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[nextpage title=”Introduction”]
Sapphire released a Radeon X1600 XT model using a silent cooling solution. As you know, Radeon X1600 XT is the top mid-range chip from ATI. In this review we will compare its performance to other members of the Radeon X1000 series, to previous ATI chips and also with competing products from NVIDIA. Let’s take a look at how was the performance of this special model from Sapphire.
Figure 1: Sapphire Radeon X1600 XT Ultimate.
Radeon X1600 XT runs officially at 590 MHz and accesses its memory at 1.38 GHz (22.08 GB/s), 128 bits per clock cycle. This model from Sapphire runs at the standard clock rates. If you want to learn more about ATI’s Radeon X1000 series and its difference from previous ATI products, read our article on this subject.
You can see in our tutorial “ATI Chips Comparison Table” the difference between Radeon X1600 XT and the other chips from ATI, while on our tutorial “NVIDIA Chips Comparison Table” you can compare it to its competitors from NVIDIA.
On Figures 2 and 3 you can see Sapphire Radeon X1600 XT Ultimate.
Figure 2: Sapphire Radeon X1600 XT Ultimate.
Figure 3: Sapphire Radeon X1600 XT Ultimate, back view.
[nextpage title=”Radeon X1600 XT Ultimate from Sapphire”]
As you may notice from the previous pictures, the silent cooling solution from Sapphire uses two all-aluminum big heatsinks with two aluminum heatpipes connecting them together, with a big fan on the back heatsink. We disassembled this exotic cooler to take a look, see Figure 4. As you can see, no copper is used. On the other hand, the front heatsink touches the memory chips, cooling them down.
Figure 4: Cooler disassembled.
In Figure 5, you can see this video card without its cooler.
Figure 5: The reviewed card without its cooler.
This video card has four GDDR2 512-Mbit 1.4 ns chips from Samsung (K4J52324QC-BC14), making its 256 MB video memory (512 Mbits x 4 = 256 MB). These chips can run up to 1.4 GHz. Since this video card accesses the memory at 1.38 GHz, there is no room if you wish to overclock its memory inside its specs.
In Figure 6, you can see Radeon X1600 XT chip. As you can see, it is called internally RV530 XT by ATI.
Figure 6: Radeon X1600 XT chip.
[nextpage title=”Main Specifications”]
- Graphics chip: Radeon X1600 XT running at 590 MHz.
- Memory: 1.4 ns 128-bit 256 MB GDDR3 memory from Samsung (K4J52324QC-BC14), running at 1.38 GHz.
- Bus type: PCI Express 16x.
- Connectors: One VGA, one DVI and one mini-DIN for S-Video output.
- Number of CDs that come with this board: N/A.
- Games that come with this board: N/A.
- Programs that come with this board: N/A.
- More Information: https://www.sapphiretech.com
- Average Price in the US: USD 140.00.
[nextpage title=”How We Tested”]
During our benchmarking sessions, we used the configuration listed below. Between our benchmarking sessions the only variable was the video card being tested.
Hardware Configuration
- Motherboard: DFI LAN Party 925X-T2 (Intel 925X, Sep. 20th, 2004 BIOS)
- CPU: Pentium 4 3.4 GHz LGA 775
- Memory: Two 512 MB DDR2-533 CM2X512-4200 CL4 from Corsair memory modules
- Hard Drive: Maxtor DiamondMax 9 Plus (40 GB, ATA-133)
- Screen resolution: [email protected] Hz
Software Configuration
- Windows XP Professional installed using NTFS
- Service Pack 2
- Direct X 9.0c
- Intel inf driver version: 6.0.1.1002
- ATI video driver version: 4.10 (6.14.10.6483)
- ATI video driver version: 4.12 (Radeon X850 Platinum Edition)
- ATI video driver version: 5.3 (Radeon X800 GT)
- ATI video driver version: 5.9 (Radeon X800 GTO)
- ATI video driver version: 6.1 (Radeon X1600 XT from HIS)
- ATI video driver version: 8.173 beta (Radeon X1000 series)
- ATI video driver version: 8.203.3.0 (Radeon X1900 XTX)
- NVIDIA video driver version: 66.93
- NVIDIA video driver version: 77.72 (GeForce 7800 GTX)
- NVIDIA video driver version: 78.02 (GeForce 7800 GT)
- NVIDIA video driver version: 81.98 (GeForce 6800 GS)
- NVIDIA video driver version: 84.21 (GeForce 7600 and 7900 series)
- NVIDIA video driver version: 91.29 (GeForce 7950 GX2)
Used Software
We adopted a 3% error margin; thus, differences below 3% cannot be considered relevant. In other words, products with a performance difference below 3% should be considered as having similar performance.
[nextpage title=”3DMark2001 SE”]
3DMark2001 SE measures video card performance simulating DirectX 8.1 games. It is very effective software for evaluating the performance from previous-generation games, programmed using DirectX 8. In this software we run six tests. We run the software in three resolutions, 1024x768x32, 1280x1024x32 and 1600x1200x32, first without antialising and with no frame buffer, then we put the antialising at 4 samples and the frame buffer at triple-buffering. This improves the video quality but lowers the performance. We were willing to see how much performance we lost by putting the VGA to run at the maximum possible image quality. It is important to note that ATI chips can run at 6x antialising. Since NVIDIA chips cannot run at this configuration, we had to use 4x antialising to use a configuration that is valid to all video cards included in our bechmarks, allowing direct comparison between them.
You may be asking yourself why we added an old program in a review of a latest generation video card. To us, it is as important to know the performance of a video card with the latest games as it is to know its performance in an older game. That’s why we kept this software in our methodology.
The results you check below. Radeon X1600 Pro Turbo from HIS is factory-overclocked, running at 587 MHz and accessing its memory at 1.38 GHz, while the standard Radeon X1600 Pro runs at 500 MHz and accesses its memory at 780 MHz.
| 3DMark2001 SE – 1024×768 | Score | Difference |
| Radeon X850 XT P.E. (ATI) | 23,004 | 17.25 |
| GeForce 7950 GX2 (NVIDIA) | 22,967 | 17.06 |
| Radeon X1800 XT (ATI) | 22,731 | 15.86 |
| GeForce 7900 GTX (NVIDIA) | 22,720 | 15.80 |
| GeForce 7800 GTX (MSI) | 21,858 | 11.41 |
| GeForce 7900 GT (NVIDIA) | 21,510 | 9.63 |
| Radeon X1800 XL (ATI) | 21,487 | 9.52 |
| Radeon X1900 GT (Connect3D) | 21,433 | 9.24 |
| GeForce 7800 GT (NVIDIA) | 21,043 | 7.25 |
| Radeon X800 GT (HIS) | 20,299 | 3.46 |
| GeForce 6800 GS (NVIDIA) | 20,084 | 2.36 |
| GeForce 6800 GT (NVIDIA) | 20,072 | 2.30 |
| Radeon X1600 XT (ATI) | 19,865 | 1.25 |
| GeForce 7600 GT (NVIDIA) | 19,864 | 1.24 |
| Radeon X800 GTO (HIS) | 19,797 | 0.90 |
| Radeon X1600 XT (Sapphire) | 19,620 | |
| Radeon X1600 Pro Turbo (HIS) | 19,082 | 2.82 |
| Radeon X700 Pro (Sapphire) | 18,630 | 5.31 |
| GeForce 6600 GT (XFX) | 17,881 | 9.73 |
| Radeon X1900 XTX (ATI) | 17,412 | 12.68 |
| GeForce 7600 GS (NVIDIA) | 16,840 | 16.51 |
| Radeon X1600 Pro 512 MB (PowerColor) | 16,780 | 16.92 |
| Radeon X600 XT (ATI) | 14,453 | 35.75 |
