 Sep 2004 01:31:36 Post Subject:

Spire · Posted: Sun, 26 Sep 2004 02:03:31 Post Subject:

It took them a while to perfect the FC engine from what I heard...

My 9700 Pro played the demo fine, my buddy's 7500 played it alright...

However, Far Cry is the best game I have ever played, bar none.

I am not trying to start any debating here.

It is the only game I would consider going through a few more times!!!

Story line, game play, vehicles, killer weapons, great enemies, I loved it!!!

jpg · Rated PG Joined: 06 Oct 2004 Posts: 5

I'll be getting a Volari V3 too, seems like a nice entry level card. Grin

Once I get it, I can write a review of it if anyone's interested

**Doctor Feelgood** · Posted: Sat, 09 Oct 2004 18:20:43 Post Subject:

I wouldn't mind seeing one of them go head to head with a big chip maker (nVidia / ATi)!!

Grin