VOGONS

An Integrated GPU (Integrated for real) with a good performance; SIS XABRE and ECS K7S7AG

Topic actions

First post, by Retroinside

Posted on 
User metadata
Rank Newbie
Rank
Newbie

Hi dear,

In these hot days of August, with some free time to dedicate to my beloved old hardware, I finally managed to test something interesting.

For a long time, I’ve been searching for a SiS Xabre VGA without success. Nowadays, I’m trying to collect only boxed hardware, and I’m selling whatever is not boxed to free up space (and funds) for the pieces I really want. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able in these years, to find a boxed, working Xabre 200 or 400 (or 600, but that’s just a dream) at a reasonable price. However, some months ago here in Italy, a listing appeared for an ECS K7S7AG motherboard.

Of course, it’s a Socket 462 platform—not exactly one of the best boards for an Athlon XP—but it started at just 10 EUR with delivery cost included. In the end, I managed to grab it for less than 20 EUR. It came without a box, manual, or anything else (not even the I/O shield), but for that price I decided to keep it and make an exception in my collection—at least while I wait for a better and definitive deal.

Once it arrived, I left it on the shelf for a few months, with no time to test it—until now.

Yesterday, I finally got my hands on a SiS Xabre, and I’m happy to share my little experience with you.

I was curious about its performance in Direct3D (DirectX 8.1) and OpenGL, but I’m not the kind of person who tests games I never actually play. Maybe my choices aren’t for everyone, but for this occasion, the games I picked were FIFA 2003 for Direct3D and Star Wars Jedi Knight II Jedi Outcast for OpenGL. And of course, I couldn’t skip a synthetic benchmark like 3DMark 2001 SE—both at the stock GPU frequency and at the Xabre 400 frequency (250 MHz core and VRAM, instead of the original 200 MHz).

If you have experience with these SiS Xabre cards, I’d love to hear your thoughts!

I made a short video of the test and I hope you’ll enjoy it:

https://youtu.be/OJ0SW8v_vIk?si=lbiRvIuOrBFv3-nA

Reply 1 of 9, by dionb

Posted on 
User metadata
Rank l33t++
Rank
l33t++

Ugh, videos. Could you give a brief summary of the results here in old-fashioned text?

Reply 2 of 9, by Jasin Natael

Posted on 
User metadata
Rank Oldbie
Rank
Oldbie
dionb wrote on 2025-08-12, 17:29:

Ugh, videos. Could you give a brief summary of the results here in old-fashioned text?

Seconded.

Reply 3 of 9, by The Serpent Rider

Posted on 
User metadata
Rank l33t++
Rank
l33t++

This board looks like an interesting experiment, which ultimately falls flat, because it wastes too much PCB space of the full ATX board for a midrange card.

I must be some kind of standard: the anonymous gangbanger of the 21st century.

Reply 4 of 9, by Retroinside

Posted on 
User metadata
Rank Newbie
Rank
Newbie

Guys, I understand that some of you would prefer a written review with attached images, etc., but unfortunately I have little time available, and it’s much easier for me to share in this way. I don’t earn and don’t want to earn anything from this — my only goal is to give a visual record of my hardware and keep it archived forever (even in the future, if my pieces should die or for any other reason no longer be available to me). I hope I’m not offending anyone!
That said, The Serpent Rider, yes, you’re right, but in my opinion in this case it’s just a matter of evaluating the cost. €180 for a complete solution was truly a bargain for anyone on a tight budget.

Reply 5 of 9, by Ydee

Posted on 
User metadata
Rank Oldbie
Rank
Oldbie

This board seems like an interesting solution, but personally the SiS Xabre 400 by Triplex, which I once tried, didn't faze me, and drivers were troubled in some games (empty textures, missing objects, artifacts). To the end I sold it, to get a silver or white motherboard for an interesting build I failed (but they were made, i see somewhere). It was this one:

Reply 6 of 9, by PcBytes

Posted on 
User metadata
Rank l33t
Rank
l33t

Soltek made some of them white boards too. I might snag one.

"Enter at your own peril, past the bolted door..."
Main PC: i5 3470, GB B75M-D3H, 16GB RAM, 2x1TB
98SE : P3 650, Soyo SY-6BA+IV, 384MB RAM, 80GB

Reply 7 of 9, by Retroinside

Posted on 
User metadata
Rank Newbie
Rank
Newbie
Ydee wrote on Yesterday, 09:01:

This board seems like an interesting solution, but personally the SiS Xabre 400 by Triplex, which I once tried, didn't faze me, and drivers were troubled in some games (empty textures, missing objects, artifacts). To the end I sold it, to get a silver or white motherboard for an interesting build I failed (but they were made, i see somewhere). It was this one:

These cards probably had driver issues, much more critical than one might expect. Several articles from that time report this. In my tests, however, these problems didn’t show up (I was using the drivers provided by ECS on their website). That said, I did try using an updated driver (the last available for the XABRE series) and it wasn’t stable at all.
The silver-colored card you share is very nice. If I’m not mistaken, they offered silver PCBs for something related to heat dissipation and electromagnetic interference.

Reply 8 of 9, by Ydee

Posted on 
User metadata
Rank Oldbie
Rank
Oldbie

Yes and they made even GF4 Titanium line on silver PCB. Nice pieces.

Reply 9 of 9, by The Serpent Rider

Posted on 
User metadata
Rank l33t++
Rank
l33t++

Yeah, 3DMark 2001 score on Xabre cards is also bullshit, because SiS did some specific optimizations for it.

I must be some kind of standard: the anonymous gangbanger of the 21st century.

Go to top of page Go to top of page
Back to General Old Hardware
Close window
Close window