Ash515253 wrote on 2025-08-01, 21:38:

Hello All, […]
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Hello All,

As a hobby, I’ve started testing some of the old hardware I’ve been collecting and researching the history of the items where I can.

I find that there aren’t many old-school sites left with proper benchmark data and the ones that do survive often have broken images or missing pages.

They also only seemed to test a few games at a time back in the day and just measured average framerate in unreadable charts and articles over multiple pages.

I’ve kicked things off with the least exciting stuff, some of the budget gpu's are so uninteresting that they probably didn't even get a review back when released.

Hopefully some people out there will like to scroll through some posts.

I'll keep adding to it anyway, it's quite a rewarding project - no thanks to wordpress which I still find painfully unintuitive.

Hopefully something there is of interest to someone.
Cheers

Hi there 😀 I agree with you about the benchmarks, many of the budget cards from the era were never tested or were press releases so not very honest reviews. The reviews that have survived often have broken images that contained most of the benchmark results so it's getting harder to find this information now.
And now with Anandtech's website now being taken offline it's getting even tougher to find comparative benchmarks of cards from the early 2000s.

Your benchmarks and the details in the card reviews are really impressive, thanks for making this. I've got to do something like this for my laptops at some point, some of the posts I want to make exceed what's reasonable for a forum post.

Thermalwrong wrote on 2025-08-03, 12:50:

Hi there :) I agree with you about the benchmarks, many of the budget cards from the era were never tested or were press release […]
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Ash515253 wrote on 2025-08-01, 21:38:

Hello All, […]
Show full quote

Hello All,

As a hobby, I’ve started testing some of the old hardware I’ve been collecting and researching the history of the items where I can.

I find that there aren’t many old-school sites left with proper benchmark data and the ones that do survive often have broken images or missing pages.

They also only seemed to test a few games at a time back in the day and just measured average framerate in unreadable charts and articles over multiple pages.

I’ve kicked things off with the least exciting stuff, some of the budget gpu's are so uninteresting that they probably didn't even get a review back when released.

Hopefully some people out there will like to scroll through some posts.

I'll keep adding to it anyway, it's quite a rewarding project - no thanks to wordpress which I still find painfully unintuitive.

Hopefully something there is of interest to someone.
Cheers

Hi there 😀 I agree with you about the benchmarks, many of the budget cards from the era were never tested or were press releases so not very honest reviews. The reviews that have survived often have broken images that contained most of the benchmark results so it's getting harder to find this information now.
And now with Anandtech's website now being taken offline it's getting even tougher to find comparative benchmarks of cards from the early 2000s.

Your benchmarks and the details in the card reviews are really impressive, thanks for making this. I've got to do something like this for my laptops at some point, some of the posts I want to make exceed what's reasonable for a forum post.

Hi!

Ah reading your response has made my day, thanks very much for the kind words there.

I would be very happy to host any articles you want to write about your laptops - with full credit of course.. just for the love of old hardware.
I only have 6Gb of storage with this cheap plan with wordpress so it would be good for images to be kept small though.

You can host a 'blog' for free on there but it'd be a .wordpress site without a registered domain if you wanted to do your own thing. I'd be happy to share my experiences though as my post says, I'm sure there is a more intuitive website builder out there than this one. Maybe I should just learn a bit of html.

Anyways, thanks for the encouragement, I need to get started on a new page soon. I have a GeForce 6610 somewhere which I may play with next, no idea what that's all about but it'll be fun finding out.

Ash

Ash515253 wrote on 2025-08-01, 21:38:

Gigabyte GeForce 7300 https://ashsthingsandstuff.co.uk/gigabyte-gef … e-7300-se-64mb/

One comment here - there are a few versions of 7300, based on different GPUs. It was all very confusing with all the "SE" "LE" etc. And they are not all G72.

7300GT is G73, and it does this (specific one is also G73-B1, so 80nm):

Now this are not stock frequencies, i've just set it to what 7600GT runs at since it is the same GPU (with some pipes etc disabled) and the same memory. But still, 7300GT, especially DDR3 one, is very different from all the other 7300 variants.

It is also why this card, IMO, is so nice - it is often severely underestimated and is possible to get for really cheap.

All that said - nice reviews, as long as it stays online stuff like this can be really useful for people picking this old cards for their systems...

Great work...

