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Transcend Radeon 7500


Date
: 09/16/02 – 12:51:27 PM

Author
:

Category
: Video Cards

Page 1 : Introduction

Manufacturer: Transcend
Price : around $65

Introduction

A couple of weeks ago, we at Overclockers Online looked at the ATI Radeon 9000 PRO videocard which actually performed better than we had hoped for! It appeared to be a perfect budget videocard for everyone with rather high 3D performance needs.

Today, we give the Radeon 7500 GPU from ATI a run for its money as we review the Transcend Radeon 7500 videocard. We will look at the technologies inside the Radeon core. We'll also take a closer look at the layout of the board since this is one of Transcend's first shots at the videocard market. You might know this manufacturer from hardware like RAM and motherboards, but I believe most of you didn't know they also produce videocards … well, now you know! :) At the CeBIT trade fair last March, they told us they'd release 3 videocards this year : one desktop SiS-based card, the Radeon 7500 card we're discussing today and last but not least a Radeon 8500LE videocard. Spooked by nVidia? :o

If you're wondering how this budget card from Transcend stacks up against the popular nVidia-based counterparts, you'll find this review most interesting. Read on and check out the goods …

Page 2 : Specifications

Specifications

And again we present you a copy/paste from the manufacturer's website with all the specifications of the card :

Product Specifications

GPU

ATI RADEON 7500

Memory Support

64MB DDR SDRAM

Display Connectors

- 15 pins VGA connector
- DVI-I connector
- S-Video (TV-out) connector

Features

- Powered by the ATI RADEON 7500 graphics processor
- 64MB DDR graphics memory with up to 3.2GB/s bandwidth
- Advanced 3D graphics performance with ATI's PIXEL TAPESTRY architecture
- Supports DirectX 8.X and OpenGL
- DVI-I interface with integrated TMDS transmitter for digital flat panel support
- DVD playback with hardware acceleration, including motion compensation and iDCT
- Integrated TV encoder support for S-Video(TV-OUT) output
- HYDRAVISION Multiple Monitor Management Software gives you flexible multi-display support to enable many combinations of VGA, DVI-I, and TV-OUT

System Requirements

- Intel Pentium 4 / III/ II / Celeron or AMD Athlon XP / Athlon / Duron / K6 CPU
- Compatible with AGP 4X slot or AGP 2X/4X universal slot
- 64MB of system memory
- Installation software requires CD-ROM drive
- DVD playback requires DVD drive

Support Resolution Modes

640×480 pixels at 200Hz
800×600 pixels at 200Hz
- 1024×768 pixels at 200Hz
- 1280×1024 pixels at 160Hz
- 1600×1200 pixels at 120Hz
- 1920×1200 pixels at 100Hz
- 1920×1440 pixels at 85Hz
- 2048×1280 pixels at 90Hz
- 2048×1536 pixels at 75Hz

Form Factor

- Six layers, 168mm(L) x 65mm(H),
- Daughter card: 45mm(L) x 35mm(H)

The Specs In Detail

What do we find inside the box? :

- The Radeon 7500 videocard (of course)
- A small but well-written printed manual
- The Driver CD

Just as we expected, this package didn't come with any extras like a bonus mouse pad or a bundle with extra sofware or games. That's pretty normal because Transcend wants to keep the price of this package as low as possible. After all, it's a low-budget videocard. The whole pack comes in a solid cardboard box. The printed manual is well-written and features no less than 8 different languages. It covers just about all there is to know about how to properly install and configure this card. One small item we missed in this package is an S-video-out converter cable :( That's about all there is to say about the package folks. Now let's unwrap the card and check it out
…

The ATI Radeon 7500 GPU is placed on a very small greenish PCB. The card itself measures only 168mm x 65mm! The chipset is cooled down by a stock ATI cooler.

