Comparing graphic cards and understanding PT results

[JP-NY]

I have a really old WinXP box which is used for office work (word processing, Quicken, Web browsing, no gaming).

The graphics card just blew up (Nvidia GEforce 7300 LE 256MB) and I need to replace it. I have several old PCI-E cards laying around and was trying to determine which would be the best card to use. I'm also not opposed to buying a new card if these cards are worse then the one that I previously had. My only complaint with the previous setup was that web pages with a lot of embedded videos or ads would take a long to time to render. Since my internet speed is 250mbs and the PC has a 1000mbs NIC, 4GB RAM, SSD hard drive, I assume it is the GPU which is choking on these pages.

Running at 1024 X 768 32 bit

The four cards I have laying around are (PerformanceTest results at bottom of post):

1. A different looking then blown card Nvidia GEforce 7300 LE, which I thought only had 128MB but PT says 512MB (128MB dedicated), DDR2,
Core clock 450MHZ, Memory data rate 1296 MHZ

2. AMD Radeon HD 6300M. Has a box checked off on the board that says 512MB but PT says 1024MB, HyperMemory, Core clock 650MHZ, Memory clock 400MHZ

3. ATI Radeon X300, PT reports 128MB DDR SGRAM / SD RAM, Clock 324MHZ, memory clock 196MHZ

4. Diamond Radeon X1550, PT reports 512MB DDR2, Clock 547 MHZ, Memory clock 270MHZ

According to the online PT results my old card specs were Max Memory Size: 128MB Core Clock 350 MHz, Memory clock 666 MHz.



Is my assumption about the browsing bottleneck being the GPU correct?

Why do the reported memory sizes differ (ie I "knew" my card to be 256MB but PT web page says 128MB max, AMD Card is marked at 512 on board, but PT reports 1024MB)?

Based on my test (below) the NEW Nvidia 7300 was faster on 2D test than the Radeon HD 6300M, but much worse on the 3D tests.
Since I am not playing 3D games I assume that 2D performance is more important to me, but why wouldn't a faster card be faster on all?

Which specs are most important to me, memory size (only need 1024x76) , memory speed, clock speed, memory technology?

How do the four cards compare to the original? I cant obviously test the bad card and the scores given on this page (55 and 1.72) don't seem to have anything to do with the PT test I ran on the other cards.

Should I use one of the four cards I have or can I get better performance for my needs by purchasing something else (recommendations).

Thanks



-------------------------- PT TEST RESULTS --------------------------

2D Graphics Mark
Nvidia g7300 - NVIDIA GeForce 7300 LE 264.1
ATI 512 - AMD Radeon HD 6300M 204.2
ATI x300 - ATI Radeon X300/X550/X1050 Series 228.5
Ati x550 - Diamond Radeon X1550 Series 236.2

3D Graphics Mark
Nvidia g7300 - NVIDIA GeForce 7300 LE 72.5
ATI 512 - AMD Radeon HD 6300M 164.4
ATI x300 - ATI Radeon X300/X550/X1050 Series 47.6
Ati x550 - Diamond Radeon X1550 Series 84.2

2D Graphics Mark
Nvidia g7300 - NVIDIA GeForce 7300 LE 264.1
ATI 512 - AMD Radeon HD 6300M 204.2
ATI x300 - ATI Radeon X300/X550/X1050 Series 228.5
Ati x550 - Diamond Radeon X1550 Series 236.2

Graphics 2D - Simple Vectors
Nvidia g7300 - NVIDIA GeForce 7300 LE 10.8
ATI 512 - AMD Radeon HD 6300M 11.0
ATI x300 - ATI Radeon X300/X550/X1050 Series 10.9
Ati x550 - Diamond Radeon X1550 Series 10.9

Graphics 2D - Complex Vectors
Nvidia g7300 - NVIDIA GeForce 7300 LE 66.7
ATI 512 - AMD Radeon HD 6300M 69.4
ATI x300 - ATI Radeon X300/X550/X1050 Series 70.8
Ati x550 - Diamond Radeon X1550 Series 68.4