| GeForce 6600 (Albatron) | 14,132 | 38.83 |
| Radeon X600 Pro (Sapphire) | 12,545 | 56.40 |
| 3DMark2001 SE – 1280×1024 | Score | Difference |
| GeForce 7950 GX2 (NVIDIA) | 21,449 | 26.26 |
| Radeon X1800 XT (ATI) | 21,038 | 23.84 |
| GeForce 7900 GTX (NVIDIA) | 20,882 | 22.92 |
| Radeon X850 XT P.E. (ATI) | 20,868 | 22.84 |
| GeForce 7800 GTX (MSI) | 20,096 | 18.30 |
| GeForce 7900 GT (NVIDIA) | 19,924 | 17.28 |
| Radeon X1800 XL (ATI) | 19,768 | 16.36 |
| Radeon X1900 GT (Connect3D) | 19,755 | 16.29 |
| GeForce 7800 GT (NVIDIA) | 19,465 | 14.58 |
| GeForce 6800 GT (NVIDIA) | 18,436 | 8.52 |
| GeForce 6800 GS (NVIDIA) | 18,307 | 7.76 |
| GeForce 7600 GT (NVIDIA) | 18,228 | 7.30 |
| Radeon X800 GT (HIS) | 18,084 | 6.45 |
| Radeon X800 GTO (HIS) | 17,658 | 3.94 |
| Radeon X1600 XT (ATI) | 17,005 | 0.10 |
| Radeon X1600 XT (Sapphire) | 16,988 | |
| Radeon X1900 XTX (ATI) | 16,750 | 1.42 |
| Radeon X1600 Pro Turbo (HIS) | 16,588 | 2.41 |
| Radeon X700 Pro (Sapphire) | 15,721 | 8.06 |
| GeForce 6600 GT (XFX) | 15,464 | 9.86 |
| GeForce 7600 GS (NVIDIA) | 14,854 | 14.37 |
| Radeon X1600 Pro 512 MB (PowerColor) | 13,370 | 27.06 |
| GeForce 6600 (Albatron) | 11,403 | 48.98 |
| Radeon X600 XT (ATI) | 11,274 | 50.68 |
| Radeon X600 Pro (Sapphire) | 9,472 | 79.35 |
| 3DMark2001 SE – 1600×1200 | Score | Difference |
| GeForce 7950 GX2 (NVIDIA) | 20,369 | 42.46 |
| Radeon X1800 XT (ATI) | 19,986 | 39.78 |
| GeForce 7900 GTX (NVIDIA) | 19,868 | 38.96 |
| Radeon X850 XT P.E. (ATI) | 19,382 | 35.56 |
| GeForce 7800 GTX (MSI) | 18,988 | 32.80 |
| GeForce 7900 GT (NVIDIA) | 18,793 | 31.44 |
| Radeon X1900 GT (Connect3D) | 18,749 | 31.13 |
| Radeon X1800 XL (ATI) | 18,390 | 28.62 |
| GeForce 7800 GT (NVIDIA) | 18,140 | 26.87 |
| GeForce 6800 GT (NVIDIA) | 16,784 | 17.39 |
| GeForce 7600 GT (NVIDIA) | 16,649 | 16.44 |
| GeForce 6800 GS (NVIDIA) | 16,590 | 16.03 |
| Radeon X1900 XTX (ATI) | 16,483 | 15.28 |
| Radeon X800 GTO (HIS) | 15,524 | 8.57 |
| Radeon X800 GT (HIS) | 15,498 | 8.39 |
| Radeon X1600 XT (ATI) | 14,481 | 1.28 |
| Radeon X1600 XT (Sapphire) | 14,298 | |
| Radeon X1600 Pro Turbo (HIS) | 13,850 | 3.23 |
| GeForce 6600 GT (XFX) | 13,694 | 4.41 |
| GeForce 7600 GS (NVIDIA) | 12,938 | 10.51 |
| Radeon X700 Pro (Sapphire) | 12,741 | 12.22 |
| Radeon X1600 Pro 512 MB (PowerColor) | 10,534 | 35.73 |
| GeForce 6600 (Albatron) | 9,059 | 57.83 |
| Radeon X600 XT (ATI) | 8,129 | 75.89 |
| Radeon X600 Pro (Sapphire) | 6,729 | 112.48 |
| 3DMark2001 SE – 1024×768 AAx4, FBx3 | Score | Difference |
| GeForce 7950 GX2 (NVIDIA) | 21,028 | 25.06 |
| Radeon X1800 XT (ATI) | 20,783 | 23.61 |
| GeForce 7900 GTX (NVIDIA) | 20,451 | 21.63 |
| Radeon X850 XT P.E. (ATI) | 20,403 | 21.35 |
| Radeon X1800 XL (ATI) | 19,671 | 16.99 |
| Radeon X1900 GT (Connect3D) | 19,321 | 14.91 |
| GeForce 7800 GTX (MSI) | 19,208 | 14.24 |
| GeForce 7900 GT (NVIDIA) | 19,103 | 13.61 |
| GeForce 7800 GT (NVIDIA) | 18,336 | 9.05 |
| GeForce 6800 GT (NVIDIA) | 17,187 | 2.22 |
| Radeon X1900 XTX (ATI) | 16,979 | 0.98 |
| GeForce 6800 GS (NVIDIA) | 16,856 | 0.25 |
| Radeon X1600 XT (ATI) | 16,834 | 0.12 |
| Radeon X1600 XT (Sapphire) | 16,814 | |
| GeForce 7600 GT (NVIDIA) | 16,775 | 0.23 |
| Radeon X800 GTO (HIS) | 16,529 | 1.72 |
| Radeon X800 GT (HIS) | 16,408 | 2.47 |
| Radeon X1600 Pro Turbo (HIS) | 15,964 | 5.32 |
| Radeon X700 Pro (Sapphire) | 15,745 | 6.79 |
| GeForce 7600 GS (NVIDIA) | 15,021 | 11.94 |
| GeForce 6600 GT (XFX) | 13,635 | 23.31 |
| Radeon X1600 Pro 512 MB (PowerColor) | 12,084 | 39.14 |
| Radeon X600 XT (ATI) | 9,718 | 73.02 |
| GeForce 6600 (Albatron) | 8,928 | 88.33 |
| Radeon X600 Pro (Sapphire) | 8,210 | 104.80 |
| 3DMark2001 SE – 1280×1024 AAx4, FBx3 | Score | Difference |
| GeForce 7950 GX2 (NVIDIA) | 19,440 | 38.25 |
| Radeon X1800 XT (ATI) | 19,354 | 37.64 |
| GeForce 7900 GTX (NVIDIA) | 18,778 | 33.55 |
| Radeon X850 XT P.E. (ATI) | 18,447 | 31.19 |
| Radeon X1800 XL (ATI) | 18,029 | 28.22 |
| Radeon X1900 GT (Connect3D) | 17,682 | 25.75 |
| GeForce 7900 GT (NVIDIA) | 17,142 | 21.91 |
| GeForce 7800 GTX (MSI) | 17,120 | 21.76 |
| GeForce 7800 GT (NVIDIA) | 16,302 | 15.94 |
| Radeon X1900 XTX (ATI) | 16,056 | 14.19 |
| GeForce 6800 GT (NVIDIA) | 15,117 | 7.51 |
| GeForce 6800 GS (NVIDIA) | 15,080 | 7.25 |
| GeForce 7600 GT (NVIDIA) | 14,294 | 1.66 |
| Radeon X1600 XT (Sapphire) | 14,061 | |
| Radeon X1600 XT (ATI) | 13,833 | 1.65 |
| Radeon X800 GT (HIS) | 13,655 | 2.97 |
| Radeon X800 GTO (HIS) | 13,652 | 3.00 |
| Radeon X1600 Pro Turbo (HIS) | 13,077 | 7.52 |
| GeForce 7600 GS (NVIDIA) | 12,892 | 9.07 |
| Radeon X700 Pro (Sapphire) | 12,364 | 13.73 |
| GeForce 6600 GT (XFX) | 10,487 | 34.08 |
| Radeon X1600 Pro 512 MB (PowerColor) | 8,756 | 60.59 |
| Radeon X600 XT (ATI) | 6,915 | 103.34 |
| GeForce 6600 (Albatron) | 6,049 | 132.45 |
| Radeon X600 Pro (Sapphire) | 5,755 | 144.33 |
| 3DMark2001 SE – 1600×1200 AAx4, FBx3 | Score | Difference |
| GeForce 7950 GX2 (NVIDIA) | 18,424 | 116.32 |
| Radeon X1800 XT (ATI) | 18,090 | 112.40 |
| GeForce 7900 GTX (NVIDIA) | 17,322 | 103.38 |
| Radeon X850 XT P.E. (ATI) | 16,299 | 91.37 |
| Radeon X1800 XL (ATI) | 16,213 | 90.36 |
| Radeon X1900 GT (Connect3D) | 15,920 | 86.92 |
| Radeon X1900 XTX (ATI) | 15,734 | 84.74 |
| GeForce 7900 GT (NVIDIA) | 15,503 | 82.02 |
| GeForce 7800 GTX (MSI) | 15,362 | 80.37 |
| GeForce 7800 GT (NVIDIA) | 14,418 | 69.28 |
| GeForce 6800 GT (NVIDIA) | 11,829 | 38.89 |
| GeForce 6800 GS (NVIDIA) | 11,663 | 36.94 |
| Radeon X800 GTO (HIS) | 11,127 | 30.64 |
| Radeon X800 GT (HIS) | 10,659 | 25.15 |
| GeForce 7600 GT (NVIDIA) | 9,891 | 16.13 |
| Radeon X700 Pro (Sapphire) | 9,455 | 11.01 |
| Radeon X1600 XT (Sapphire) | 8,517 | |
| Radeon X1600 XT (ATI) | 8,429 | 1.04 |
| Radeon X1600 Pro Turbo (HIS) | 7,781 | 9.46 |
| GeForce 6600 GT (XFX) | 6,620 | 28.66 |
| GeForce 7600 GS (NVIDIA) | 5,625 | 51.41 |
| Radeon X1600 Pro 512 MB (PowerColor) | 4,949 | 72.10 |
| GeForce 6600 (Albatron) | 3,558 | 139.38 |
| Radeon X600 XT (ATI) | 3,205 | 165.74 |
| Radeon X600 Pro (Sapphire) | 2,606 | 226.82 |
[nextpage title=”3DMark03″]
3DMark03 measures performance by simulating games written to DirectX 9, which are contemporary games. We run this program in three resolutions, 1024x768x32, 1280x1024x32 and 1600x1200x32, first without antialising and anisotropic filtering, and then configuring antialising at 4x and anisotropic filtering also at 4x. This improves the video quality but lowers the performance. We were willing to see how much performance we lost by putting the VGA to run at the maximum possible image quality. It is important to note that ATI chips can run at 6x antialising. Since NVIDIA chips cannot run at this configuration, we had to use 4x antialising to use a configuration that is valid to all video cards included in our bechmarks, allowing direct comparison between them.
