Axle GeForce GT 430 Review
We are pleased to bring you another review of Nvidia’s Fermi family featuring the GF108 GPU. Axle has sent us their version of the GT 430 for evaluation. It is a very full-featured entry-level video card that is especially suited for HTPC and light to medium DX11 gaming at the most popular resolutions including 1280 × 1024 and 1400 × 900.
The Axle GT 430 Classic is a “green” version of the Nvidia GT 430 and has a lower default core and memory clock than the reference card. This is geared towards reducing the power draw while maintaining as much of its performance as possible. This evaluation focuses on that performance in several popular games.
However, before we get to our evaluation, here is a bit about the company:
About AXLE
AXLE International Holding Limited insists on providing the best to its customers, not only for the products but also the service. The only belief is that quality maintains the survival of the company. Established in 1988, they have grown and developed among keen competition. AXLE found it’s own way through service & quality.
Today, they have a factory with a workforce of over 600 in Mainland China. Headquarters in Hong Kong, sales offices in Germany, Dubai and China, AXLE products are distributed all over the world, such as in Asia, Middle East, Russia, and Eastern and Western Europe. Since 2000, AXLE has become one of the largest Nvidia Card manufacturers in the Asia Pacific region.
Driver Setup
Installing the driver software was made easy by a very simple yet intuitive menu that pops up after you insert the CD.
However, I opted to use the latest driver set, 260.99 for testing.
AXLE GT 430 Specifications
- Nvidia GeForce GT 430 GPU
- 96 Stream Processors
- 1GB GDDR3
- 128-bit memory bus
- Core Clock: 700MHz
- Memory Clock: 1400MHz
- PCI-Express 2.0 (compatible with 1.1)
Maximum Resolution
- Analog: 2048 x 1536
- Digital: 2560 x 1600
Dimensions
- Height: 100mm
- Length: 153mm
Inside the box
- Driver CD
- User Manual
- Installation Guide
Features
- NVIDIA Unified Architecture
- NVIDIA PhysX Technology
- NVIDIA CUDA Technology
- NVIDIA PureVideo HD Technology
Connectors
- VGA
- DVI
- HDMI
Power Requirements
- 300-watt or higher power supply recommended
- 49-watt maximum power consumption
Summarized in a GPU-Z screenshot:
Closer Look (Gallery)
Here are some pictures of the card and its accessories.
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The fan and shroud can be removed and this makes passive cooling possible.
Test System
| CPU: | Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550S @ 3.75GHz (441×8.5) |
| CPU Cooler: | Thermaltake BigWater 760is |
| Motherboard: | ASUS P5E Deluxe X48 (Rampage Formula BIOS) |
| Hard Disk: | Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500GB (ST3500418AS) |
| Memory: | G.SKILL 4GB (2x2GB) DDR2-1000 PQ |
| Video Cards: | AXLE GT 430 Classic AMD Radeon HD 5450 AMD Radeon HD 5570 |
| Display: | 24” Gateway FHD2401 LCD |
| Power Supply: | Cooler Master UCP (Ultimate Circuit Protection) 1100W |
| Chassis: | CM Storm Sniper – Black Edition – Mesh Version |
Software & Settings
- AMD Catalyst 10.12; highest quality mip-mapping set in the driver, Catalyst AI set to “Standard”
- Nvidia driver 260.99; highest quality filtering, all optimizations off
- Windows 7 64-bit Ultimate
- All games are patched to their latest versions.
- vsync is off in the control panel and is never set in-game.
- AA enabled or disabled in-game (charts denote how much is applied) and is never set in the driver.
- 16xAF is always applied.p
- All results show average frame rates except as noted.
- Highest quality sound (stereo) used in all games.
- Windows 7, all DX10 titles were run under DX10 render paths
- Windows 7, all DX11 titles were run under DX11 render paths
Benchmarking Notes
Throughout the testing, all of the hardware and software remained the same except for the video cards and their respective drivers. All game benchmarks were run at the 1440 x 900 resolution and in most cases at the highest possible settings unless otherwise stated. The Unigine Heaven 2.1 Benchmark was also run at these resolutions with Tessellation set to Normal. Both 3DMark tests were run at their default settings. PhysX was turned off for all tests.