Archer57 wrote on 2025-08-04, 13:58:

One comment here - there are a few versions of 7300, based on different GPUs. It was all very confusing with all the "SE" "LE" e […]
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Ash515253 wrote on 2025-08-01, 21:38:

Gigabyte GeForce 7300 https://ashsthingsandstuff.co.uk/gigabyte-gef … e-7300-se-64mb/

One comment here - there are a few versions of 7300, based on different GPUs. It was all very confusing with all the "SE" "LE" etc. And they are not all G72.

7300GT is G73, and it does this (specific one is also G73-B1, so 80nm):

The attachment 3200+7300GT-2003_2.jpg is no longer available

Now this are not stock frequencies, i've just set it to what 7600GT runs at since it is the same GPU (with some pipes etc disabled) and the same memory. But still, 7300GT, especially DDR3 one, is very different from all the other 7300 variants.

It is also why this card, IMO, is so nice - it is often severely underestimated and is possible to get for really cheap.

All that said - nice reviews, as long as it stays online stuff like this can be really useful for people picking this old cards for their systems...

Thanks for that,

Oh ok yes, that 7300GT is an absolute beast in comparison, 128Bit Memory bus, GDDR3 and all the shaders.

I'll update the 7000 series table on that page though with the info you provided.

I wonder if cards like the SE hurt sales of the GT or vice versa - strange to give them such a similar name in any event.

With AGP cards being so expensive, that is really an impressive find.. sadly the only version on UK ebay is over £70, there are PCI-E versions but only seem to have DDR2 onboard.
I'll still pick one up though and test it so as not to leave people with the wrong impression of the series...

The number of variants of cards of this era is something that I do find interesting, though the internet being what it is nowadays makes researching quite difficult!

I'll post updates

Cheers

Ash515253 wrote on 2025-08-04, 16:40:

I wonder if cards like the SE hurt sales of the GT or vice versa - strange to give them such a similar name in any event.

They probably hoped that people buy cheaper variant without digging deeper into it and assuming this can not be all that different with the same model number, which was kind of what happened.

For example if you compare 6600 and 6600GT - this are also totally different cards with like 50% performance difference and much lower price difference.

Then there was whole thing between ATI and nvidia - they used the same suffixes for opposite things. Like for ATI "XT" always meant high-end, while for nvidia it meant garbage (just take a look at 6800XT with its 64bit DDR1...).

This is one thing i definitely do not miss about those old cards...

Ash515253 wrote on 2025-08-04, 16:40:

With AGP cards being so expensive, that is really an impressive find.. sadly the only version on UK ebay is over £70, there are PCI-E versions but only seem to have DDR2 onboard.

It was a lucky find. It was broken, so had to fix it and i had no idea it was DDR3 until it worked.

DDR2 versions are not horrible, as long as it is 128bit. Obviously worse than DDR3, but still it is G73, which means decent performance. Just be careful about cards with passive coolers - being relatively low end cards i've seen this used in prebuilt PCs which were used without bothering to check what the temperatures are. I have zotac one with DDR2 laying around on which literally all the caps popped (not just bulged - popped), still need to try fixing that mess.

Thought about doing some comparisons between AGP cards i have, but that takes a lot of time and i was not able to do it yet.

Hello, I just wanted to say how much I enjoyed looking at Tech articles in 2012. It seems like a dream now. I have all but given up on looking at older articles online. It used to be so much fun. It was so much fun looking at the Dimond monster video cards or all the different sound cards. I understand back then people would have information on their computers and leave them open on the internet for people to look at. I never imagined the future would be like this; it is not the way it was supposed to be.

Archer57 wrote on 2025-08-05, 00:52:

They probably hoped that people buy cheaper variant without digging deeper into it and assuming this can not be all that differe […]
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Ash515253 wrote on 2025-08-04, 16:40:

I wonder if cards like the SE hurt sales of the GT or vice versa - strange to give them such a similar name in any event.

They probably hoped that people buy cheaper variant without digging deeper into it and assuming this can not be all that different with the same model number, which was kind of what happened.

For example if you compare 6600 and 6600GT - this are also totally different cards with like 50% performance difference and much lower price difference.

Then there was whole thing between ATI and nvidia - they used the same suffixes for opposite things. Like for ATI "XT" always meant high-end, while for nvidia it meant garbage (just take a look at 6800XT with its 64bit DDR1...).

This is one thing i definitely do not miss about those old cards...

Ash515253 wrote on 2025-08-04, 16:40:

With AGP cards being so expensive, that is really an impressive find.. sadly the only version on UK ebay is over £70, there are PCI-E versions but only seem to have DDR2 onboard.