The results you check below. Radeon X1600 Pro Turbo from HIS is factory-overclocked, running at 587 MHz and accessing its memory at 1.38 GHz, while the standard Radeon X1600 Pro runs at 500 MHz and accesses its memory at 780 MHz.
| 3DMark03 – 1024×768 | Score | Difference |
| GeForce 7950 GX2 (NVIDIA) | 24,670 | 165.47 |
| GeForce 7900 GTX (NVIDIA) | 18,465 | 98.70 |
| Radeon X1900 XTX (ATI) | 16,544 | 78.03 |
| Radeon X1800 XT (ATI) | 15,631 | 68.20 |
| GeForce 7900 GT (NVIDIA) | 15,375 | 65.45 |
| GeForce 7800 GTX (MSI) | 15,004 | 61.45 |
| GeForce 7800 GT (NVIDIA) | 13,760 | 48.07 |
| Radeon X1900 GT (Connect3D) | 13,630 | 46.67 |
| Radeon X1800 XL (ATI) | 13,144 | 41.44 |
| Radeon X850 XT P.E. (ATI) | 12,782 | 37.54 |
| GeForce 7600 GT (NVIDIA) | 12,111 | 30.32 |
| GeForce 6800 GS (NVIDIA) | 11,285 | 21.44 |
| GeForce 6800 GT (NVIDIA) | 11,223 | 20.77 |
| Radeon X800 GTO (HIS) | 9,563 | 2.91 |
| Radeon X1600 XT (ATI) | 9,352 | 0.63 |
| Radeon X1600 XT (Sapphire) | 9,293 | |
| Radeon X800 GT (HIS) | 9,134 | 1.74 |
| Radeon X1600 Pro Turbo (HIS) | 8,851 | 4.99 |
| GeForce 7600 GS (NVIDIA) | 8,213 | 13.15 |
| GeForce 6600 GT (XFX) | 8,056 | 15.36 |
| Radeon X700 Pro (Sapphire) | 7,295 | 27.39 |
| Radeon X1600 Pro 512 MB (PowerColor) | 7,087 | 31.13 |
| GeForce 6600 (Albatron) | 4,847 | 91.73 |
| Radeon X600 XT (ATI) | 4,128 | 125.12 |
| Radeon X600 Pro (Sapphire) | 3,468 | 167.96 |
| 3DMark03 – 1280×1024 | Score | Difference |
| GeForce 7950 GX2 (NVIDIA) | 21,038 | 205.70 |
| GeForce 7900 GTX (NVIDIA) | 15,394 | 123.68 |
| Radeon X1900 XTX (ATI) | 13,888 | 101.80 |
| Radeon X1800 XT (ATI) | 13,045 | 89.55 |
| GeForce 7900 GT (NVIDIA) | 12,578 | 82.77 |
| GeForce 7800 GTX (MSI) | 12,239 | 77.84 |
| Radeon X1900 GT (Connect3D) | 11,119 | 61.57 |
| GeForce 7800 GT (NVIDIA) | 10,997 | 59.79 |
| Radeon X1800 XL (ATI) | 10,671 | 55.06 |
| Radeon X850 XT P.E. (ATI) | 10,314 | 49.87 |
| GeForce 7600 GT (NVIDIA) | 9,529 | 38.46 |
| GeForce 6800 GT (NVIDIA) | 8,836 | 28.39 |
| GeForce 6800 GS (NVIDIA) | 8,784 | 27.64 |
| Radeon X800 GTO (HIS) | 7,472 | 8.57 |
| Radeon X800 GT (HIS) | 7,039 | 2.28 |
| Radeon X1600 XT (ATI) | 6,943 | 0.89 |
| Radeon X1600 XT (Sapphire) | 6,882 | |
| Radeon X1600 Pro Turbo (HIS) | 6,609 | 4.13 |
| GeForce 7600 GS (NVIDIA) | 6,277 | 9.64 |
| GeForce 6600 GT (XFX) | 6,041 | 13.92 |
| Radeon X700 Pro (Sapphire) | 5,351 | 28.61 |
| Radeon X1600 Pro 512 MB (PowerColor) | 5,023 | 37.01 |
| GeForce 6600 (Albatron) | 3,538 | 94.52 |
| Radeon X600 XT (ATI) | 2,990 | 130.17 |
| Radeon X600 Pro (Sapphire) | 2,507 | 174.51 |
| 3DMark03 – 1600×1200 | Score | Difference |
| GeForce 7950 GX2 (NVIDIA) | 18,152 | 244.90 |
| GeForce 7900 GTX (NVIDIA) | 14,090 | 167.72 |
| Radeon X1900 XTX (ATI) | 11,680 | 121.93 |
| Radeon X1800 XT (ATI) | 10,751 | 104.28 |
| GeForce 7900 GT (NVIDIA) | 10,445 | 98.46 |
| GeForce 7800 GTX (MSI) | 10,127 | 92.42 |
| GeForce 7800 GT (NVIDIA) | 9,822 | 86.62 |
| Radeon X1900 GT (Connect3D) | 9,100 | 72.91 |
| Radeon X1800 XL (ATI) | 8,743 | 66.12 |
| Radeon X850 XT P.E. (ATI) | 8,411 | 59.81 |
| GeForce 7600 GT (NVIDIA) | 7,701 | 46.32 |
| GeForce 6800 GT (NVIDIA) | 7,144 | 35.74 |
| GeForce 6800 GS (NVIDIA) | 7,035 | 33.67 |
| Radeon X800 GTO (HIS) | 5,940 | 12.86 |
| Radeon X1600 XT (ATI) | 5,295 | 0.61 |
| Radeon X1600 XT (Sapphire) | 5,263 | |
| Radeon X800 GT (HIS) | 5,220 | 0.82 |
| Radeon X1600 Pro Turbo (HIS) | 5,043 | 4.36 |
| GeForce 7600 GS (NVIDIA) | 4,930 | 6.75 |
| GeForce 6600 GT (XFX) | 4,640 | 13.43 |
| Radeon X700 Pro (Sapphire) | 3,938 | 33.65 |
| Radeon X1600 Pro 512 MB (PowerColor) | 3,764 | 39.82 |
| GeForce 6600 (Albatron) | 2,678 | 96.53 |
| Radeon X600 XT (ATI) | 2,131 | 146.97 |
| Radeon X600 Pro (Sapphire) | 1,797 | 192.88 |
| 3DMark03 – 1024×768 AAx4, Anisox4 | Score | Difference |
| GeForce 7950 GX2 (NVIDIA) | 17,431 | 231.70 |
| GeForce 7900 GTX (NVIDIA) | 12,560 | 139.01 |
| Radeon X1900 XTX (ATI) | 11,576 | 120.29 |
| Radeon X1800 XT (ATI) | 10,989 | 109.12 |
| GeForce 7900 GT (NVIDIA) | 10,275 | 95.53 |
| GeForce 7800 GTX (MSI) | 9,929 | 88.94 |
| Radeon X1800 XL (ATI) | 9,325 | 77.45 |
| GeForce 7800 GT (NVIDIA) | 8,999 | 71.25 |
| Radeon X1900 GT (Connect3D) | 8,834 | 68.11 |
| Radeon X850 XT P.E. (ATI) | 8,108 | 54.29 |
| GeForce 7600 GT (NVIDIA) | 7,330 | 39.49 |
| GeForce 6800 GT (NVIDIA) | 6,919 | 31.67 |
| GeForce 6800 GS (NVIDIA) | 6,841 | 30.18 |
| Radeon X800 GTO (HIS) | 5,437 | 3.46 |
| Radeon X1600 XT (Sapphire) | 5,255 | |
| Radeon X1600 XT (ATI) | 4,978 | 5.56 |
| Radeon X800 GT (HIS) | 4,693 | 11.98 |
| GeForce 7600 GS (NVIDIA) | 4,405 | 19.30 |
| Radeon X1600 Pro Turbo (HIS) | 4,333 | 21.28 |
| GeForce 6600 GT (XFX) | 4,177 | 25.81 |
| Radeon X1600 Pro 512 MB (PowerColor) | 3,516 | 49.46 |
| Radeon X700 Pro (Sapphire) | 3,411 | 54.06 |
| GeForce 6600 (Albatron) | 2,378 | 120.98 |
| Radeon X600 XT (ATI) | 1,966 | 167.29 |
| Radeon X600 Pro (Sapphire) | 1,674 | 213.92 |
| 3DMark03 – 1280×1024 AAx4, Anisox4 | Score | Difference |
| GeForce 7950 GX2 (NVIDIA) | 14,067 | 262.18 |
| GeForce 7900 GTX (NVIDIA) | 9,997 | 157.39 |
| Radeon X1900 XTX (ATI) | 9,467 | 143.74 |
| Radeon X1800 XT (ATI) | 9,050 | 133.01 |
| GeForce 7900 GT (NVIDIA) | 7,980 | 105.46 |
| GeForce 7800 GTX (MSI) | 7,733 | 99.10 |
| Radeon X1800 XL (ATI) | 7,249 | 86.64 |
| Radeon X1900 GT (Connect3D) | 6,979 | 79.69 |
| GeForce 7800 GT (NVIDIA) | 6,841 | 76.13 |
