ECS Xabre 400 AG400T8-D64 Review (4)
Overclocker 21 June 2002

Conclusion

Most people spend lots of money for the fastest graphics card they can find while some who would prefer a stable system and can serve one well. The ECS Xabre 400 is probably one of the cards that would bring you the performance level of the GF3 Ti200 at a fraction of the price. 

In terms of features, it comes with the SiS301 chipset which offers pretty good TV output display. There are also connectors for 3DVR for connecting 3D glasses and also S-VHS for TV output. For developers, you might be able to make use of the multi-monitor in the AGP driver mode so that your debugging code can be shown on another screen. There is also the Mirror driver mode to make both displays simultaneously the primary display does.

As for image quality, the Xabre 400 seems to be improving and it is really not so apparent that you will notice. We have put up some of the screen shots in the VGA forum for you to pinpoint and see the differences.

Installation is straightforward. You might need to meddle with some of the jumpers though to ensure the correct TV system (e.g. PAL, NTSC, SECAM etc) if you use TV output. Software bundled is WinDVD and no games comes with the package. It is kept to the minimum. There is definitely room for improvement in this area, perhaps an overclocking utility could be bundled in.

Documentation is direct to the point and I would say it is a simple guide book which might come in  handy if you encounter any problems setting the TVout modes etc.

Overall, this card is something that would really compete with the Ti200 series and we expect to see Xabre 600 series to be even better than this. No pricing information is provided at this moment. We will update it once we receive the pricing information.

Ratings

Here are my ratings out of 5 stars.

Highly Recommended

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