Did you notice there are no memory modules on top of the PCB? At first, I was going nutts because I simply couldn't locate the memory chips! :) But then, after a couple of drinks, I suddenly remembered that a videocard also has a backside to it! And there they were … four 4ns Samsung DDR memory modules of 16MB each resulting in a total of 64MB DDR RAM running at 183MHz (366MHz DDR) by default. I don't really now why Transcend have put 4ns memory on this videocard, because 183MHz corresponds to 'cheaper' 5.5ns memory …

The Radeon 7500 core itself runs at 260MHz. That's also pretty strange because the ATI Radeon 7500 videocard (Built By ATI) operates at 290/230 (460MHz DDR) by default! Why is the Transcend version clocked severely lower than the ATI model? I have absolutely no idea! :(

The Radeon 7500 core gets its power from the
CHARISMA ENGINE
. I'm not going to give you detailed specs about this engine, because that would simply lead us too far. Just remember that this engine allows the Radeon 7500 to support full transformation, clipping & lighting (the well-know T&L) and other DirectX 8.0 features. A second part of the Radeon 7500 core is the PIXEL TAPESTRY ENGINE which is nothing more and nothing less than the Radeon's rendering engine and powers 1.74 gigatexels/second for high resolution 32-bit gaming. If you like to have more detailed information about the features inside the Radeon 7500 GPU, I suggest you go visit the ATI Radeon 7500 website …

Now what's that small piece of PCB hanging on our videocard? Well, that's the add-in card which supplies the CRT/VGA output connector! That's right, the Transcend Radeon 7500 videocard WITHOUT the add-in card only sports a DVI output and a TV-out connector. The "daughter card" takes care of the CRT/VGA connector. This means you can actually enjoy the power of a dual monitor setup with this low-budget card! All you have to do is go out and buy a DVI to VGA adapter and you're all set to hook up your two CRT monitors to this card.

Now that you know all there is to know about the Transcend Radeon 7500, I'd like to continue with the more important things in life … OVERCLOCKING! :)

Page 3 : Overclocking

Overclocking

We wouldn't call ourselves OVERCLOCKERS Online if we didn't try to overclock our hardware to the max! The one thing you always have to keep in mind is the fact that some hardware is more suited for overclocking than other. For example … some videocards come with better cooling like RAM sinks, a bigger heatsink, etc. while other and often cheaper cards just aren't made to run out of specs. With that in mind, we didn't expect too much from our Transcend card since the overclocking potential of this card is severely limited by the small cooler on the chipset and the lack of RAM sinks on the memory modules. However, you never know what surprises might be awaiting you …

To enable us to adjust the core and memory speed of this videocard, we need a videocard overclocking utility such as Powerstrip. The tool is shareware which means that you can use it for like 30 days before you have to register. I'd like to note that there are other apps just like Powerstrip. Just because Powerstrip is my personal favorite, it doesn't mean that you have to use it as well.

As I mentioned before during the spec talk, the core of the Transcend Radeon 7500 is clocked at 260MHz while the memory runs at 183MHz (366MHz DDR). After some annoying lockups due to the fact that the core or memory were clocked too high, I was able to set the core to a stable 280MHz with the memory speed at 200MHz (400MHz DDR). This is not a wild overclock, but considering the fact that the Radeon 7500 is a mainstream budget card, I don't want to make a big deal out of it.

The benchmarks are just one click away folks! Let's head on over there …

Page 4 : Benchmarking

Benchmarking

Test System :

- Intel P4 1.6A @ 2.13GHz (133MHz FSB)
- ABIT IT7-MAX (i845E) Mainboard
- 256MB Samsung PC2700 DDR RAM
- Transcend Radeon 7500 Videocard
- Maxtor 60GB ATA133 7200rpm hard drive
- WinXP + latest drivers

* Radeon 7500 driver : CATALYST 02.3 build 6.13.10.6166
* nVidia Detonator : 29.42

MadOnion's 3DMark2001 SE

16-BIT

Note: the GF MX460 kept giving hardware error's in 16-BIT mode, even with different motherboards. That's why there are no 3DMark2001SE benchmarks in 16-BIT of the MX460.

32-BIT

Quake3 Arena v1.17

Demo001

Torture Demo

Aquamark

Novalogic Comanche4

NOTE : This time we didn't include benchmark results from the overclocked videocard, because the performance gain simply wasn't any spectacular enough … most of the time it was less than 1% …

Page 5 : Conclusion

Conclusion

Good

- Price/performance is pretty good
- Small PCB
- Dual Display support!
- TV-Out

Bad

- No S-Video-out converter
- Not really fast enough for high resolution gaming
- Better alternatives available

Videocard-newbie Transcend did a nice job with their Radeon 7500 videocard. The card is not a performance beast, but when we look at the price/performance ratio, it comes out a lot better than the GeForce4 MX series from nVidia.

If you're a hardcore gamer with a 19" monitor who wants to upgrade his rig with a budget card to play UT2k3 with a resolution of 1280×1024, then you might want to look further and consider an ATI Radeon 9000 PRO or something similar!