| Radeon X850 XT P.E. (ATI) | 6,278 | 61.64 |
| GeForce 7600 GT (NVIDIA) | 5,324 | 37.08 |
| GeForce 6800 GT (NVIDIA) | 5,172 | 33.16 |
| GeForce 6800 GS (NVIDIA) | 5,025 | 29.38 |
| Radeon X800 GTO (HIS) | 3,962 | 2.01 |
| Radeon X1600 XT (Sapphire) | 3,884 | |
| Radeon X1600 XT (ATI) | 3,747 | 3.66 |
| Radeon X800 GT (HIS) | 3,475 | 11.77 |
| Radeon X1600 Pro Turbo (HIS) | 3,256 | 19.29 |
| GeForce 7600 GS (NVIDIA) | 3,116 | 24.65 |
| GeForce 6600 GT (XFX) | 2,547 | 52.49 |
| Radeon X1600 Pro 512 MB (PowerColor) | 2,478 | 56.74 |
| Radeon X700 Pro (Sapphire) | 2,454 | 58.27 |
| GeForce 6600 (Albatron) | 1,497 | 159.45 |
| Radeon X600 XT (ATI) | 1,351 | 187.49 |
| Radeon X600 Pro (Sapphire) | 1,212 | 220.46 |
| 3DMark03 – 1600×1200 AAx4, Anisox4 | Score | Difference |
| GeForce 7950 GX2 (NVIDIA) | 11,629 | 325.04 |
| GeForce 7900 GTX (NVIDIA) | 8,168 | 198.54 |
| Radeon X1900 XTX (ATI) | 7,852 | 186.99 |
| Radeon X1800 XT (ATI) | 7,364 | 169.15 |
| GeForce 7900 GT (NVIDIA) | 6,317 | 130.88 |
| GeForce 7800 GTX (MSI) | 6,148 | 124.71 |
| GeForce 7800 GT (NVIDIA) | 5,873 | 114.66 |
| Radeon X1800 XL (ATI) | 5,807 | 112.24 |
| Radeon X1900 GT (Connect3D) | 5,614 | 105.19 |
| Radeon X850 XT P.E. (ATI) | 5,024 | 83.63 |
| GeForce 7600 GT (NVIDIA) | 4,530 | 65.57 |
| GeForce 6800 GT (NVIDIA) | 4,018 | 46.86 |
| GeForce 6800 GS (NVIDIA) | 3,861 | 41.12 |
| Radeon X800 GTO (HIS) | 3,091 | 12.98 |
| Radeon X1600 XT (Sapphire) | 2,736 | |
| Radeon X1600 XT (ATI) | 2,656 | 3.01 |
| Radeon X800 GT (HIS) | 2,563 | 6.75 |
| GeForce 7600 GS (NVIDIA) | 2,377 | 15.10 |
| Radeon X1600 Pro Turbo (HIS) | 2,147 | 27.43 |
| Radeon X700 Pro (Sapphire) | 1,805 | 51.58 |
| GeForce 6600 GT (XFX) | 1,717 | 59.35 |
| Radeon X1600 Pro 512 MB (PowerColor) | 1,653 | 65.52 |
| GeForce 6600 (Albatron) | 1,027 | 166.41 |
| Radeon X600 XT (ATI) | 732 | 273.77 |
| Radeon X600 Pro (Sapphire) | 684 | 300.00 |
[nextpage title=”3DMark05″]
3DMark05 measures performance by simulating DirectX 9.0c games, i.e., using the new Shader 3.0 model. This programming model is used by Far Cry game and other games to be launched in the future. This new programming model is used by GeForce 6 and 7 series from NVIDIA and Radeon X1000 series from ATI.
We run this program in three resolutions, 1024x768x32, 1280x1024x32 and 1600x1200x32, first without antialising and anisotropic filtering, and then configuring antialising at 4x and anisotropic filtering also at 4x. This improves the video quality but lowers the performance. We were willing to see how much performance we lost by putting the VGA to run at the maximum possible image quality. It is important to note that ATI chips can run at 6x antialising. Since NVIDIA chips cannot run at this configuration, we had to use 4x antialising to use a configuration that is valid to all video cards included in our benchmark, allowing direct comparison between them.
The results you check below. Radeon X1600 Pro Turbo from HIS is factory-overclocked, running at 587 MHz and accessing its memory at 1.38 GHz, while the standard Radeon X1600 Pro runs at 500 MHz and accesses its memory at 780 MHz.
| 3DMark05 – 1024×768 | Score | Difference |
| GeForce 7950 GX2 (NVIDIA) | 8,096 | 54.30 |
| GeForce 7900 GTX (NVIDIA) | 7,370 | 40.46 |
| Radeon X1900 GT (Connect3D) | 7,342 | 39.93 |
| Radeon X1800 XT (ATI) | 7,222 | 37.64 |
| Radeon X1900 XTX (ATI) | 6,982 | 33.07 |
| GeForce 7900 GT (NVIDIA) | 6,863 | 30.80 |
| GeForce 7800 GTX (MSI) | 6,789 | 29.39 |
| Radeon X1800 XL (ATI) | 6,471 | 23.33 |
| GeForce 7800 GT (NVIDIA) | 6,343 | 20.89 |
| Radeon X850 XT P.E. (ATI) | 5,732 | 9.24 |
| GeForce 7600 GT (NVIDIA) | 5,594 | 6.61 |
| Radeon X1600 XT (Sapphire) | 5,247 | |
| Radeon X1600 XT (ATI) | 4,991 | 5.13 |
| GeForce 6800 GS (NVIDIA) | 4,941 | 6.19 |
| GeForce 6800 GT (NVIDIA) | 4,537 | 15.65 |
| Radeon X800 GTO (HIS) | 4,301 | 21.99 |
| Radeon X1600 Pro Turbo (HIS) | 4,238 | 23.81 |
| Radeon X1600 Pro 512 MB (PowerColor) | 4,082 | 28.54 |
| Radeon X800 GT (HIS) | 3,993 | 31.40 |
| GeForce 7600 GS (NVIDIA) | 3,675 | 42.78 |
| Radeon X700 Pro (Sapphire) | 2,886 | 81.81 |
| GeForce 6600 GT (XFX) | 2,872 | 82.69 |
| GeForce 6600 (Albatron) | 1,701 | 208.47 |
| Radeon X600 XT (ATI) | 1,433 | 266.15 |
| Radeon X600 Pro (Sapphire) | 1,365 | 284.40 |
| 3DMark05 – 1280×1024 | Score | Difference |
| GeForce 7950 GX2 (NVIDIA) | 7,804 | 80.86 |
| GeForce 7900 GTX (NVIDIA) | 6,962 | 61.34 |
| Radeon X1900 GT (Connect3D) | 6,761 | 56.69 |
| Radeon X1900 XTX (ATI) | 6,699 | 55.25 |
| Radeon X1800 XT (ATI) | 6,534 | 51.43 |
| GeForce 7900 GT (NVIDIA) | 6,208 | 43.87 |
| GeForce 7800 GTX (MSI) | 6,067 | 40.60 |
| Radeon X1800 XL (ATI) | 5,554 | 28.71 |
| GeForce 7800 GT (NVIDIA) | 5,504 | 27.56 |
| GeForce 7600 GT (NVIDIA) | 4,780 | 10.78 |
| Radeon X850 XT P.E. (ATI) | 4,740 | 9.85 |
| Radeon X1600 XT (Sapphire) | 4,315 | |
| GeForce 6800 GS (NVIDIA) | 4,130 | 4.48 |
| Radeon X1600 XT (ATI) | 4,085 | 5.63 |
| GeForce 6800 GT (NVIDIA) | 3,745 | 15.22 |
| Radeon X800 GTO (HIS) | 3,479 | 24.03 |
| Radeon X1600 Pro 512 MB (PowerColor) | 3,381 | 27.62 |
| Radeon X800 GT (HIS) | 3,192 | 35.18 |
| GeForce 7600 GS (NVIDIA) | 3,093 | 39.51 |
| Radeon X1600 Pro Turbo (HIS) | 3,074 | 40.37 |
| Radeon X700 Pro (Sapphire) | 2,253 | 91.52 |
| GeForce 6600 GT (XFX) | 1,957 | 120.49 |
| GeForce 6600 (Albatron) | 1,259 | 242.73 |
| Radeon X600 Pro (Sapphire) | 1,040 | 314.90 |