Graphics 2D - Complex Vectors
Nvidia g7300 - NVIDIA GeForce 7300 LE 66.7
ATI 512 - AMD Radeon HD 6300M 69.4
ATI x300 - ATI Radeon X300/X550/X1050 Series 70.8
Ati x550 - Diamond Radeon X1550 Series 68.4

Graphics 2D - Fonts and Text
#6 - NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 255.7
Nvidia g7300 - NVIDIA GeForce 7300 LE 77.8
ATI 512 - AMD Radeon HD 6300M 60.9
ATI x300 - ATI Radeon X300/X550/X1050 Series 66.8
Ati x550 - Diamond Radeon X1550 Series 78.1

Graphics 2D - Windows Interface
Nvidia g7300 - NVIDIA GeForce 7300 LE 128.6
ATI 512 - AMD Radeon HD 6300M 48.6
ATI x300 - ATI Radeon X300/X550/X1050 Series 113.5
Ati x550 - Diamond Radeon X1550 Series 135.2

Graphics 2D - Image Filters
Nvidia g7300 - NVIDIA GeForce 7300 LE 210.1
ATI 512 - AMD Radeon HD 6300M 202.0
ATI x300 - ATI Radeon X300/X550/X1050 Series 211.4
Ati x550 - Diamond Radeon X1550 Series 211.6

Graphics 2D - Image Rendering
Nvidia g7300 - NVIDIA GeForce 7300 LE 196.5
ATI 512 - AMD Radeon HD 6300M 116.8
ATI x300 - ATI Radeon X300/X550/X1050 Series 116.5
Ati x550 - Diamond Radeon X1550 Series 116.3

3D Graphics Mark
Nvidia g7300 - NVIDIA GeForce 7300 LE 72.5
ATI 512 - AMD Radeon HD 6300M 164.4
ATI x300 - ATI Radeon X300/X550/X1050 Series 47.6
Ati x550 - Diamond Radeon X1550 Series 84.2

Graphics 3D - DirectX 9 Simple
Nvidia g7300 - NVIDIA GeForce 7300 LE 7.3
ATI 512 - AMD Radeon HD 6300M 16.5
ATI x300 - ATI Radeon X300/X550/X1050 Series 5.0
Ati x550 - Diamond Radeon X1550 Series 8.9

Graphics 3D - DirectX 9 Complex
Nvidia g7300 - NVIDIA GeForce 7300 LE 3.63
ATI 512 - AMD Radeon HD 6300M 8.3
ATI x300 - ATI Radeon X300/X550/X1050 Series 2.27
Ati x550 - Diamond Radeon X1550 Series 4.01

[David (PassMark)]

Is my assumption about the browsing bottleneck being the GPU correct?

CPU and Internet speeds are more important. In later versions of Windows Direct2D & DirectWrite was used for render web pages. But not in XP.

Video cards can have fast dedicated memory and also use slower main memory. Except in your case using the word "fast" with these old cards is is an insult to the word fast.

the NEW Nvidia 7300 was faster on 2D test

This is a 6 year old card. Hardly new. If it was really new return it under warranty and get your money back.

Should I use one of the four cards I have or can I get better performance for my needs by purchasing something else

The overall 2D scores are similar. The AMD Radeon HD 6300M is best at 3D, but you aren't using 3D. So I don't think the video card matters greatly.

A real performance increase would result from getting a modern CPU, switching to 64bit Windows, getting DDR4 RAM, increasing the RAM to 8GB+, using USB3 and getting a M2 NVMe SSD.

[JP-NY]

Thanks for your reply.

So how do these four cards compare to what I had previously? Can I get better performance for the type of tasks I do by purchasing a different video card, what?

FYI: When I said "new" I meant not the old dead card.

Thanks

[David (PassMark)]

I don't think the video card matters greatly for web browsing on XP or Quicken.