X-bit labs

ATI Radeon X1650 XT Graphics Card Review (page 12)

Category: Video

by Alexey Stepin , Yaroslav Lyssenko

[ 01/19/2007 | 11:58 AM ]

Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory

The average speed of the contending graphics cards is similar when there’s no FSAA, but the Radeon X1650 XT is preferable in terms of minimum speed due to its having more pixel shader processors. A smaller difference between the average and minimum speed always means a higher level of comfort in gameplay, so the Radeon should be considered the winner of this test.

When it comes to the 4x FSAA + 16x AF mode, the Radeon X1650 XT has a better minimum as well as average speed in high resolutions, but the numbers are too low for this mode to be playable. Like in a majority of other games, we do not recommend enabling FSAA on graphics cards of this price category.

Tomb Raider: Legend

The Radeon X1650 XT is always slower than the GeForce 7600 GT regardless of FSAA mode, although it gets closer when FSAA is enabled thanks to its more advanced memory controller. We can’t pinpoint the reason for this defeat. Perhaps the game engine puts a very high load on the graphics card’s TMUs. The results of the Radeon X1950 Pro without FSAA agree with this supposition.

There’s no talking about comfortable play here. Every graphics card included in this test provides too low performance. The GeForce 7900 GS has the best average frame rate (when FSAA is off), but slows down to 15fps at times.