Disclaimer
- The Axle GeForce GT 430 used in this review has a memory clock of 700MHz (1400MHz effective). This is slower than the reference 900MHz (1800MHz effective) clocks used by Nvidia.
- Overclocking was not tested on this card due to the fact that it is a low power card. Overclocking would only increase power draw and defeat the purpose for which the card was intended.
Specifications
The main specifications of the cards tested are as follows:
GT 430
- Core Clock: 700MHz
- Shader Clock (linked): 1400MHz
- Memory Clock: 1400MHz (Reference: 1800MHz)
HD 5570
- Core Clock: 650MHz
- Stream Processors: 400
- Memory Clock: 800MHz (3200MHz effective)
HD 5450
- Core Clock: 650MHz
- Stream Processors: 80
- Memory Clock: 900MHz (3600MHz effective)
I will keep my comments to a minimum as the charts generally speak for themselves.
3DMark Vantage
3DMark Vantage is a PC benchmark suite designed to test the DirectX10 performance of your graphics card. It is the latest addition to the 3DMark series. As it is a DX10-only benchmark, it only runs on Windows Vista and Windows 7. 3DMark Vantage is composed of four full-bore benchmarking tests (2 CPU tests and 2 GPU tests) and 6 feature tests. This test makes good use of multi-core CPUs and can even use Nvidia’s PhysX technology on its GeForce line-up of video cards.
The low power GT 430 manages to out do both the HD 5450 and the HD 5570 in this synthetic test. Now let us take a look at a few real world benchmarks. Games!
Crysis
From the makers of Far Cry, Crysis offers FPS fans the best-looking, most highly-evolving gameplay, requiring the player to use adaptive tactics and total customization of weapons and armor to survive in dynamic, hostile environments including Zero-G.
The GT 430 is able to beat the HD 5450 in Crysis, but falls behind the HD 5570 by a decent margin. This is a clear example of why we stress that synthetic tests should not be used to make conclusions about performance.
Crysis Warhead
Take on the fight as the volatile Sergeant “Psycho” Sykes in a new parallel story taking place during the events of Crysis. Psycho’s secret mission will take him to the other side of the island on a ruthless pursuit of a North Korean general hell-bent on obtaining powerful technology. With the versatile powers of his Nanosuit and an arsenal of fully customizable weapons & vehicles at his disposal, Sykes will do whatever it takes to carry out his top-secret objective.
The Crysis trend continues with Warhead as the HD 5450 still gets beaten by the GT 430 and the HD 5570 is still well in front.
Far Cry 2
Far Cry 2, the next-generation first-person shooter from Ubisoft, will take you deep into the most beautiful but also most hostile environments in the world: Africa! More than just a visual and technological achievement, Far Cry 2, the true sequel to the award-winning PC game, will provide you with an unprecedented gaming experience.
The GT 430 takes the reigns in this one and does enough to beat both of its competitors.
DiRT 2
Inspired by the best in off-road racing and extreme sports, Dirt 2 takes you on a stunning world tour from Malaysia to Morocco and London to LA in new and classic events. Unleash the planet’s hottest licensed off-road vehicles in a range of multi-car, solo and multi-class races set in incredible new environments.
Here we see another benchmark in which the GT 430 is able to kick dirt on the competition. The HD 5450 got left in the dust and the HD 5570 finished in second place.
Resident Evil 5
Resident Evil 5 is a survival horror third-person shooter video game developed and published by Capcom. The game is the seventh installment in the Resident Evil survival horror series. It is one of those series that is an old favourite and RE 5 brings with it a top-notch gaming experience and rich, fluid visuals.
The HD 5450 performed decently but was way behind the two main contenders, of which the HD 5570 was able to pip the the GT 430 for top spot.