| Radeon X600 XT (ATI) | 992 | 334.98 |
| 3DMark05 – 1600×1200 | Score | Difference |
| GeForce 7950 GX2 (NVIDIA) | 7,598 | 121.52 |
| GeForce 7900 GTX (NVIDIA) | 6,559 | 91.22 |
| Radeon X1900 XTX (ATI) | 6,513 | 89.88 |
| Radeon X1900 GT (Connect3D) | 6,220 | 81.34 |
| Radeon X1800 XT (ATI) | 5,862 | 70.90 |
| GeForce 7900 GT (NVIDIA) | 5,524 | 61.05 |
| GeForce 7800 GTX (MSI) | 5,371 | 56.59 |
| GeForce 7800 GT (NVIDIA) | 4,786 | 39.53 |
| Radeon X1800 XL (ATI) | 4,785 | 39.50 |
| GeForce 7600 GT (NVIDIA) | 4,096 | 19.42 |
| Radeon X850 XT P.E. (ATI) | 3,931 | 14.61 |
| GeForce 6800 GS (NVIDIA) | 3,455 | 0.73 |
| Radeon X1600 XT (Sapphire) | 3,430 | |
| Radeon X1600 XT (ATI) | 3,376 | 1.60 |
| GeForce 6800 GT (NVIDIA) | 3,091 | 10.97 |
| Radeon X800 GTO (HIS) | 2,856 | 20.10 |
| Radeon X1600 Pro 512 MB (PowerColor) | 2,702 | 26.94 |
| GeForce 7600 GS (NVIDIA) | 2,608 | 31.52 |
| Radeon X800 GT (HIS) | 2,430 | 41.15 |
| Radeon X1600 Pro Turbo (HIS) | 2,062 | 66.34 |
| Radeon X700 Pro (Sapphire) | 1,789 | 91.73 |
| GeForce 6600 GT (XFX) | 1,264 | 171.36 |
| GeForce 6600 (Albatron) | 944 | 263.35 |
| Radeon X600 Pro (Sapphire) | 814 | 321.38 |
| Radeon X600 XT (ATI) | 708 | 384.46 |
| 3DMark05 – 1024×768 AAx4, Anisox4 | Score | Difference |
| GeForce 7950 GX2 (NVIDIA) | 7,735 | 80.51 |
| GeForce 7900 GTX (NVIDIA) | 6,893 | 60.86 |
| Radeon X1800 XT (ATI) | 6,788 | 58.41 |
| Radeon X1900 XTX (ATI) | 6,717 | 56.76 |
| Radeon X1900 GT (Connect3D) | 6,656 | 55.33 |
| GeForce 7900 GT (NVIDIA) | 6,123 | 42.89 |
| GeForce 7800 GTX (MSI) | 6,052 | 41.24 |
| Radeon X1800 XL (ATI) | 5,874 | 37.08 |
| GeForce 7800 GT (NVIDIA) | 5,559 | 29.73 |
| Radeon X850 XT P.E. (ATI) | 4,971 | 16.01 |
| GeForce 7600 GT (NVIDIA) | 4,634 | 8.14 |
| Radeon X1600 XT (Sapphire) | 4,285 | |
| GeForce 6800 GS (NVIDIA) | 4,108 | 4.31 |
| Radeon X1600 XT (ATI) | 4,072 | 5.23 |
| GeForce 6800 GT (NVIDIA) | 3,700 | 15.81 |
| Radeon X800 GTO (HIS) | 3,655 | 17.24 |
| Radeon X800 GT (HIS) | 3,523 | 21.63 |
| Radeon X1600 Pro 512 MB (PowerColor) | 3,214 | 33.32 |
| GeForce 7600 GS (NVIDIA) | 2,881 | 48.73 |
| Radeon X1600 Pro Turbo (HIS) | 2,460 | 74.19 |
| Radeon X700 Pro (Sapphire) | 2,232 | 91.98 |
| GeForce 6600 GT (XFX) | 1,287 | 232.94 |
| Radeon X600 Pro (Sapphire) | 1,038 | 312.81 |
| GeForce 6600 (Albatron) | 935 | 358.29 |
| Radeon X600 XT (ATI) | 903 | 374.53 |
| 3DMark05 – 1280×1024 AAx4, Anisox4 | Score | Difference |
| GeForce 7950 GX2 (NVIDIA) | 7,485 | 115.33 |
| Radeon X1900 XTX (ATI) | 6,571 | 89.04 |
| GeForce 7900 GTX (NVIDIA) | 6,325 | 81.96 |
| Radeon X1800 XT (ATI) | 6,040 | 73.76 |
| Radeon X1900 GT (Connect3D) | 5,955 | 71.32 |
| GeForce 7900 GT (NVIDIA) | 5,277 | 51.81 |
| GeForce 7800 GTX (MSI) | 5,186 | 49.19 |
| Radeon X1800 XL (ATI) | 4,915 | 41.40 |
| GeForce 7800 GT (NVIDIA) | 4,664 | 34.18 |
| Radeon X850 XT P.E. (ATI) | 4,028 | 15.88 |
| GeForce 7600 GT (NVIDIA) | 3,738 | 7.54 |
| Radeon X1600 XT (Sapphire) | 3,476 | |
| Radeon X1600 XT (ATI) | 3,295 | 5.49 |
| GeForce 6800 GS (NVIDIA) | 3,286 | 5.78 |
| GeForce 6800 GT (NVIDIA) | 2,969 | 17.08 |
| Radeon X800 GTO (HIS) | 2,891 | 20.24 |
| Radeon X1600 Pro 512 MB (PowerColor) | 2,571 | 35.20 |
| Radeon X800 GT (HIS) | 2,510 | 38.49 |
| GeForce 7600 GS (NVIDIA) | 2,232 | 55.73 |
| Radeon X1600 Pro Turbo (HIS) | 1,796 | 93.54 |
| Radeon X700 Pro (Sapphire) | 1,722 | 101.86 |
| Radeon X600 Pro (Sapphire) | 803 | 332.88 |
| Radeon X600 XT (ATI) | 581 | 498.28 |
| 3DMark05 – 1600×1200 AAx4, Anisox4 | Score | Difference |
| GeForce 7950 GX2 (NVIDIA) | 7,209 | 167.89 |
| Radeon X1900 XTX (ATI) | 6,253 | 132.37 |
| GeForce 7900 GTX (NVIDIA) | 5,668 | 110.63 |
| Radeon X1800 XT (ATI) | 5,288 | 96.51 |
| Radeon X1900 GT (Connect3D) | 5,285 | 96.40 |
| Radeon X1800 XL (ATI) | 4,205 | 56.26 |
| GeForce 7800 GTX (MSI) | 4,168 | 54.89 |
| GeForce 7900 GT (NVIDIA) | 3,776 | 40.32 |
| GeForce 7800 GT (NVIDIA) | 3,746 | 39.20 |
| Radeon X850 XT P.E. (ATI) | 3,325 | 23.56 |
| Radeon X1600 XT (Sapphire) | 2,691 | |
| Radeon X1600 XT (ATI) | 2,644 | 1.78 |
| GeForce 7600 GT (NVIDIA) | 2,553 | 5.41 |
| Radeon X800 GTO (HIS) | 2,365 | 13.78 |
| GeForce 6800 GS (NVIDIA) | 2,235 | 20.40 |
| GeForce 6800 GT (NVIDIA) | 2,233 | 20.51 |
| Radeon X800 GT (HIS) | 1,948 | 38.14 |
| Radeon X1600 Pro 512 MB (PowerColor) | 1,931 | 39.36 |
| GeForce 7600 GS (NVIDIA) | 1,552 | 73.39 |
| Radeon X700 Pro (Sapphire) | 1,374 | 95.85 |
| Radeon X1600 Pro Turbo (HIS) | 988 | 172.37 |
| Radeon X600 Pro (Sapphire) | 589 | 356.88 |
| Radeon X600 XT (ATI) | 341 | 689.15 |
[nextpage title=”Doom 3″]Doom 3 is one of the heaviest games available today. As we’ve done on other programs, we ran this game at three resolutions: 1024x768x32, 1280x1024x32 and 1600x1200x32. This game allows several image quality levels and we’ve done our benchmarking on two levels, low and high. We ran demo1 four times and wrote the obtained number of frames per second. The first result we discarded at once, since it is far inferior than the other results. This happens because at the first time we run the demo the game must load all textures to video memory, fact that doesn’t happen from the second time we run the demo on. From the three results left, we consider as our official result the middle result, i.e., we discard the highest and the lowest values. Curiously almost all times the values obtained at the second round on were the same.
