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Albatron
is one of those companies that seemed to come out of nowhere
and rapidly make a name for themselves. Just around
the time NVIDIA was rolling out their GeForce 4 product line, Albatron slipped
into the spotlight, and became a
player in the video card market. Then, in an attempt
to gain a maximum amount of exposure in a relatively short
amount time,
they released a slew of review
samples to hardware community. Since then, Albatron
has grown into a very
successful manufacturer of quality motherboards and video
cards.
Today,
like many other companies reliant on NVIDIA's success,
Albatron is struggling to maintain a
competitive edge in the video card market. This can
be a difficult job when
the company they depend on for GPUs has
stumbled a bit.
With the latest FX series of GPUs being late to market,
coupled with ATi's tremendous success with their R300
series, it has become increasingly difficult for NVIDIA's
business partners to compete aggressively.
Subsequently, we've seen several major players make adjustments
to their business model, some dropping NVIDIA and others
bowing out altogether. Recently,
ELSA announced it was dropping out of the commercial video
card market in the States. Around the same time, Visiontek
surprised all of us by
falling into limbo before being purchased by Hartford, who
will now offer ATi based solutions under the Visiontek
name.
Yes, it is a tough time for companies
marketing NVIDIA based products, nonetheless, Albatron has
done their best to weather the storm. Regardless, the
relative newcomer continues to produce new video
cards with a wide array of features and performance. We recently had the
opportunity to review one of their latest offerings in the
mid-range value market, the Ti4800SE. Offering AGP8X
capability and claims of Ti4600 performance without the price tag,
we were anxious to take this card for a spin. So let's get
started!
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Specifications and Features of the
Albatron GeForce4 Ti4800SE |
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GeForce4 "Lite" |
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Albatron?s Ti4800SE
Features
Power by NVIDIA GeForce4
Ti4800SE GPU
AGP 8X/4X with AGP Texturing and Fast Writes
128MB DDR Memory
Supports Twin-View & TV-OUT
D-Sub & DVI Ports
3 Years Warranty
Series GeForce4 Ti4800
Medusa SERIES
Model Name
Ti4800SE
Graphics Engine GeForce4 Ti4800SE
Memory Size 128MB DDR
Memory Bus 128Bit
Engine Clock 275MHz
Memory Clock 550MHz
RAMDAC 350MHz
Max. Resolution 2048X1536@75Hz
Bus Standard AGP 8X/4X
VGA Output Standard 15-pin D-Sub
TV-out
DVI
Software Bundled
WIN DVD
3D GAMES Serious Sam
Motocross Mania
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Ti4800SE Chipset Features
AGP 8X
Provides double the
bandwidth of AGP 4X?2.1GB/sec. vs. 1.1BG/sec.
AGP 8X enables more complex models and detailed
textures, creating richer and more lifelike
environments. Uninterrupted data flow allows for
smoother video streaming and faster, more
seamless game play.
nfiniteFX II Engine
The NVIDIA nfiniteFX II
Engine incorporates dual programmable Vertex
Shaders, faster Pixel Shaders and 3D textures.
The nfiniteFX II Engine gives developers the
freedom to program a virtually infinite number
of custom special effects to create true-to-life
characters and environments.
Accuview
Antialiasing (AA)
The Accuview Antialiasing
subsystem with advanced multisampling hardware
delivers full-scene antialiased quality at
performance levels never before seen.
Lightspeed Memory
Architecture II
LMA II boosts effective
memory bandwidth by up to 300%. Radical new
technologies including Z-occlusion culling, fast
Z-clear, and auto pre-charge effectively
multiply the memory bandwidth to ensure fluid
frame rates for the latest 3D and 2D games and
applications.
nView Display
Technology
The nView hardware and
software technology combination delivers maximum
flexibility for multi-display options, and
provides unprecedented end-user control of the
desktop experience. nView allows end-users to
select any combination of multiple displays,
including digital flat panels, analog CRTs, and
TVs, and to modify the display properties using
an intuitive software interface.
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BUNDLE:
The folks at Albatron put
together a decent collection of items to accompany the
Ti4800SE. A comprehensive User's Guide covers all of
the details needed to install the video card and drivers. The Drivers disk
contained the bare
necessities including Detonator XP driver versions 41.09
and 31.40, the Coolbits registry tweak for overclocking
and WDM drivers. Aside from that, no real extras were
included on the disk.
What Albatron did include was full version copies of
Serious Sam - The Second Encounter and Motocross Mania.
For those playing DVDs on their systems, a
retail version of InterVideo's WinDVD 4 is also included.
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- User's Manual
- CD Driver and
Utilities
- VIVO Adaptor
- AV Cable
- S-Cable
- S to AV Adapter
- Serious Sam-The
Second Encounter
- Motocross Mania
- WinDVD 4
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What's more, the box
came with the necessary adapters to take advantage of
the Ti4800SE's ViVo features. The package we
received for review included a composite
AV Cable, S-Video Cable and an S-Video to
composite adapter. Clearly Albatron wanted make
sure user's were able to take full advantage of the
Ti4800SE's features and have some fun while they were at
it. Next
we're going to take a closer look at the card itself and
see what, if anything, makes it so special.
The
Card...
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