7300GT - Budget GPU or Not?

Product: Inno3D GeForce 7300GT-DDR3
Provided By: Inno3D
Price: ~Est. $130CDN

Introduction:

Inno3D recently offered their 7300GT for us to take a look at, and I politely told them that we weren't too interested in taking a look at entry-level graphics cards.  They replied by stating that the 7300GT they were offering has an edge up on the competition.  This piqued my interest, so I headed on over to find out how fast this GPU is clocked and what kind of memory they used.

I discovered that the 7300GT is no slouch and with Inno3D's DDR3 version clocked in at 500MHz on the core and 1400MHz on the memory, it looks like it could certainly hold it's weight in a budget gaming rig.  In this review we aim to see if the budget priced 7300GT has budget performance graphics, or if it can actually turn the table on entry-level hardware and provide the consumer with good performance for the price.

Bundle & First Look:

Inno3D has included a pretty lean bundle with this card.  They throw in a Composite Video Cable, Component Video Dongle, Quick Install manual, CD with drivers and software, as well as a single DVI-D to D-Sub adapter.  Although this card has two DVI-D outputs, they only throw in one D-Sub adapter.  If you want to run dual monitors and you've got a couple of CRT's, you'll need to pony up for another adapter at your local computer store.

The CD includes the older 83.91 drivers for 2K/XP & XP-64bit as well as DirectX 9.0c to get you started.  Then Inno3D sweetens the deal by throwing in a full electronic manual, Snapstream Beyond Media 1.1.0, ResChanger 2005 and Ulead DVD Movie Factory 3.  These programs are great for the beginner as they will give you a chance to play around with some DVD and media features that you'd normally have to pay money for.  The drivers aren't the latest version by all means, so for the review we used the 91.31 drivers.

Below are some pictures of the card itself.  You may notice that the layout looks familiar.  The board is actually virtually identical to the reference 7600GT PCB layout but colored dark brown as is signature for Inno3D.

This card impresses me with its nice layout, good sized aluminum HSF, and dual DVI connections.  You'd be hard pressed to find a card that looks better and offers more features.  Other low-budget cards include 1 DVI and 1 D-Sub connector, but Inno3D includes support for 2 Digital LCD's pumping a massive 2560x1600 on each display.

On the next page we'll take a closer look at this card and what Inno3D claims it can do.