It was a lucky find. It was broken, so had to fix it and i had no idea it was DDR3 until it worked.

DDR2 versions are not horrible, as long as it is 128bit. Obviously worse than DDR3, but still it is G73, which means decent performance. Just be careful about cards with passive coolers - being relatively low end cards i've seen this used in prebuilt PCs which were used without bothering to check what the temperatures are. I have zotac one with DDR2 laying around on which literally all the caps popped (not just bulged - popped), still need to try fixing that mess.

Thought about doing some comparisons between AGP cards i have, but that takes a lot of time and i was not able to do it yet.

if GPU-Z is to believed then your card has GDDR3 and not your standard DDR3. None of the cards I can see on ebay here in AGP or PCI-E flavours have GDDR memory. Your card must have been a very luck find indeed!

Ash515253 wrote on 2025-08-05, 23:08:

if GPU-Z is to believed then your card has GDDR3 and not your standard DDR3. None of the cards I can see on ebay here in AGP or PCI-E flavours have GDDR memory. Your card must have been a very luck find indeed!

Yeah, my bad, it is GDDR3. AFAIK they were either DDR2 or GDDR3, there were no GDDR2 or DDR3 versions.

I've also since read your HD2600XT review and it is interesting - results are surprisingly close to what i've seen with AGP card on much older hardware. It would also be kind of curious to see 8800GTS in this comparison - if i remember correctly 8800GTS 320 was a lot more interesting in terms of price/performance than 8600GT if budget was not strictly limited.

The biggest downsides i've seen with 2600XT myself are stability, framerate consistency and support for older games, including some DX9 ones, so i am not sure i agree with that conclusion...

Archer57 wrote on 2025-08-07, 00:54:

Yeah, my bad, it is GDDR3. AFAIK they were either DDR2 or GDDR3, there were no GDDR2 or DDR3 versions. […]
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Ash515253 wrote on 2025-08-05, 23:08:

if GPU-Z is to believed then your card has GDDR3 and not your standard DDR3. None of the cards I can see on ebay here in AGP or PCI-E flavours have GDDR memory. Your card must have been a very luck find indeed!

Yeah, my bad, it is GDDR3. AFAIK they were either DDR2 or GDDR3, there were no GDDR2 or DDR3 versions.

I've also since read your HD2600XT review and it is interesting - results are surprisingly close to what i've seen with AGP card on much older hardware. It would also be kind of curious to see 8800GTS in this comparison - if i remember correctly 8800GTS 320 was a lot more interesting in terms of price/performance than 8600GT if budget was not strictly limited.

The biggest downsides i've seen with 2600XT myself are stability, framerate consistency and support for older games, including some DX9 ones, so i am not sure i agree with that conclusion...

I’m quite sure that HD 2600 XT would’ve been maxed out on the Phenom II system, possibly the same story for the older hardware mentioned in that review you read.

Disagreeing with my conclusions is not a problem. I didn’t run into any stability issues with either of the 2600 XTs I tested, but to be honest, those were some of the first articles I ever put together. For whatever reason, I wasn’t testing many games back then and the ones I did test had far too many resolution options.

It’s surprisingly tough going from zero to writing these pages and testing these cards properly. I’ll revisiting some of the earlier article soon, redoing the testing and adding a few more games.
Depending on how things shake out, the conclusion might change.

In other news, a 7300 GT arrived in the post today! Sadly, it was dead on arrival. It was a nice-looking Gigabyte card, passively cooled which may have caused its end.
The heatsink design was baffling as it covered all the memory chips but wasn’t actually connected to them. So you had reduced airflow over bare chips, plus a warm slab of metal hovering just millimetres above. how can that be a good idea.. the thermal past was absolutely baked onto it.

On the bright side, I’ve got a 7600 GS in the test rig right now which is working fine, so G73 is next up to get some love - it does take a good few weeks at a couple of hours per evening when family life allows to test, research and write.

dbellue1 wrote on 2025-08-05, 01:43:

Hello, I just wanted to say how much I enjoyed looking at Tech articles in 2012. It seems like a dream now. I have all but given up on looking at older articles online. It used to be so much fun. It was so much fun looking at the Dimond monster video cards or all the different sound cards. I understand back then people would have information on their computers and leave them open on the internet for people to look at. I never imagined the future would be like this; it is not the way it was supposed to be.

The future just got worse I'm afraid:

https://www.techspot.com/news/108967-anandtec … ut-someone.html

There is a lot of content good content on youtube but that's youtube and it has it's own problems.. I also miss old tech media!

