X-bit labs

Chaintech Desperado RI70 Review

Category: Video

by FastSite

[ 04/05/2000 | 12:00 AM ]

This review is devoted to one of the graphics cards built on NVIDIA GeForce256 with a reference design andequipped with SDR SDRAM. This is one of the cards by Taiwanese manufacturers.

Table of contents:

• Closer Look
  
• Overclocking
  
• Installation and Drivers
  
• Performance
  
• Conclusions
  

Strange as it might seem but in autumn 1999 graphics cards based on NVIDIA GeForce 256 chipset turned up veryslowly and in spring of 2000 the graphics market was blooming with the whole bunch of new graphics cards. It lookedas if the manufacturers had finally waken up and realized that they didn't have much time left before the launchingof new chipsets and graphics cards. So, they wanted to make up the time wasted and to introduce their products onthe chipset, which hadn't yet sunk into oblivion. This time we managed to get a product from Chaintech built on NVIDIAGeForce 256. We think there is no need to introduce this company to you, because it is very famous among all PC usersfor its high quality mainboards. The products from Chaintech have always been known for their reliability and relativelylow price compared to the competitors. Unfortunately, graphics cards from Chaintech haven't yet won such great popularity.First of all, the progressive and interesting approach applied to mainboards manufacturing seems to be totally forgotten inthe graphics field. The entire graphics card family from Chaintech hardly differs from the corresponding reference cards.Even the drivers fully coincide with the reference.

We have already mentioned in our previous reviews that all graphics cards on this chipset are very often as like as twopeas. Very rarely we come across such vivid examples as ELSA Erazor X or some graphics cards from ASUS, which give us everyright to regard them as unique and extraordinary. As for all other manufacturers, they are rather happy with the referenceduplicates they turn out. On the one hand, it is not that bad at all because it ensures reliable and stable operation of thechipset used. However, most users expect some interesting solutions, which could single out this or that graphics card fromthe whole bunch of other similar products. That is why one and the same graphics card sold under different brands will hardlywin their heart.

Closer Look

Here are the main features of Chaintech Desperado RI70:

• NVIDIA GeForce 256, 256-bit GPU
• 15 Million Polygons/sec, 480 Million Pixels/sec
• 350 MHz RAMDAC resolution up to 2048x1536
• 32-bit Z-buffer/stencil
• Display Modes:
  
  

  Resolution	Colors	Vertical Refresh Rate
  640x480	8/16/32 bits	60Hz to 240Hz
  800x600	8/16/32 bits	60Hz to 240Hz
  1024x768	8/16 bits	60Hz to 240Hz
  1024x768	32 bits	60Hz to 200Hz
  1152x864	8/16 bits	60Hz to 200Hz
  1152x864	32 bits	60Hz to 170Hz
  1280x960	8/16 bits	60Hz to 170Hz
  1280x960	32 bits	60Hz to 150Hz
  1280x1024	8/16 bits	60Hz to 170Hz
  1280x1024	32 bits	60Hz to 150Hz
  1600x900	8/16 bits	60Hz to 150Hz
  1600x900	32 bits	60Hz to 120Hz
  1600x1200	8/16 bits	60Hz to 120Hz
  1600x1200	32 bits	60Hz to 100Hz
  1920x1080	8/16 bits	60Hz to 100Hz
  1920x1080	32 bits	60Hz to 85Hz
  1920x1200	8/16 bits	60Hz to 100Hz
  1920x1200	32 bits	60Hz to 85Hz
  1920x1440	8/16 bits	60Hz to 85Hz
  1920x1440	32 bits	60Hz to 75Hz
  2048x1536	8/16 bits	60Hz to 75Hz
  2048x1536	32 bits	60Hz

Here is the card:

The card is made on AGP 2x/4x interface, has 32MB 5ns SDR SDRAM located in 16 chips on both sides of the PCB.

Memory microchips are made by ESMT and feature 5ns access time, which means that this memory can work at 200MHz. NVIDIAadvises using 166MHz memory in graphics cards with SDR that is why the nominal memory working frequency on this card isreduced to 166MHz (as well as on other cards of the same type).

The distinguishing feature of Chaintech Desperado RI70, which catches your eye at first sight, is an unusual activecooler fastened to the chipset. Although at first it seems absolutely the same as by some other similar graphics cards -a small fan pressed into the heat sink, with sharply turned down fan blades, blowing the air sideward - there are still afew differences worth mentioning. First, the cooler is a bit higher and a bit larger, and the slits for warm air to gothrough are made on all sides of the heatsink instead of only two, as we saw by many other graphics cards. The cooler isfastened to the card with two spring clips. Between the heatsink and the chipset we found a layer of thermal paste, whichshould improve the cooling.