A very important detail that we must mention is that Doom 3 has an internal FPS lock: it is only capable of generating 60 frames per second, even if your board is able to produce more frames per second than that. This is done in order to make the game to have the same “playability” sensation independently from the video card installed on the PC. This lock, however, is disabled in the game benchmarking mode.
For further details on how to measure 3D performance with Doom 3, read our tutorial on this subject.
The results you check below. Radeon X1600 Pro Turbo from HIS is factory-overclocked, running at 587 MHz and accessing its memory at 1.38 GHz, while the standard Radeon X1600 Pro runs at 500 MHz and accesses its memory at 780 MHz.
| Doom 3 – 1024×768 Low | Score | Difference |
| Radeon X1900 XTX (ATI) | 96.7 | 36.20 |
| Radeon X1800 XT (ATI) | 95.9 | 35.07 |
| GeForce 7900 GTX (NVIDIA) | 95.1 | 33.94 |
| GeForce 7900 GT (NVIDIA) | 94.7 | 33.38 |
| GeForce 7800 GTX (MSI) | 94.5 | 33.10 |
| Radeon X1800 XL (ATI) | 94.1 | 32.54 |
| GeForce 7800 GT (NVIDIA) | 94.1 | 32.54 |
| GeForce 7600 GT (NVIDIA) | 93.4 | 31.55 |
| GeForce 7950 GX2 (NVIDIA) | 92.2 | 29.86 |
| Radeon X1900 GT (Connect3D) | 92.1 | 29.72 |
| GeForce 6800 GS (NVIDIA) | 91.4 | 28.73 |
| Radeon X850 XT P.E. (ATI) | 84.5 | 19.01 |
| GeForce 6800 GT (NVIDIA) | 82.7 | 16.48 |
| GeForce 7600 GS (NVIDIA) | 79.5 | 11.97 |
| Radeon X800 GTO (HIS) | 77.1 | 8.59 |
| GeForce 6600 GT (XFX) | 75.9 | 6.90 |
| Radeon X1600 XT (Sapphire) | 71.0 | |
| Radeon X800 GT (HIS) | 69.7 | 1.9 |
| Radeon X1600 XT (ATI) | 66.6 | 6.6 |
| Radeon X1600 Pro Turbo (HIS) | 63.6 | 11.6 |
| Radeon X1600 Pro 512 MB (PowerColor) | 58.7 | 21.0 |
| Radeon X700 Pro (Sapphire) | 55.6 | 27.7 |
| GeForce 6600 (Albatron) | 54.1 | 31.2 |
| Radeon X600 XT (ATI) | 30.9 | 129.8 |
| Radeon X600 Pro (Sapphire) | 25.2 | 181.7 |
| Doom 3 – 1280×1024 Low | Score | Difference |
| GeForce 7900 GTX (NVIDIA) | 94.9 | 95.67 |
| Radeon X1900 XTX (ATI) | 93.9 | 93.61 |
| GeForce 7900 GT (NVIDIA) | 91.6 | 88.87 |
| Radeon X1800 XT (ATI) | 91.4 | 88.45 |
| GeForce 7950 GX2 (NVIDIA) | 91.4 | 88.45 |
| GeForce 7800 GTX (MSI) | 90.4 | 86.39 |
| GeForce 7800 GT (NVIDIA) | 87.5 | 80.41 |
| Radeon X1900 GT (Connect3D) | 85.3 | 75.88 |
| GeForce 7600 GT (NVIDIA) | 82.2 | 69.48 |
| Radeon X1800 XL (ATI) | 80.8 | 66.60 |
| GeForce 6800 GS (NVIDIA) | 77.5 | 59.79 |
| Radeon X850 XT P.E. (ATI) | 76.6 | 57.94 |
| GeForce 6800 GT (NVIDIA) | 75.8 | 56.29 |
| GeForce 7600 GS (NVIDIA) | 61.5 | 26.80 |
| GeForce 6600 GT (XFX) | 59.9 | 23.51 |
| Radeon X800 GTO (HIS) | 55.1 | 13.61 |
| Radeon X1600 XT (Sapphire) | 48.5 | |
| Radeon X800 GT (HIS) | 46.8 | 3.6 |
| Radeon X1600 XT (ATI) | 44.7 | 8.5 |
| Radeon X1600 Pro Turbo (HIS) | 43.9 | 10.5 |
| Radeon X1600 Pro 512 MB (PowerColor) | 38.6 | 25.6 |
| Radeon X700 Pro (Sapphire) | 37.3 | 30.0 |
| GeForce 6600 (Albatron) | 36.6 | 32.5 |
| Radeon X600 XT (ATI) | 19.6 | 147.4 |
| Radeon X600 Pro (Sapphire) | 16.0 | 203.1 |
| Doom 3 – 1600×1200 Low | Score | Difference |
| GeForce 7900 GTX (NVIDIA) | 92.0 | 161.36 |
| GeForce 7950 GX2 (NVIDIA) | 91.6 | 160.23 |
| Radeon X1900 XTX (ATI) | 86.6 | 146.02 |
| GeForce 7900 GT (NVIDIA) | 83.4 | 136.93 |
| GeForce 7800 GTX (MSI) | 80.8 | 129.55 |
| Radeon X1800 XT (ATI) | 77.5 | 120.17 |
| GeForce 7800 GT (NVIDIA) | 76.2 | 116.48 |
| Radeon X1900 GT (Connect3D) | 70.9 | 101.42 |
| GeForce 7600 GT (NVIDIA) | 69.1 | 96.31 |
| GeForce 6800 GT (NVIDIA) | 64.4 | 82.95 |
| GeForce 6800 GS (NVIDIA) | 63.4 | 80.11 |
| Radeon X1800 XL (ATI) | 63.1 | 79.26 |
| Radeon X850 XT P.E. (ATI) | 62.4 | 77.27 |
| GeForce 7600 GS (NVIDIA) | 46.2 | 31.25 |
| GeForce 6600 GT (XFX) | 45.9 | 30.40 |
| Radeon X800 GTO (HIS) | 38.9 | 10.51 |
| Radeon X1600 XT (Sapphire) | 35.2 | |
| Radeon X1600 XT (ATI) | 31.7 | 11.04 |
| Radeon X800 GT (HIS) | 31.5 | 11.75 |
| Radeon X1600 Pro Turbo (HIS) | 31.3 | 12.46 |
| Radeon X1600 Pro 512 MB (PowerColor) | 27.6 | 27.54 |
| GeForce 6600 (Albatron) | 26.5 | 32.83 |
| Radeon X700 Pro (Sapphire) | 25.5 | 38.04 |
| Radeon X600 XT (ATI) | 13.1 | 168.70 |
| Radeon X600 Pro (Sapphire) | 10.6 | 232.08 |
| Doom 3 – 1024×768 High | Score | Difference |
| Radeon X1800 XT (ATI) | 95.3 | 45.72 |
| GeForce 7900 GTX (NVIDIA) | 94.8 | 44.95 |
| GeForce 7900 GT (NVIDIA) | 94.6 | 44.65 |
| GeForce 7800 GT (NVIDIA) | 94.4 | 44.34 |
| GeForce 7800 GTX (MSI) | 93.6 | 43.12 |
| GeForce 7600 GT (NVIDIA) | 92.3 | 41.13 |
| Radeon X1800 XL (ATI) | 92.2 | 40.98 |
| Radeon X1900 XTX (ATI) | 91.8 | 40.37 |
| GeForce 7950 GX2 (NVIDIA) | 91.7 | 40.21 |
| Radeon X1900 GT (Connect3D) | 90.9 | 38.99 |
| GeForce 6800 GS (NVIDIA) | 88.8 | 35.78 |
| Radeon X850 XT P.E. (ATI) | 83.6 | 27.83 |
| GeForce 6800 GT (NVIDIA) | 81.7 | 24.92 |
| GeForce 7600 GS (NVIDIA) | 76.5 | 16.97 |
| Radeon X800 GTO (HIS) | 73.8 | 12.84 |
| GeForce 6600 GT (XFX) | 70.8 | 8.26 |
| Radeon X800 GT (HIS) | 65.5 | 0.15 |
| Radeon X1600 XT (Sapphire) | 65.4 | |
| Radeon X1600 XT (ATI) | 61.0 | 7.21 |
| Radeon X1600 Pro Turbo (HIS) | 58.6 | 11.60 |
| Radeon X1600 Pro 512 MB (PowerColor) | 53.0 | 23.40 |
| Radeon X700 Pro (Sapphire) | 50.4 | 29.76 |
| GeForce 6600 (Albatron) | 48.7 | 34.29 |
| Radeon X600 XT (ATI) | 27.8 | 135.25 |
| Radeon X600 Pro (Sapphire) | 22.9 | 185.59 |
| Doom 3 – 1280×1024 High | Score | Difference |
| GeForce 7900 GTX (NVIDIA) | 94.9 | 107.21 |
| Radeon X1900 XTX (ATI) | 94.8 | 106.99 |
| GeForce 7950 GX2 (NVIDIA) | 91.3 | 99.34 |
| GeForce 7900 GT (NVIDIA) | 91.2 | 99.13 |
| Radeon X1800 XT (ATI) | 90.2 | 96.94 |
| GeForce 7800 GTX (MSI) | 88.7 | 93.67 |
| GeForce 7800 GT (NVIDIA) | 86.7 | 89.30 |
| Radeon X1900 GT (Connect3D) | 82.4 | 79.91 |
