Customer Reviews

EVGA GeForce 9400 GT 1 GB DDR2 PCI-E 2.0 Graphics Card 01G-P3-N945-LR

5 star:		(85)
4 star:		(27)
3 star:		(10)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

EVGA has always been a great upgrade card because they manufacture quality items at very good prices. This card is no exception. The installation is easy only taking up 1 PCIe x16 slot. There is small fan just over the processor. The memory is only DDR2 which is ample for most games. The really nice part is that this card allows older machines to catch up to Direct X 10. I tried it with Vista 64 and it installed just fine. I also tried it with Vista 32 and had no issues. I did not try it with XP.

Specs:
Model EVGA 01G-P3-N945-LR
Interface PCI Express 2.0 x16

Chipset NVIDIA
GPU GeForce 9400 GT
Core clock 550MHz
Stream Processors 16
Memory Clock 800MHz
Memory Size 1GB
Memory Interface 128-bit
Memory Type GDDR2
DirectX DirectX 10
OpenGL OpenGL 2.1
DVI 2
TV-Out HDTV / S-Video Out
RAMDAC 400 MHz
Max Resolution 2560 x 1600
Cooler With Fan
Dual-Link DVI Supported Yes
HDCP Ready Yes

If you need a good card to upgrade your system you cannot go wrong with this one.

Thank you for reading my review.

I have an hp computer which has an integrated nvidia graphics chip which was great for basic computer operations but not really good for multimedia and or gaming. I saw this card for sale here on amazon for the ridiculously low price it is, and, concidering its specifications, I figured I would give it a try since I had an open PCI-E port free in my computer.

Wow! What an improvement this card has made! Not only did my computers video processing performance increase 500 percent, but the overall image quality it displayed is noticeably more lively! Oh and for vista users, this card will take full advantage of vista and do it with awesome performance. For an idea of how this card handles gaming; I have bioshock for xbox360 so i downloaded the bioshock demo on my pc to compare. I can get bioshock to run on my pc with this new card with a fairly good frame rate at the highest settings. However, in the end my xbox360 clearly outperformed my pc with bioshock in just about every way. (I'll give my full pc specs at the end) Although my PC could not run bioshock up to par with my xbox360, it could run it at a more than playable frame rate at medium quality settings. So if your a person who doesn't need the best of the best and just wants to play some games then this card is probably ideal for you.

Now, if you are concidering buying this card, there are just three main requirements you should have met before purchasing: at least a 300w power supply, an unused PCI-Express slot and have either a windows xp or windows vista operating system and you should be all set.

My computer specifications are currently as follows:
Intel Pentium Dual CPU E2180 2.00GHz
4.00 GB RAM
Nvidia GeForce9400 GT 1 GB DDR2 (the item i'm reviewing)
500w Antec Power Supply
Windows Vista Home Premium

Hope this review helps you decide if this card is right for you!

I purchased this video card to replace an ATI video card from the last generation of cards. it miles ahead of it. With 1GB of ram it flies on all online games I play including Guildwars, WOW, WAR, and DDO. It runs Crysis and Halo 3 at a very playable framerate at maximum graphics settings running at 1280X840 resolution. I highly recommend it if your looking to get great graphics at a reasonable price.

I had read other reviews posted here previous to purchasing this Graphics Card that boasted just how well it worked for such an amazing price. I have to admit, it's stellar for the pricetag. Most of the reviews were concerned with basic uses, however, so I wanted to create a review for someone like myself who was working on a budget to come up with a good gaming machine, but worried that "cheaper" might not cut it.

I play the online game World of Warcraft pretty extensively and purchased the following computer setup:

* AMD Phenom 9650 Quad-Core
* 640GB hard drive
* 7GB of DDR2 memory
* 64-bit Vista Home Premium
* NVIDIA GeForce 6150 SE 128MB

The graphics card was near useless, giving me perhaps 6 FPS in a majorly populated city and around 3-6 FPS during a 25 man raid. This was with all the settings turned down and virtually no UI enhancing addons. After installing the 9400 GT 1 GB, I'm able to use all those beautiful addons, turn all my graphic settings to max and get around 19-38 FPS in a majorly populated city, 40-70 FPS in a normal, noninstanced environment and around 25-45 FPS during instanced, 25 man content. I played a long time at a low framerate, know how frustrating it is and I have to say, after installing this it's like playing a whole new game. I can't heap enough praise on it for how little I spent.

