X-bit labs

PowerColor X700 PRO Graphics Card Review (page 23)

Category: Video

by Alexey Stepin

[ 02/09/2005 | 12:42 PM ]

Conclusion

The noisy cooling system of the PowerColor X700 PRO that cannot control the speed of the fan spoils all the fun from this graphics card. That’s the more disappointing as the reference sample of the RADEON X700 PRO can vary the fan speed depending on the GPU temperature and load. Apart of that fact, the reviewed device is good in everything, from its accessories and quality of manufacture to the overclockability and 2D image quality.

As for the performance, the PowerColor X700 PRO did exactly like it should have done. As you know, the performance of the RADEON X700 XT matches the speed of the GeForce 6600 GT across a number of applications, and the PowerColor is a little slower than they both due to its lower clock rates.

The test data confirm this supposition: the PowerColor X700 PRO is almost everywhere slower than the GeForce 6600 GT.

The same goes for the “eye candy” mode with enabled full-screen anti-aliasing and anisotropic filtering, but the gap is smaller here due to the X700 PRO efficient memory controller and HyperZ technology. When overclocked, the PowerColor X700 PRO roughly corresponds to the regular RADEON X700 XT, so you can refer to the results of the latter.

The PowerColor X700 PRO is yet missing in the PriceWatch.com database, but the prices for X700 PRO-based cards vary from $195 to $225, and the price of the PowerColor card is unlikely to deviate far from this range. For comparison, the GeForce 6600 GT will cost you about $180-240 and will offer you more performance overall, but this card has only 128 megabytes of graphics memory aboard, while the PowerColor X700 PRO is equipped with 256MB and is capable of overclocking to the frequencies of the RADEON X700 XT. Of course, overclocking is a bit of a lottery, and you can’t expect each sample of the PowerColor X700 PRO to be as overclockable as ours, but the possibility is quite high considering the fast memory the card comes with.

So, it’s again your choice, while we sum up the highs and lows of the device we’ve reviewed today.

Highs:

• 256 megabytes of fast memory aboard;
• Good overclockability;
• Nice accessories;
• High 2D quality.

Lows:

• No fan speed control;
• Too much noise.