| GeForce 7600 GT (NVIDIA) | 80.9 | 76.64 |
| Radeon X1800 XL (ATI) | 78.2 | 70.74 |
| Radeon X850 XT P.E. (ATI) | 74.4 | 62.45 |
| GeForce 6800 GS (NVIDIA) | 73.9 | 61.35 |
| GeForce 6800 GT (NVIDIA) | 72.4 | 58.08 |
| GeForce 7600 GS (NVIDIA) | 58.5 | 27.73 |
| GeForce 6600 GT (XFX) | 55.5 | 21.18 |
| Radeon X800 GTO (HIS) | 52.6 | 14.85 |
| Radeon X1600 XT (Sapphire) | 45.8 | |
| Radeon X800 GT (HIS) | 44.4 | 3.15 |
| Radeon X1600 XT (ATI) | 41.7 | 9.83 |
| Radeon X1600 Pro Turbo (HIS) | 40.3 | 13.65 |
| Radeon X1600 Pro 512 MB (PowerColor) | 35.7 | 28.29 |
| Radeon X700 Pro (Sapphire) | 34.4 | 33.14 |
| GeForce 6600 (Albatron) | 33.4 | 37.13 |
| Radeon X600 XT (ATI) | 18.4 | 148.91 |
| Radeon X600 Pro (Sapphire) | 15.0 | 205.33 |
| Doom 3 – 1600×1200 High | Score | Difference |
| GeForce 7900 GTX (NVIDIA) | 91.5 | 171.51 |
| GeForce 7950 GX2 (NVIDIA) | 91.4 | 171.22 |
| Radeon X1900 XTX (ATI) | 88.4 | 162.31 |
| GeForce 7900 GT (NVIDIA) | 82.2 | 143.92 |
| GeForce 7800 GTX (MSI) | 79.9 | 137.09 |
| Radeon X1800 XT (ATI) | 75.8 | 124.93 |
| GeForce 7800 GT (NVIDIA) | 75.2 | 123.15 |
| Radeon X1900 GT (Connect3D) | 68.5 | 103.26 |
| GeForce 7600 GT (NVIDIA) | 67.8 | 101.19 |
| Radeon X1800 XL (ATI) | 61.4 | 82.20 |
| GeForce 6800 GT (NVIDIA) | 61.1 | 81.31 |
| GeForce 6800 GS (NVIDIA) | 60.6 | 79.82 |
| Radeon X850 XT P.E. (ATI) | 60.3 | 78.93 |
| GeForce 7600 GS (NVIDIA) | 44.2 | 31.16 |
| GeForce 6600 GT (XFX) | 43.4 | 28.78 |
| Radeon X800 GTO (HIS) | 37.7 | 11.87 |
| Radeon X1600 XT (Sapphire) | 33.7 | |
| Radeon X800 GT (HIS) | 30.5 | 10.49 |
| Radeon X1600 XT (ATI) | 30.4 | 10.86 |
| Radeon X1600 Pro Turbo (HIS) | 29.9 | 12.71 |
| Radeon X1600 Pro 512 MB (PowerColor) | 26.2 | 28.63 |
| GeForce 6600 (Albatron) | 25.0 | 34.80 |
| Radeon X700 Pro (Sapphire) | 24.1 | 39.83 |
| Radeon X600 XT (ATI) | 11.6 | 190.52 |
| Radeon X600 Pro (Sapphire) | 10.3 | 227.18 |
[nextpage title=”Far Cry”]
Far Cry is a game based on the new Shader 3.0 (DirectX 9.0c) programming model available on series 6 and 7 from NVIDIA and series X1000 from ATI graphics chips. We’ve updated the game to version 1.3.
As we’ve done on other programs, we ran this game at three resolutions, 1024x768x32, 1280x1024x32 and 1600x1200x32. This game allows several image quality levels and we’ve done our benchmarking on two levels, low and very high. To measure the performance we used the demo created by German magazine PC Games Hardware (PCGH), available at https://www.3dcenter.org/downloads/farcry-pcgh-vga.php. We run this demo four times and made an arithmetical average with the results. This average is the result presented in our graphs.
This game has a very important detail in its image quality configuration. Antialising, instead of being configured by numbers (1x, 2x, 4x or 6x) is configured as low, medium or high. The problem is that on NVIDIA chips both medium and high mean 4x, while on ATI chips medium means 2x and high means 6x, making the comparison between ATI and NVIDIA chips completely unfair. Because of that we configured antialising at 4x and anisotropic filtering at 8x manually at the video driver control panel.
For further details on how to measure 3D performance with Far Cry, read our tutorial on this subject.
The results you check below. Radeon X1600 Pro Turbo from HIS is factory-overclocked, running at 587 MHz and accessing its memory at 1.38 GHz, while the standard Radeon X1600 Pro runs at 500 MHz and accesses its memory at 780 MHz.
| Far Cry – 1024×768 Low | Score | Difference |
| Radeon X1900 GT (Connect3D) | 148.26 | 0.62 |
| Radeon X1600 XT (Sapphire) | 147.34 | |
| Radeon X1600 Pro 512 MB (PowerColor) | 147.17 | 0.12 |
| Radeon X800 GT (HIS) | 145.56 | 1.22 |
| Radeon X850 XT P.E. (ATI) | 145.51 | 1.26 |
| Radeon X800 GTO (HIS) | 145.42 | 1.32 |
| Radeon X1800 XT (ATI) | 145.16 | 1.50 |
| Radeon X700 Pro (Sapphire) | 144.93 | 1.66 |
| Radeon X1800 XL (ATI) | 144.54 | 1.94 |
| Radeon X1600 XT (ATI) | 144.44 | 2.01 |
| Radeon X1900 XTX (ATI) | 144.02 | 2.31 |
| Radeon X1600 Pro Turbo (HIS) | 141.07 | 4.44 |
| GeForce 7800 GTX (MSI) | 136.68 | 7.80 |
| GeForce 7600 GT (NVIDIA) | 136.43 | 8.00 |
| GeForce 7600 GS (NVIDIA) | 135.74 | 8.55 |
| GeForce 7900 GTX (NVIDIA) | 135.67 | 8.60 |
| GeForce 7900 GT (NVIDIA) | 135.44 | 8.79 |
| GeForce 7800 GT (NVIDIA) | 134.94 | 9.19 |
| GeForce 6800 GS (NVIDIA) | 134.93 | 9.20 |
| Radeon X600 XT (ATI) | 132.76 | 10.98 |
| GeForce 7950 GX2 (NVIDIA) | 131.48 | 12.06 |
| GeForce 6600 GT (XFX) | 130.43 | 12.96 |
| GeForce 6600 (Albatron) | 123.60 | 19.21 |
| GeForce 6800 GT (NVIDIA) | 120.56 | 22.21 |
| Radeon X600 Pro (Sapphire) | 112.52 | 30.95 |
| Far Cry – 1280×1024 Low | Score | Difference |
| Radeon X1900 GT (Connect3D) | 145.00 | 0.53 |
| Radeon X1600 XT (Sapphire) | 144.24 | |
| Radeon X850 XT P.E. (ATI) | 143.19 | 0.73 |
| Radeon X800 GT (HIS) | 142.98 | 0.88 |
| Radeon X800 GTO (HIS) | 142.41 | 1.29 |
| Radeon X1800 XL (ATI) | 141.73 | 1.77 |
| Radeon X1800 XT (ATI) | 140.71 | 2.51 |
| Radeon X1600 XT (ATI) | 140.49 | 2.67 |
| Radeon X1600 Pro Turbo (HIS) | 138.64 | 4.04 |
| Radeon X700 Pro (Sapphire) | 138.43 | 4.20 |
| Radeon X1600 Pro 512 MB (PowerColor) | 134.84 | 6.97 |
| GeForce 7800 GTX (MSI) | 133.27 | 8.23 |
| GeForce 7600 GT (NVIDIA) | 133.24 | 8.26 |
| GeForce 7900 GTX (NVIDIA) | 133.09 | 8.38 |
| GeForce 6800 GS (NVIDIA) | 132.52 | 8.84 |
| GeForce 7900 GT (NVIDIA) | 132.32 | 9.01 |
| GeForce 7600 GS (NVIDIA) | 131.86 | 9.39 |
| GeForce 7800 GT (NVIDIA) | 131.78 | 9.46 |
| Radeon X1900 XTX (ATI) | 131.03 | 10.08 |
| GeForce 7950 GX2 (NVIDIA) | 127.99 | 12.70 |
| GeForce 6800 GT (NVIDIA) | 127.71 | 12.94 |
