Application:

 PCI-E Video Card

Provided by:

 Connect3D

Available at:

 NewEgg.com

MSRP:

$130.99 or $486.99

Availability:

Now

Review by:

 Darren

Edited by:

 Scott

Review date:

 September 26th, 2006

 
 

 

The Contenders:

     At first look it may seem like a bit of a David and Goliath match up to put two X1600 series cards up against a X1900 XTX.  The fact that David Makin has taken up the cause of our heroic David is not lost on us ether!  But lets take a closer look at the two cards and see if things are closer than we first assumed.

The Connect3D X1900 XTX (3055):

     One of the fastest video cards in the land, our Connect 3D X1900 XTX has been the reigning king of the single card world up to the most recent X1950 release.  Heck one could argue the X1950 is only a updated version of our X1900 XTX right?

Specifications

  • Chipset: ATI R580, 90 nm

  • Pixel Shaders: 48

  • Verted Shaders: 8

  • Texture Units: 16

  • Raster Processors: 16

  • Memory Interface: 256-bit  8 channel GDDR3 (512 bit internal ring bus)

  • Native PCI Express x16 bus interface

  • GPU Clock Speed: 650 Mhz

  • Memory Clock Speed: 775 Mhz (1.55 GHz DRR)

  • Recommended Power Supply: 450W or greater (550W for Crossfire)

      The X1900 XTX is one of the fastest single card solutions available today. The XTX version brings slightly faster clock speeds than the standard XT variant.  Positioned to challenge the NVIDIA 7900 series, Radeon performance is enhanced by its ability to handle OpenEXR High-Dynamic-Range lighting (HDR) and antialiasing at the same time.

Radeon X1900 Family Core Clock Memory Clock Memory Quantity
Radeon X1900 XTX 650MHz 775MHz 512MB
Radeon X1900 XT 625MHz 725MHz 512MB
Radeon X1900 Crossfire 625MHz 725MHz 512MB
All-In-Wonder X1900 500MHz 480MHz 256MB

The Connect3D X1600 XT (3051):

     David's choice, the Connect 3D X1600 XT Crossfire solution.  The X1600 family is in reality a successor to the X700 and X800 lines with the most notable addition of the newer Shader Model 3.0 technology and Windows Vista compatibility.  And we will be using a matched set, of course!

Specifications

  • Chipset: ATI R530, 90 nm

  • Pixel Shaders: 12

  • Verted Shaders: 5

  • Texture Units: 4

  • Raster Processors: 4

  • Memory Interface: 128-bit  4 Channel GDDR3 (256 bit internal ring bus)

  • Native PCI Express x16 bus interface

  • GPU Clock Speed: 600 Mhz

  • Memory Clock Speed: 700 Mhz (1.38 GHz DRR)

  • Recommended Power Supply: 500W for crossfire

     The X1600 XT is positioned to challenge the NVIDIA 6600 series cards, again bringing the latest HDR and antialiasing technology to the table.  Where the XTX brings raw power, the X1600 XT is more creative splitting a much smaller 12 pixel pipelines into three separate 4 pixel banks.  This makes our card react like a 12 pixel card in some applications and more like a 4 pixel pipeline in others.

     Where the advancing technology may have pushed the X1600 series to the back burner the ability to run a two card Crossfire solution and the ~$150 price tag makes a set of X1600 cards a much better deal.  If they can perform even close to the XTX that is!

 

     Looking forward to the future, ATI has also announced their new physics architecture will give the option to run a second or even third X1000 series card as a dedicated physics engine.  Suddenly starting with a X1600 XT and moving up to Crossfire or even a newer series ATI card makes perfect sense.
 

Radeon X1600 Family Core Clock Memory Clock Memory Quantity
Radeon X1600 XT 600MHz 700MHz 256/512
Radeon X1600 PRO 500MHz 400MHz 256/512