Further examination of the PCB showed that this was the only difference from the reference card. The PCB is of dark-yellowcolor and has special empty spaces for TV-Out and LCD-Out. However, there were no connectors and no controller chips on thepiece we had at our disposal. In the specs list for Chaintech Desperado RI70 posted on the company's web-site you may readthat both of these features are optional that's why you should always check the package (box) before purchasing the card:they mark the presence of TV- or/and LCD-Out on the box. You may find it quite interesting: the sticker on the reversedside of the PCB says that RI70 was designed and made in October 1999. However, it is only now that these graphics cardsappear in the market.

The graphics card is supplied in an originally designed box with a picture of a brutalized wasp.

The package includes a CD-disk with the drivers for this card and a user's manual.

Overclocking

Our attempts to overclock Chaintech Desperado RI70 led to the maximum of 160MHz chipset and only 200MHz memory frequency.The chipset overclocked that well due to efficient cooling, and as for the memory, it failed to exceed 200MHz, although thesame memory on other graphics cards (for instance, ABIT Siluro GF256) supported higher working frequencies. Probably it hasto do with some PCB defects. Nevertheless, we expected a tangible performance gain compared to the non-overclocked graphicscard.

We can't miss out the performance of Chaintech Desperado RI70 at higher AGP-frequencies. As we have already explained,setting the FSB frequency of i440BX chipset equal to 133MHz, will provide 89MHz AGP (nominal AGP frequency equals 66MHz),which may result into a failure of many AGP graphics cards. Taking into account that a lot of BX-mainboards owners arepretty interested in increasing their FSB frequency to 133MHz, we decided devote a bit of attention to the performance ofgraphics cards tested at higher AGP frequencies. We can point out that Chaintech Desperado RI70 succeeded. We didn't sufferany problems during its operation at 89MHz AGP frequency.

Installation and Drivers

Now let's pass over to the tests. First, take a look at the configuration of our testing system:

• Intel Pentium III 600MHz CPU;
• ASUS P3B-F (i440BX) mainboard;
• 128MB PC100 system memory;
• Quantum FB CR 6.4GB HDD;
• ViewSonic P810 (21") monitor;
• Windows 98.

Well, as for the drivers, they turned out none other but NVIDIA reference drivers ver. 3.62. So, we don't think it makesmuch sense considering their peculiarities. If you like, you may take a look at one of our GeForce 256 based cards roundups,where we paid special attention to this version of NVIDIA drivers.

Performance

At first comes 2D-graphics. Here we would like to point out very good performance and image quality of Chaintech DesperadoRI70, which has already become a distinguishing feature of all GeForce 256 based cards. However, you should bear in mind thathigh quality image in 2D depends not only on the graphics card used, but also on the monitor. That's why we suppose there aresome users, who won't be satisfied with what they see in 2D on their screens. As for us, we worked with a 21" ViewSonic P810monitor and even at the resolution set to 1600x1200 the quality made a very good impression.

We will look at the following two games considering the performance of Chaintech Desperado RI70 in 3D graphics:

• Rage Expendable (Direct3D, multitexturing);
• id Software Quake3 v.1.16h (OpenGL, multitexturing).

With these tools we should be able to offer you a full picture of the graphics card performance. For a more illustrativeexperiment we will compare our RI70 with two more graphics cards on GeForce 256 chipset with SDR SDRAM: ASUS AGP-V6600 andABIT Siluro GF256. We will also test an overclocked Chaintech Desperado RI70.

As you can clearly see from the diagrams, Chaintech Desperado RI70 hardly differs from its analogues, which we actuallyexpected to happen, since the card is very close to the reference design. And as for the performance of the overclocked RI70,it indisputably stands out. The performance gain is quite significant, which is especially noticeable in Quake3. Nevertheless,there are some more overclockable cards, they easily beat Chaintech's offspring here. They are ASUS AGP-V6600 and LeadtekWinFast GeForce256.

And now a brief comment on the DVD-Video. Unfortunately, the software DVD-player supplied together with RI70 is optionaland we were unlucky to have none in the supply. So, we could do nothing but test the card with the available WinDVD version2.0. We have to admit that the card proved impressively cool with it. Image quality was very high and the CPU utilizationdidn't exceed 45%.

Conclusions

Drawing the final conclusions we would like to say that although this product can't boast any remarkable features, itis relatively cheap, which gives it a really good chance to be demanded. However, the situation with the graphics cardswith SDR-memory, which appear so late in the market, is not very optimistic. That is why most graphics card manufacturershave to drop the prices in order to make up the manufacturing expenses and to sell at least some pieces. Not to mention thefact that the cards on NVIDIA GeForce 256 provided with SDR-memory feature very narrow memory bus bandwidth, whichprevents the chipset from using its potential to the full extent.

Highs:

• High performance provided by NVIDIA GeForce 256 chipset
• Good overclockability
• High quality design and mounting
• Low cost

Lows:

• No TV-Out and LCD-Out
• No additional software, including DVD-player
• No unique technologies used to make this card an outstanding piece among its analogues
• Belated launching