Not sure how helpful this review will be to those who play other online games, but WoW seems to be a pretty decent hog when it comes to resources. I hope this was helpful to at least one other curious person.

After four years of using the NVIDIA 7300 card that came standard on my Dell XPS 410 with no major issues, decided on getting a replacement for Windows 7. Found this card, the EVGA GeForce 9400GT and for the price, thought on giving it a try. It can be summarized in one word; Performance. Even though I did not noticed any difference on DVD playback, the Windows Experience Index increased from 3.5 to 4.9, mostly because the old card had only 128 MB of memory while this one has 1 GB. Several things worth mentioning, especially for Windows 7 users that are considering this card.

First, the GeForce 9400GT is fully compatible with Win-7. But for installation, do not follow the steps on the instruction booklet. The installation disk has drivers for XP and Vista only. Just plug your new card in the PCI-2-E slot (following the precautions for unnecessary static and proper grounding) and fire the computer. The display will be opaque with large icons and when the system asks you to search for a new driver, click on YES (unlike the instruction manual says). The card self installs but the system will need a reboot. Don't waste time downloading what some "sites" claim to be a Windows 7 driver, I downloaded two of those and they are the same as the one in the OS disk.

Second, something unexpected but very useful. This card is cooled by a fan. On the usual cards (with no fan) heat is dissipated upwards by the plates. In the case of the XPS 410 this causes unnecessary heating of the TV card which can only be located above the video card. EVGA has come with the clever solution of working the fan downwards so air is forced from the space between this video card and the above one, down the EVGA cooling the "coopered columns" in the periphery of the green rectangle and dissipating heat trough all four sides of the card.

Third, the card comes with two DVI to VGA adapters (has two DVI outputs but no VGA) plus and HDTV and a S-Video cable. This is quite convenient especially when you get your card by mail and find that you don't have the DVI cable. I am using the VGA adapter and old VGA cable for purposes of proper comparison. In my case I did not needed any external power supply since it was installed in the proper PCI-2-E slot. Thus, for the price paid (less than $60.00 from Amazon's Tiger Direct [THANKS GUYS] shipping included) the EVGA GeForce 9400GT is probably the best value for your buck, especially for those transitioning to Windows 7.

The fan was squealing on the first card I received. Amazon replaced it and the second card suddenly stopped working completely about 2 weeks later. Amazon took this back as well and is issuing a refund. Based on the number of positive reviews, I assume I was just unlucky but I'm going to try a different brand. Although the failures had nothing to do with Amazon, they have been terrific with handling the problems promptly and courteously. My rating reflects a 1 for the product reliability and a 5 for Amazon's support.

Installed into a new HP Vista 64-bit computer that had integrated graphic. Easy install BUT make sure you follow the directions, which is unfortunately pretty prefunctory. After installing the card and powering up, the computer will start at lowest resolution setting. Go to control panel, select NVidia icon and reset the resolution (I would also suggest that you set your refresh rate to 75 Hz - make sure you have a monitor that can handle it). Afterwards, go to performance icon and refresh the performance test. You may be surprised to see only 1 show up on the video performance scale. Don't fret, just reboot the computer and you'll see a new scale - mine jumped from 3 to 5 for Aero performance scale. The manual notes to disable the onboard video. DON'T DO IT unless you're having difficulty with the new card working properly. Otherwise, if something goes wrong with the card, you won't be able to boot up using the original onboard video if it's disabled. Unless you're a total gaming freak, this card with 1 GB of memory is hard to beat for value.

As usual, I went nuts worrying about disabling the motherboard video (in the BIOS) and sticking in a new card--what to do if the screen was black? Without a monitor, how could you get back and reverse the process?

Fortunately, my BIOS.... well, Let's talk. You boot the PC, and while the initial screen says "DEL to enter setup" you tap the Delete key patiently.

Up comes the BIOS (Basic Input-Output System) from one little chip (the BIOS chip) which is connecting the keyboard to the monitor. There is no DOS. There is no Windows. There is no Java, Unix, or I-phoney. We are programming the BIOS chip. Be not afraid. Be of good cheer.

Drill down thru the many options. Don't change anything yet. If you do, remember that you can always hit the ESCape key to "exit without saving? (Y)". Piece of cake.

Fortunately, you probably won't need to change ANYTHING in the BIOS. WOW--CHANGE NOTHING! Why?

