Unreal Tournament 2003: DX: 8.1
Here is a standard solid benchmark. Not a lot to say here, I used the run-through benchmark created by [H]ard|OCP.

This graph is a lot to swallow I know, but it tells a lot of information. Firstly by looking at all the minimums we can see that in some map levels the fps drops below unacceptable levels on anything above 1024x768 at 2xfsaa. The average FPS looks good all the way up to 1600x1200 however, and barring a few intense moments in the run-through, it's even playable at that resolution. However, while playing such a multiplayer intense game, having the fps drop at a crucial moment is lethal, so it would probably be more wise to play it a lower setting.

XIII: DX8.1
This is a cell shaded number which is also based off of Unreal Tournament 2003. It features cartoon like graphics. I used the demo, and ran through the beach from start to end with God mode on, and monitored and recorded with Fraps.

There isn't a whole lot to say here. The card more or less scales as it should, and was most playable at 1024x768 and 1280x1024 at 2xfsaa. However I did notice some quality issues, there was frequently jaggies all over many of the objects in the game even though fsaa was enabled. I don't know why this was an occurrence, but even with testing it multiple times, it was noticeable. This may be caused because of the thick lines used with the cell shading, but none the less they were there.

You could clearly cut a slice of bread with that arm.

Also I noticed that underwater everything became grayed out. Whether or not that is intentional for the game, I do not know, but it seems to be a quality issue to me.

It's so murky for clear water viewed up above.

Overclocking:
Using the new "Auto Detect" function that comes with the 56.64 nVidia drivers, I increased the core frequency from 390 to 395, and the memory frequency from 700 to 715. I fooled around with some other settings, but surprisingly the auto detect settings were more or less the full overhead that the card was capable of using. I'm not going to bother to show you a bunch of charts and graphs showing just how much such a small overclock yields in real world performance, but to say the least it was pretty disappointing. If you're looking for the ultimate overclock option on stock cooling, this card isn't the card for you. Perhaps with an aftermarket solution the card would fare better, but I don't have the facilities to test that.

Conclusion:
At around for this card, and seeing its performance, it's a pretty good buy. It easily bests nVidia's other option which is the 5700U, but how does it compare to ATi hardware? One thing for sure, it does go up against the 9600XT much better than the 5700U ever did. This card is cheap, quick, and plays DX8.1 games well; in general nVidia cards seem to do well at. Sure there are cards faster, but for this price?

Unfortunately there are some image quality problems that I did have with the card. The known issues with nVidia and their notorious trillinear filtering issues are still present because of the drivers. This isn't Albatron's fault; it's just a flaw that is innate with the drivers. Hopefully nVidia after so many revisions of promised visual performance increases within the drivers, they will finally listen, but I'm not going to hold my breath. That said, from my knowledge of what ATi is putting out currently, they are still the current kings of image quality.

The overclocking was a disappointment with this particular card, as it did not really increase performance, and really if that's what you want, this isn't the card for you.

Is this card right for you? If you can find a special deal on it, I don't think it will let you down, and it's a fine component to have in a hot rod system.

Pros:
Quick DX8.1 games
Relatively inexpensive
Blue and gold, which is great for a window
VIVO

Cons:
Doesn't do so well at DX9 games
Problems rendering distant objects
Doesn't overclock well
Useless software bundle

Bottom line: If you love nVidia and need a fast card on the cheap, this card is definitely for you. NVidia has set the price point right with this one, but with better image quality, those ATi options might be looking a whole lot better.

Questions or Comments, hit me up in the Forums.

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