14 DAY TRIAL // If you're thinking that PCI is obsolete, then you're in for a big surprise. You can ask yourself "Who in the world needs a VGA PCI card?" and you would probably be right if your answer is "No One". However, HIS executives think otherwise. HIS X1300 in its PCI form is a completely passive cooled card but, unfortunately, this translates in a dual slot solution. The dual slot bug had to be adopted, because of the Dual DVI outputs; this time, you won't find them side by side at the back of your board, the second connector actually being on top of the other. Well, that's a bit weird but it works.
It's 0db all the way with this card and if the fact that you use 2 PCI slots instead of one doesn't bother you, then you'll like the fact that you can have a PCI card capable of decoding H.264 and HDCP capable, same as all the other PCI-Express solution. And this is exactly the card you can put to good use if you have an older PC and yet you want to use it with a capable LCD. Or maybe 2.
Sincerely, I don't think there is a lot of demand for such a product, reason for which I don't think this project will end up well. Keep in mind that the PCI bus is pretty slow when compared to AGP or PCI-Express X16 solutions. Add that to the fact that it uses 64bit wide memory module instead of at least 128. And the GPU/Memory speeds (450/500 GDDR2) are not that impressive either. But if you plan to use it, this will make a good product, especially when in need of DVI outputs and HD playback.