Conclusion
Both the Gigabyte 7300GS and Sapphire X1300Pro are excellent value oriented cards that pleased us. They both offered a good performance for their targeted prices. Being the lowest priced card in this roundup the 7300GS has quite a bit to offer for its $62 price tag. It doesn’t have the best performance but will play most games with low to medium settings without any problems. The video decoding performance is also superb with respectable HQV results. The passive cooling will also make it a great candidate for HTPC systems too. At $62 Gigabyte’s GV-NX73G128D is an excellent bargain if you’re looking for solid 2D with multimedia performance to boot.
If you’re looking for a little more 3D performance than it may be worth it to step up to the Sapphire X1300Pro. It offered the best performance in games and multimedia with a very high HQV score. At $86 retail it is also the most expensive card in the roundup, though a $20 rebate is available on Newegg that brings the price down to $66. If you want a little more than just 2D performance or want the best possible DVD video playback you can get than Sapphire’s X1300Pro may be the card for you.
*Edit* We've been told X1600Pro based cards can be picked up for around $100 now so if you're looking for a little more 3D performance without breaking the bank too much, you may want to check out the X1600Pro.
We were disappointed with the S3 Chrome S27. While the Chrome S27 has decent hardware and features, its software and hardware compatibility can use some work. The drivers simply are not as polished yet. Crashing with Quake 4, lack of HDR in Half Life 2, and incompatibility with our Asus A8N-VM CSM doesn’t make the Chrome S27 anymore attractive. When the Chrome S27 works it performs quite well and has a pretty attractive price of around $77, but we can’t recommend it till S3 gets the driver side of thing up to par.
Our Editors Choice Award goes to Sapphire’s X1300Pro for its overall performance and value. The Sapphire X1300Pro is the card to get if you’re looking for a well rounded card that offers good 2D, 3D, and multimedia features and performance to boot. It doesn’t break the bank at $86 either.
