X-bit labs

ATI Introduces DirectX 9 and PCI Express to Value Graphics Market: PowerColor X300SE Graphics Card Review (page 13)

Category: Video

by Alexey Stepin

[ 10/20/2004 | 04:34 PM ]

Performance in Semi-Synthetic Benchmarks

Aquamark3

The PowerColor is less speedy in Aquamark3 than the RADEON X300, although there are few complex pixel shaders in this test. The memory frequency seems to play the main part here, and the RADEON X600 PRO with 300 (600DDR) MHz memory on board turns in a much higher score than the members of the RADEON X300 family.

Performance in Synthetic Benchmarks

Futuremark 3DMark03 build 340

Well, you hadn’t expected the PowerColor X300 SE to set any new records in 3DMark03, had you? It is still an entry-level graphics card. The RADEON 9200 gets an even lower score due to its inability to pass the fourth gaming test (this GPU cannot execute version 2.0 pixel shaders).

There are no pixel shaders in the first game test, but the textures are complex, so the PowerColor X300 SE falls behind the ordinary RADEON X300 in this race. Overclocking helps little, since it is not the GPU but the memory bandwidth that bears the main load here.