Most BIOS manufacturers want to play it safe. So their DISPLAY option is usually something on the order of: 1)Boot to any video card on the PCI-Express slot(the latest thing); nothing found? 2) Boot to any video card on the PCI slot (an older thing); nothing found? 3) Boot to the video chipset on the motherboard.

So just leave the BIOS options alone.

Shut down, Plug in the video card to the motherboard. M O V E yes M O V E the monitor cable to the new video card, THEN reboot. No problem. Problem? Pull out the new video card, move the cable back to the motherboard, and re-boot. You are back to the original setup. Whew! Why? No PCI-x card, no PCI card, so the BIOS would enable the video on the motherboard; back to the orignal configuration.

The odds are strictly against such problems.

Everything OK? Play around with your single monitor. Browser OK? E-mail OK? Turbo$$$ OK? Spreadsheet OK?. Try EVERYTHING, and get it stable if anything is goofy.

Shut down. Plug in the second monitor. Boot up. [In VISTA].... Go to CONTROL PANEL. Choose PERSONALIZATION. Choose DISPLAY SETTINGS. Click the IDENTIFY MONITORS. Then tweak the settings. It is actually user-friendly.

Re-boot. Re-boot. Re-boot. Try to break it.

Ah yes. Big Dummy here. If you plug one of the CRTs/LCDs into a wall socket, make sure it is not controlled by a wall switch. Or you will be poking about all evening in a wine-induced stupor wondering what is wrong with this new VIDEO CARD! while the Video display has no power.

This was so much more painless than I ever expected it to be. This review is from someone who used to build PCs, boot into DOS, and upgrade to Windoze. When I saw that there were over 100 positive reviews, I bought the product right away.

I apologize for writing yet another review. But I am delighted with this product.

I was not disappointed. By way of disclosure, I am not affilated with any corporation. This recommendation is freely given. An additional idea is that the rebate dropped the cost of this solution to $45. Thank you for listening...

...and please click the HELPFUL button if you are so inclined.

Best of luck to everyone.

P.S. Oct, 2010: Windows Vista, in their monthly release, just informed me that NVIDIA had an updated driver for this card. So I installed it. Whooops, it took me back to 600x800 resolution, switched screens 1 and 2 around, and crammed all my nice orderly desktop icons up into a corner. Took about 15 minutes to get it back to my liking, via the Control Panel/Personalization/Display options. Nothing was harmed, but it was annoying. I doubt I'll bother with any future driver updates, as everything has always been rock solid anyway.

Still very happy.

Ok, I'd just like to start by saying that this device, is by far, one of the best graphic cards for the price. I have definitely shopped around and found this to be the best product for the price.

1. It has 1GB of graphics memory which does wonders for gamers, especially those that like to play high graphic games like GTA4, Fallout, or even Left4Dead.

2. The fan is pretty quiet, doesn't seem to over-heat, at least not in the 1 month that I have had it installed so far. I would highly recommend that you have a power supply of at least 300W. If you don't know how to check that, you will probably need to have someone install it for you, although it is pretty simple.

3. It opens up options, such as: HD picture quality transfer, S-video inputs so you can do several things, some of which include simple TV to Computer hookup, and it has multiple monitor inputs so if you'd like to hookup multiple monitors you can do that.

4. It gives a wonderful max resolution that will fit pretty much any monitor on the market at the given time, as for me, I'm currently using the 1440x900.

If you find this helpful click yes. :)

For those looking to updgrade to a great graphics card for a fraction of the cost of the next generation cards--this is the one for you! Like many other users I needed to upgrade from my onboard DAC.

Make sure you verify that your power supply is rated at least 300-watts; if not you'll need to upgrade that as well. Even with that in mind; you'll still come out miles ahead.

So far--I'm running many games with all perks loaded including Fallout 3, World at War & Crysis. There's such a marked difference in performance from my old setup and the support is also great at EVGA as I actualy received very helpful information from the support staff before actually installing the card and we all know how rare great customer / tech support can be these days!

Here are my specs;I hope that my review proves useful:

HP Dual Core AMD Athlon 64 2.5 GZ**
HP W2207 Widescreen Monitor**
3 Gb Memory**
500 Gb Hard Drive**
480 watt Antec Powersupply**
EVGA GeoForce 9400 GT PCI-E (Reviewed)**