7300GT

[anvl]

A few people on the board have been saying that the 7300 series is inferior to even the 6800 series, is there a reason for this?
I just bought a 7300GT and it's worked fine for me and I wondering if maybe I should exchange it for something else? I like to keep up with the latest games and I'm not too picky with eye candy, budget is under $100.

 

[SuperKeijo]

If you're fine with it - keep it, that simple

 

[note235]

they are inferior because the 6800 were the top of the line while the 7300 are in the low end


high middle low
5950 5700 5200/5500
6800 6600 6200
7950 7600 7300
8800 8600 8300

 

[anvl]

If you're fine with it - keep it, that simple

Well I have only used it for a few hours and I'm not so sure this was a wise move buying such a low end card, any suggestions on other cards or should I stick with it?

 

[G66]

Just caus the 7300gt has higher numbers doen't mean its a better card. A 6800 is in a completely different league...

I'll try to put it in diagram terms a bit like note235 did:

Geforce 2,3 and 4 (ancient)

Geforce 5 series (oldies)

fx 5200, 5600 and 5900
Geforce 6 series (average but ageing)
6200 6600 6800
Geforce 7 series (brand new)
7300 7600 7800 7900
Geforce 8 series (state of the art)
8300 8600 8800 8900

When comparing different generations of video cards compare the latter number not the former. For example the 5900 would be better than a 6200 they are in different generations but also different classes the 5"900" is in the high class it was the top of the market card at the time, but the 6200 although its a generation ahead would be beaten by the 5900 as it has brute force old technology in it aka more of everything (pixel pipelines .etc). so in your case the 7300 is no where near as good as the 6800... also don't fall into the memory trap, a 7300gt with 512mb of vram won't be as good as 6800gs with only 128mb of vram. performance gains from extra vram are negligible.

To be honnest a 7300 is not enough if you want to play newer games lag free. But if your not a serious gamer you should keep the card. If you do exchange or sell it and want to buy a new card consider a higher end geforce 7 series like the 7900 gs or gt they are getting dirt cheap now...

 

[anvl]

Just caus the 7300gt has higher numbers doen't mean its a better card. A 6800 is in a completely different league...

I'll try to put it in diagram terms a bit like note235 did:

Geforce 2,3 and 4 (ancient)

Geforce 5 series (oldies)

fx 5200, 5600 and 5900
Geforce 6 series (average but ageing)
6200 6600 6800
Geforce 7 series (brand new)
7300 7600 7800 7900
Geforce 8 series (state of the art)
8300 8600 8800 8900

When comparing different generations of video cards compare the latter number not the former. For example the 5900 would be better than a 6200 they are in different generations but also different classes the 5"900" is in the high class it was the top of the market card at the time, but the 6200 although its a generation ahead would be beaten by the 5900 as it has brute force old technology in it aka more of everything (pixel pipelines .etc). so in your case the 7300 is no where near as good as the 6800... also don't fall into the memory trap, a 7300gt with 512mb of vram won't be as good as 6800gs with only 128mb of vram. performance gains from extra vram are negligible.

To be honnest a 7300 is not enough if you want to play newer games lag free. But if your not a serious gamer you should keep the card. If you do exchange or sell it and want to buy a new card consider a higher end geforce 7 series like the 7900 gs or gt they are getting dirt cheap now...

Ok thanks I'll keep it maybe upgrade once the cheaper DX10 cards come out, I just wanted a card to play the games not necessarily on great settings. I got caught in the memory bandwagon haha, what should you look at when buying a card?

 

[G66]

Ok the main things are as follows

GPU clockspeed (mhz)
Pixel pipelines
vertex shaders
memory speed (mhz)
memory bandwidth (not ammount!)
memory type (GDDR 3 etc)

to find these out go on to the manufacturers website and find the product, then click on the specs page or read it if its already there. EVGA is my favourite manufacturer I buy most of my video cards from there.

http://www.evga.com/products/moreinfo.asp?pn=256-P2-N445-LX&family=22

this is the EVGA 7300gt

you can see the specs in the box to the left:

Performance
NVIDIA GeForce 7300 GT
350 MHz GPU*
8 Pixel Pipelines*
400 MHz RAMDAC

Memory
256 MB
128 bit DDR2*
666 MHz (effective)*
10.65 GB/s Memory Bandwidth*

Interface
PCI-E 16X
VGA, DVI-I, HDTV-7
SLI Capable

Resolution & Refresh
240 Hz Max Refresh Rate
2048 x 1536 x 32bit x 85 Hz Max Analog
2560 x 1600 / 1600 x 1200 @ 60Hz Max Digital

Requirements
Minimum of a 350 Watt power supply.
(Minimum recommended power supply with +12 Volt current rating of 18 Amp Amps.)

*Important when buying a graphics card

seen as your looking for a PCIE card I wont bother you with AGP stuff, also all modern cards have the capability to go up to ridiculously high resolutions so don't bother paying too much attention to that. Also take a look at some benchmarks to find wether its worth shelling out extra for a top bannana card.

Toms hardware GPU benchmark
http://tomshardware.co.uk/graphics/charts.html

have a fiddle around with that then browse websites for the card you want. On the benchmarks 30 fps is the framerate required for something to be playable 60 fps is seamless playability so make sure you pick a card that hits the 30 fps mark on most benchmarks...

Good luck

ah one more thing, the whole process will be completely different when buying a DX10 card, as they use individual proccessors as opposed to seperate pixel and vertex processors, you get the picture though more is better! (in most cases anyway...) Really I'd just get a 7900gs or something, I have 4 land pc's with them and there solid I overclocked one and sheesh it still runs cool! even without overclocking it can play all modern games above 40 fps, hell just buy one! you can get a Shiny new DX10 card later... theres not even any DX10 content released yet...

http://www.evga.com/products/moreinfo.asp?pn=256-P2-N625-AR&family=22

 

[anvl]

awesome reply

Thanks a ton, the 7300GT is really .. DOWN there haha. I'll shop around for the 7900 see if I can find a price within my budget, MANY MANY thanks!