XFX 8400GS
The XFX 8400GS comes in a standard black package, complete with the now familiar XFX beast on the front. Though this might not be apparent from the pictures, the box is rather small and just barely contains the card along with the manual, driver CD and Composite cable. Unfortunately there is no DVI-to-HDMI converter to be found in the box.
The first thing that everybody will notice about the XFX 8400GS is the black PCB. While this is a purely cosmetic thing, we can appreciate the extra effort in making the card look good. After installing the drivers and consulting the nVidia control panel we were at first left thinking that XFX didn’t try to improve the card in some way this time around. A quick check of the shader clock reassured us, as XFX decided to go with a decisively faster shader clock than reference.
| GPU Clock |
Shader Clock |
Memory Clock |
| 450mhz |
1188mhz |
400/800mhz |
The metal cooler found on the card looks a lot better than any stock cooler we have ever seen – XFX definitely know what they are doing. There is usually no correlation between the looks of a cooler and its effectiveness, but with the increased shader clock speed this metal beast better be capable of handling the load.
When we reach the budget market dual-link DVI connectors leave the room and leave a spot open for the regular single-link brothers and VGA connectors. This leaves us with the 3rd and last connector found on the card, the standard TV-Out plug.
