To help us provide you with free impartial advice, we may earn a commission if you buy through links on our site. Learn more

Gainward GeForce 9400GT 512MB review

Our Rating :
Price when reviewed : £44
inc VAT

A great choice for media centre PCs

Gainward’s GeForce 9400GT graphics card is similar in design to Asus’s EAH4350.

It’s passively cooled so, unlike many budget graphics cards, there’s no noisy fan. This makes it a good choice for media centre PCs where noise levels are of paramount importance.

There’s an HDMI output on the card for connecting it to an HD TV. This can carry audio as well, but there’s no built-in audio controller on the card as there is on the EAH4350. Instead, there’s a S/PDIF input on the card that must be connected to a S/PDIF header on your motherboard or sound card. Those without such headers should opt for the EAH4350. There are also DVI and VGA outputs, so most monitor setups are catered for. You’ll need an HDMI-to-DVI adaptor if you want to connect two DVI monitors, though.

The GeForce 9400GT was a little faster in our tests than the Radeon HD 4350, though these differences are minimal. Even when we reduced the resolution in Call of Duty 4 to 1,024×768, and disabled anti-aliasing, it managed only 22.2fps. You could play the game like this, but you should be looking to spend a little more for a faster card.

The 9400GT is more expensive than the EAH4350, but only marginally faster. It lacks the built-in audio controller, too, making the EAH4350 a better deal for those needing a budget graphics card.

Basic Specifications

Price £44
Rating ***
Details www.gainward.com
Interface PCI Express x16 2.0
Slots taken up 1
Brand nVidia
Graphics Processor nVidia GeForce 9400GT
Memory 512MB DDR2
GPU clock speed 550MHz
Memory speed 350MHz

Features

Architecture 16 stream processors

Connectors

DVI outputs 1
VGA outputs 1
S-video output yes
S-Video input no
Composite outputs yes
Composite inputs no
Component outputs yes
HDMI outputs 1
Power leads required none

Benchmark Results

3DMark Vantage 1680 390
Call of Duty 4 1680 4xAA 8.8fps
Crysis 1680 High 4xAA 3.9fps

Buying Information

Warranty three years RTB
Price £44
Supplier http://www.lambda-tek.com/componentshop
Details www.gainward.com

Read more

Reviews | PCs