Thread: Zotac GeForce 9300

MAINSTREAM NEWBIE

This time around, Zotac has introduced the Nvidia GeForce 9300 chipset. which is intended to be one of the most powerful platforms with integrated graphics. We reviewed the version with DDR2 memory support; the DDR3 variant will show up on other boards soon. Let's take a look at its features and performance.

FEATURES:

The 9300 is a mainstream, yet powerful chipset and has an LGA 775 socket that supports most recent Intel CPUs, including Celerons, Pentium 4s and the Core 2 series. We tried dual- and quad-core Core 2 processors, and both worked fine.
With support for Microsoft Windows XP and Vista (32 and 64 bit), the board can hold up to 8 GB of DDR2 RAM running at 800 MHz.



The board has DVI and VGA outputs as well as an HDMI for watching HD movies on your LCD TV. 8-channel HD audio is also provided via onboard ports. Other ports include six SATA, one IDE and four USB ports with eight additional internal headers. Expansion slots include one PCle x16 and two PCI 2.1 slots. Hybrid SLI is supported, in case you want to go that extra mile with graphics. For a FireWire port, an onboard header and a bundled bracket are provided. The package also includes two SATA cables, a user manual, and driver disc.

LAYOUT:

The most noticeable part of this board is the cooling fan on the chipset, which is required to keep it cool during intensive and continuous usage. The board is well laid out with ample breathing space for the RAM modules and large CPU coolers.
Well spaced and aptly located ports enable easy cable routing. With all the ports, onboard headers and the power and reset buttons at the extreme edges of the board, power users will be impressed.

PERFORMANCE:

For benchmarking, we used a 3 GHz Intel Core 2 Extreme OX9650 CPU and 2 GB DDR2-800 MHz RAM. Look at the scores, you'll notice that the real world and synthetic scores are quite impressive. To confirm that the scores were not solely due to the powerful processor, we also used a lower-end Core 2 Duo processor and the scores were still astonishing. So, the board is certainly a good performer, thanks mostly to the powerful new Nvidia chipset. Our Crysis game benchmark gave us a frame rate of 32 fps at 1024x768 and low quality settings, which is quite playable.

VERDICT:

Excellent for watching movies and running less demanding games, but don't expect to run games with high-end graphics with this board instead of a powerful graphics card. If you're looking for an IGP board for an Intel processor, just grab this one!

FOR:

Good onboard GPU, good layout, perfect for entry level gamers and HTPCs.

AGAINST:

No eSATA ports.