Zotac 8400GS
Compared to the minimalistic design of the XFX packaging the Zotac 8400GS comes in a box that is just screaming for attention. The back of the box is packed with pictures and a chart that shows how the various Zotac cards perform in specific areas such as HD playback or desktop use. Size-wise the two boxes are roughly the same. Inside the package we found no manual, only a driver CD, a composite converter and a DVI-to-HDMI converter. The later also explains the need for that nasty gray cable that needs to be connected to the audio source, as a full HDMI signal carries picture and sound.
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The first thing that strikes the eye when taking the Zotac 8400GS out of the box is the big passive cooler. Ordinarily such a cooler wouldn’t stand a chance keeping the GPU in line, but since the 8400 cards generally run relatively cool, Zotac decided to give it a try. Another difference between the XFX and Zotac cards is the shape. Whereas XFX decided to go with a longer and narrower card, Zotac used the full width and instead cut the length of the card short. This could come in handy in a crowded multimedia center, especially since it leaves some room for improved airflow.
| GPU Clock |
Shader Clock |
Memory Clock |
| 459mhz |
918mhz |
400/800mhz |
Because of the passive cooler Zotac weren’t able to push the boundaries as far as XFX had, so they only overclocked the GPU clock by 9 MHz and in turn the shader clock by 18 MHz.
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