Ash515253 wrote on 2025-08-07, 21:42:

The future just got worse I'm afraid: […]
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dbellue1 wrote on 2025-08-05, 01:43:

Hello, I just wanted to say how much I enjoyed looking at Tech articles in 2012. It seems like a dream now. I have all but given up on looking at older articles online. It used to be so much fun. It was so much fun looking at the Dimond monster video cards or all the different sound cards. I understand back then people would have information on their computers and leave them open on the internet for people to look at. I never imagined the future would be like this; it is not the way it was supposed to be.

The future just got worse I'm afraid:

https://www.techspot.com/news/108967-anandtec … ut-someone.html

There is a lot of content good content on youtube but that's youtube and it has it's own problems.. I also miss old tech media!

When this all went down last year I knew this would happen. Indefinitely means nothing to these companies.

Ash515253 wrote on 2025-08-07, 21:39:

I’m quite sure that HD 2600 XT would’ve been maxed out on the Phenom II system, possibly the same story for the older hardware m […]
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I’m quite sure that HD 2600 XT would’ve been maxed out on the Phenom II system, possibly the same story for the older hardware mentioned in that review you read.

Disagreeing with my conclusions is not a problem. I didn’t run into any stability issues with either of the 2600 XTs I tested, but to be honest, those were some of the first articles I ever put together. For whatever reason, I wasn’t testing many games back then and the ones I did test had far too many resolution options.

It’s surprisingly tough going from zero to writing these pages and testing these cards properly. I’ll revisiting some of the earlier article soon, redoing the testing and adding a few more games.
Depending on how things shake out, the conclusion might change.

Yep, writing a review like that definitely takes time and effort. I've did some reviewing back... was it 10... or 15 years ago now, back when sandy bridge was just released. I liked messing with hardware, but whole way review samples are provided felt really, really bad and made me stop doing that. Also changed how i perceive reviews of modern hardware forever - "there are no reviews, there are paid advertisements"...

Reviews like you did here are different though - nobody is interested in advertising this ancient hardware, so they can be trusted to honestly reflect reviewer's point of view. That's why i like reading them.

And only written reviews - youtubers have their own agenda and can not be trusted in the slightest either.

Ash515253 wrote on 2025-08-07, 21:39:

In other news, a 7300 GT arrived in the post today! Sadly, it was dead on arrival. It was a nice-looking Gigabyte card, passively cooled which may have caused its end.
The heatsink design was baffling as it covered all the memory chips but wasn’t actually connected to them. So you had reduced airflow over bare chips, plus a warm slab of metal hovering just millimetres above. how can that be a good idea.. the thermal past was absolutely baked onto it.

On the bright side, I’ve got a 7600 GS in the test rig right now which is working fine, so G73 is next up to get some love - it does take a good few weeks at a couple of hours per evening when family life allows to test, research and write.

Yeah, passive cards are going to be dead. They were mostly bad designs, incapable of properly dissipating heat generated and also cooking other components on the PCB. Sometimes this cards can be revived by replacing capacitors (those do not like heat at all), sometimes GPU itself may be cooked and then it is a waste of time. Better to look for cards with fans.

Is that 7600GS DDR2 or GDDR3? While DDR2 version is ok - GDDR3 one is great - it can be overclocked all the way to 7600GT frequencies....

Ash515253 wrote on 2025-08-07, 21:42:

The future just got worse I'm afraid:

https://www.techspot.com/news/108967-anandtec … ut-someone.html

There is a lot of content good content on youtube but that's youtube and it has it's own problems.. I also miss old tech media!

This was to be expected. Some beancounter figured keeping the stuff online wastes an $ or two per month, which is unacceptable and should be stopped. And they never care about things like "historic value" or something, literally the only relevant thing is money.

Sadly this is just how we store data nowadays. Everything is centralized and dependent on single company or person. Great effort is taken to make archival harder if not impossible. And on personal level everything is encrypted, password-protected etc. Like we are doing everything possible to prevent accumulation of knowledge and make it forever vanish with a person or a company...

https://ashsthingsandstuff.co.uk/palit-geforce-7600gs-256mb/

I tested a 7600GS! Sadly it didn't survive the experience.
Still, seemed like a decent card whilst it was working.

https://ashsthingsandstuff.co.uk/gainward-bli … edition-review/

The 7300GT - a really strong budget card and this Gainward version is something a bit special