Review: Digital Alliance GT 430 – The Low Profile Fermi

Author

Oik Yusuf Araya

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Graphics Card

December 2, 2010

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Testing Platform

We used the following hardware combination for our test. A couple of adversaries that are similar in terms of price range were also included for comparison purposes.

Processor : Intel Core i7 930 @4 GHz (200×20)
Motherboard : Gigabyte X58A-UD3R
Graphics card : Digital Alliance GT 430; NVIDIA GTS 450; NVIDIA GTS 250; ATI HD 5750
Memory : 3×1GB Kingston KHX16000D3T1K3/3GX
Storage : Western Digital Caviar Black 500 GB (32 MB Cache)
Power Supply : Enermax Revolution 85+ 1050 Watt
Heatsink : Gelid Tranquilo
Monitor : Philips 221E
Input Devices : Genius (Keyboard dan Mouse)
OS : Windows 7 Ultimate 32-bit
Driver : NVIDIA Forceware 250.99; ATI Catalyst 10.10e

We were actually going to compare the GT 430 against its nearest competitors: the Radeon HD 5550 and HD 5570. Unfortunately, our sample units were damaged, so we had to throw in some alternatives instead.

Test Results

Game Test

LEFT4DEAD

Setting : AF-Trilinear; Maximum Quality

Left 4 Dead’s rather old source engine presents no challenge for the GT 430. We measured frame rates in the hundreds.

Batman Arkham Asylum

Setting : Maximum Quality; No PhysX

Without PhysX, Batman Arkham Asylum ran at 76 FPS on the GT 430. Though it may seem high enough, that’s only half the amount of frames produced by the GTS 450. When PhysX was turned on, the frame rate remained above 30 FPS.

Devil May Cry 4

Setting : DirectX 10; Quality Super High

Devil May Cry 4 ran with maximum graphics setting and all the scenes were rendered at fluid frame rates. GT 430’s results are still far inferior compared to GTS 450’s though.

Lost Planet 2

Setting : DirectX 11; Motion Blur-On; Shadow Detail-High; Texture Detail-High; Rendering Level-High

Unsurprisingly, the GT 430 is not powerful enough to render DirectX 11 graphics features –such as in this Lost Planet 2 game- with a decent level of performance.