ECS AG400 Xabre 400 Graphics Card Review

Introduction

No more than two weeks back we took a look at the first SiS Xabre 400 based graphics card to hit retail channels, the Triplex Xabre Pro. Since then we have managed to obtain ECS' Xabre 400 card, the AG400, which is set to hit store shelves in the not too distant future. In usual TweakTown style, we have put together a comprehensive review of the card, comparing the feature-set, performance and price of both cards.

Since we have already gone over the Xabre 400 chipset in great detail a number of times in the past, we will not be repeating ourselves here. However, just to give you a quick feature overview, the Xabre 400 chipset includes: DirectX 8.1 support, AGP 8x and hardware pixel shading, however, lacks a hardware vertex shader. This means that all vertex shading is emulated by the CPU, which may result in bottlenecks for some users as those with older processors might have trouble handling the increased load. However, most users should not have a problem.

How does the ECS AG400 compare to the Triplex Xabre Pro, and most importantly, the GeForce4 MX440? Read on to find out!