Chaintech Volari V3 Review (10)
Jon 6 Sept 2004

Conclusion:

The Chaintech Volari V3 certainly is a very interesting piece of hardware. As expected from a card costing less than $50, the performance is not that great and hardcore gamers will need to look at cards costing well above $100 in order to satisfy their needs. That said, the Volari V3 certainly fared well and outperformed the Geforce MX 4000, both in terms of image quality and performance. 

It is actually through the feature set that the Volari V3 shines : hardware support for Pixel and Vertex Shaders, DVI port included, great DVD playback, support for HDTV resolutions up to 1080i, silent card, etc. As mentionned previously, the V3 is excellent for 2D and videos, in fact just as good if not better than cards costing more than twice as much. Its video streaming and DVD playback quality was very good indeed. Moreover, its DVI connecter makes it compatible with the newest monitors and its low profile format makes it a perfect fit for any case. Those of you interested in home theater PCs should definitely take a look at the Volari V3, especially since it has HDTV support.

It also is a fantastic solution for those looking to upgrade from their integrated graphics. The V3 will not only give better performance, but also better image quality and free the system RAM that was used by the onboard video chip. It will definitely boost an older system.

All in all, Chaintech has produced a very capable and competitive value offering with its XGI Volari V3 card. Customers who get graphics cards for entertainment PCs should be very satisfied with the Chaintech Volari V3. Definitely a good bargain considering its low price ($47).. 

Hopefully, we will soon see other Chaintech Volari board models arrive, such as the Volari V5 and V8.

Pricing Information  - check more pricing of products on mainpage sidebar

Pros:

• Incredibly low price
• 128 MB
• Cool and Silent (fanless)
• Features
• Stability
• Great for low profile systems such as HTPCs
• Great DVD streaming
• HDTV support 
• Image quality
• Works fine under DX9
• Plays Doom 3

Cons:

• Not many 3D settings to configure in the driver
• 64-bit memory

Ratings

Here are my ratings out of 10.

Product Excellence

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