World In Conflict
The award-winning World in Conflict showed us what it would’ve been like if the Cold War erupted into World War III. In the original game, you would play the U.S. side and defend your homeland against the invading Russian army. With the new single-player expansion you can now go on the attack as you take control of the Soviet army in an attempt to paint the free world red. Award-winning original game plus new expansion – the complete edition will immerse you in an all-out battle for the heart of the free world.
World in Conflict is another good example of where the performance lies. HD 5450 at the bottom, with the GT 430 next and HD 5570 on top.
S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat
The events of S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat unfold shortly after the end of S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl. Having discovered about the open path to the Zone center, the government decides to hold a large-scale military “Fairway” operation aimed to take the CNPP under control.
The S.T.A.L.K.E.R. (just simply called STALKER) series has made quite an impact on PC gaming with its Action-RPG, FPS hybrid style gameplay. The latest game in the series, Call of Pripyat, has a benchmark which was used to compare the performance of the cards tested.
After failing to win a few of the previous benches, the GT 430 answered the Call of Pripyat and was able to yet again beat both rivals.
BattleForge
The gods have disappeared and the old sun has died, letting a vile twilight engulf the world of Nyn. In exchange for all treasures the mortals possessed, the evil giants agreed to forge a new sun and hurl it into the sky.
But the deal was betrayed, the treasure stolen and now the mortals flee the wrath of the giants. Under the light of a new sun the mortals stumble into a world changed and twisted by an age of twilight. The long journey home has become a conquest of survival.
BattleForge is a pretty straightforward benchmark which yielded much the same result as was expected; GT 430 performing in between the HD 5450 and HD 5570.
Mafia II
Mafia II is a third-person action-adventure video game, the sequel to Mafia: The City of Lost Heaven. It is developed by 2K Czech, previously known as Illusion Softworks, and is published by 2K Games. Mafia II is a beautifully crafted look into the dark and unforgiving world of the Mafia.
The GT 430 was only able to come within 6fps of the HD 5570 but it easily beat the HD 5450.
Temperature
Controlling temperature is a vital part of the balance between noise and cooling. We all want to know that when we sink our hard-earned money into our hardware, it won’t fail due to overheating caused by inadequate cooling solutions.
FurMark 1.8.2 – the new Hot Like Hell Edition – was used to load the GPU for 10 minutes and the peak temperature was recorded. The idle temperature remained the same in each case.
The GT 430 idled at 33°C. While at full load, it had a peak temperature of 55°C and when stressed to the fullest with Furmark, the temperature crept up to a high of 65°C. These results were obtained with an ambient reading at 28°C. The cooling solution Axle uses is able to allow the card to idle just 5°C above ambient. This demonstrates that it is quite an efficient design.
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Noise
Owing to the lack of a decibel meter, I had to test by using more natural means. This was done simply by listening at an approximate distance of three feet away with the chassis closed. I was pleased to find that the fan was inaudible throughout. By default, when the GPU is loaded and putting out more heat, the fan spins up to offer more cooling to the cards’ components. The fan speed however, never increased from the default minimum of 65%.
Power Usage
Power usage is becoming increasingly important in this green age. Most enthusiasts disregard power usage in favour of raw performance but at the other end of the spectrum, budget and mainstream users are more wary.
The Axle GT 430 draws a maximum of 49W and this is easily supplied by the PCI Express motherboard slot which can provide up to 75W. Therefore, no additional power connectors were needed for this video card.
Conclusion
Nvidia and Axle have served up yet another gem. This GT 430 makes a great HTPC card and does well in light to medium gaming. The power saving features are a big plus for the more conservative users and are a good, ‘green’ approach to modern computing.
At US $70, this is a great value for money and it can even be found cheaper at online stores. Here are the pros and cons of this card:
Pros
- Supports DirectX 11, CUDA and PhysX
- Full hardware HD video decoding
- High quality HD video post-processing
- High efficiency (performance per watt)
- Efficient cooling system
- Fan runs quietly
- Fan and shroud are removable
- passive cooling possible
- completely silent cooling possible
Cons
- Dual-slot design
- No SLI support and thus no 3-display Surround
It is easy to recommend such a well-balanced video card that offers decent performance on a budget. Great value!
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Leon Hyman
Senior Editor
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