| GeForce 6600 GT (XFX) | 127.24 | 13.36 |
| Radeon X600 XT (ATI) | 89.16 | 61.78 |
| GeForce 6600 (Albatron) | 87.83 | 64.23 |
| Radeon X600 Pro (Sapphire) | 72.96 | 97.70 |
| Far Cry – 1600×1200 Low | Score | Difference |
| Radeon X1900 GT (Connect3D) | 145.81 | 10.06 |
| Radeon X850 XT P.E. (ATI) | 143.59 | 8.39 |
| Radeon X1800 XT (ATI) | 142.30 | 7.41 |
| Radeon X1800 XL (ATI) | 141.82 | 7.05 |
| Radeon X800 GTO (HIS) | 139.29 | 5.14 |
| GeForce 7900 GTX (NVIDIA) | 134.03 | 1.17 |
| GeForce 7600 GT (NVIDIA) | 133.96 | 1.12 |
| GeForce 7800 GTX (MSI) | 133.93 | 1.09 |
| GeForce 7900 GT (NVIDIA) | 133.59 | 0.84 |
| GeForce 7800 GT (NVIDIA) | 133.18 | 0.53 |
| Radeon X1600 XT (Sapphire) | 132.48 | |
| GeForce 6800 GS (NVIDIA) | 132.30 | 0.14 |
| Radeon X1900 XTX (ATI) | 130.85 | 1.25 |
| GeForce 7950 GX2 (NVIDIA) | 128.38 | 3.19 |
| Radeon X800 GT (HIS) | 128.32 | 3.24 |
| GeForce 6800 GT (NVIDIA) | 127.64 | 3.79 |
| Radeon X1600 XT (ATI) | 121.01 | 9.48 |
| Radeon X1600 Pro Turbo (HIS) | 118.53 | 11.77 |
| GeForce 6600 GT (XFX) | 109.30 | 21.21 |
| GeForce 7600 GS (NVIDIA) | 108.98 | 21.56 |
| Radeon X700 Pro (Sapphire) | 105.22 | 25.91 |
| Radeon X1600 Pro 512 MB (PowerColor) | 97.69 | 35.61 |
| GeForce 6600 (Albatron) | 63.37 | 109.06 |
| Radeon X600 XT (ATI) | 59.82 | 121.46 |
| Radeon X600 Pro (Sapphire) | 48.85 | 171.20 |
| Far Cry – 1024×768 Very High | Score | Difference |
| Radeon X1900 GT (Connect3D) | 78.79 | 58.40 |
| Radeon X850 XT P.E. (ATI) | 76.61 | 54.02 |
| Radeon X1800 XL (ATI) | 76.55 | 53.90 |
| Radeon X1800 XT (ATI) | 76.18 | 53.16 |
| GeForce 7800 GT (NVIDIA) | 75.82 | 52.43 |
| GeForce 7800 GTX (MSI) | 75.38 | 51.55 |
| GeForce 7900 GTX (NVIDIA) | 75.35 | 51.49 |
| GeForce 7900 GT (NVIDIA) | 74.65 | 50.08 |
| GeForce 7950 GX2 (NVIDIA) | 73.03 | 46.82 |
| GeForce 7600 GT (NVIDIA) | 72.70 | 46.16 |
| GeForce 6800 GS (NVIDIA) | 70.72 | 42.18 |
| Radeon X1900 XTX (ATI) | 69.40 | 39.53 |
| GeForce 6800 GT (NVIDIA) | 67.93 | 36.57 |
| Radeon X800 GTO (HIS) | 63.05 | 26.76 |
| Radeon X800 GT (HIS) | 54.82 | 10.21 |
| Radeon X1600 XT (Sapphire) | 49.74 | |
| GeForce 7600 GS (NVIDIA) | 48.28 | 3.02 |
| Radeon X1600 XT (ATI) | 47.91 | 3.82 |
| Radeon X1600 Pro Turbo (HIS) | 43.82 | 13.51 |
| Radeon X700 Pro (Sapphire) | 40.72 | 22.15 |
| GeForce 6600 GT (XFX) | 38.28 | 29.94 |
| Radeon X1600 Pro 512 MB (PowerColor) | 37.72 | 31.87 |
| GeForce 6600 (Albatron) | 23.67 | 110.14 |
| Radeon X600 Pro (Sapphire) | 20.41 | 143.70 |
| Radeon X600 XT (ATI) | 18.74 | 165.42 |
| Far Cry – 1280×1024 Very High | Score | Difference |
| Radeon X1800 XT (ATI) | 75.28 | 108.36 |
| GeForce 7900 GTX (NVIDIA) | 73.31 | 102.91 |
| GeForce 7900 GT (NVIDIA) | 71.77 | 98.64 |
| GeForce 7950 GX2 (NVIDIA) | 71.17 | 96.98 |
| GeForce 7800 GTX (MSI) | 71.13 | 96.87 |
| Radeon X1900 GT (Connect3D) | 71.03 | 96.60 |
| Radeon X1800 XL (ATI) | 70.00 | 93.74 |
| Radeon X1900 XTX (ATI) | 68.59 | 89.84 |
| Radeon X850 XT P.E. (ATI) | 67.93 | 88.02 |
| GeForce 7800 GT (NVIDIA) | 67.09 | 85.69 |
| GeForce 7600 GT (NVIDIA) | 53.88 | 49.13 |
| GeForce 6800 GS (NVIDIA) | 53.81 | 48.93 |
| GeForce 6800 GT (NVIDIA) | 51.53 | 42.62 |
| Radeon X800 GTO (HIS) | 45.80 | 26.76 |
| Radeon X800 GT (HIS) | 38.43 | 6.37 |
| Radeon X1600 XT (Sapphire) | 36.13 | |
| Radeon X1600 XT (ATI) | 35.59 | 1.52 |
| GeForce 7600 GS (NVIDIA) | 31.41 | 15.03 |
| Radeon X1600 Pro Turbo (HIS) | 30.54 | 18.30 |
| Radeon X700 Pro (Sapphire) | 28.20 | 28.12 |
| Radeon X1600 Pro 512 MB (PowerColor) | 26.14 | 38.22 |
| GeForce 6600 GT (XFX) | 25.82 | 39.93 |
| GeForce 6600 (Albatron) | 15.07 | 139.75 |
| Radeon X600 Pro (Sapphire) | 14.15 | 155.34 |
| Radeon X600 XT (ATI) | 13.62 | 165.27 |
| Far Cry – 1600×1200 Very High | Score | Difference |
| Radeon X1800 XT (ATI) | 71.88 | 188.56 |
| GeForce 7950 GX2 (NVIDIA) | 71.70 | 187.84 |
| GeForce 7900 GTX (NVIDIA) | 71.57 | 187.31 |
| Radeon X1900 XTX (ATI) | 68.62 | 175.47 |
| Radeon X1900 GT (Connect3D) | 60.12 | 141.35 |
| GeForce 7900 GT (NVIDIA) | 59.50 | 138.86 |
| Radeon X1800 XL (ATI) | 59.36 | 138.30 |
| GeForce 7800 GTX (MSI) | 58.10 | 133.24 |
| Radeon X850 XT P.E. (ATI) | 54.23 | 117.70 |
| GeForce 7800 GT (NVIDIA) | 52.35 | 110.16 |
| GeForce 6800 GS (NVIDIA) | 39.93 | 60.30 |
| GeForce 7600 GT (NVIDIA) | 39.62 | 59.05 |
| GeForce 6800 GT (NVIDIA) | 34.29 | 37.66 |
| Radeon X800 GTO (HIS) | 34.06 | 36.73 |
| Radeon X800 GT (HIS) | 27.74 | 11.36 |
| Radeon X1600 XT (Sapphire) | 24.91 | |
| Radeon X1600 XT (ATI) | 24.51 | 1.63 |
| GeForce 7600 GS (NVIDIA) | 22.78 | 9.35 |
| Radeon X1600 Pro Turbo (HIS) | 20.96 | 18.85 |
| Radeon X700 Pro (Sapphire) | 20.01 | 24.49 |
| GeForce 6600 GT (XFX) | 19.53 | 27.55 |
| Radeon X1600 Pro 512 MB (PowerColor) | 17.00 | 46.53 |
| GeForce 6600 (Albatron) | 11.28 | 120.83 |
| Radeon X600 Pro (Sapphire) | 8.04 | 209.83 |
| Radeon X600 XT (ATI) | 7.01 | 255.35 |
[nextpage title=”Conclusions”]
We have published two other Radeon X1600 XT reviews, one of the ATI reference model and another from HIS. On both reviews we didn’t like Radeon X1600 XT, as it was too expensive for the performance it delivers. Radeon X1600 XT could be (and still is) found between USD 167 and USD 200.
This special model from Sapphire, however, can be found at USD 140 at Newegg, just 10 bucks more than the standard Radeon X1600 XT from the same manufacturer, a lot cheaper than models from other companies. ASUS carries a model also with silent cooling, quoted at USD 161 on the same on-line store.
With this price, it is just a little bit more expensive than GeForce 7600 GS (a model from MSI is quoted between USD 117 and USD 136 at Shopping.com), but it is far better than this NVIDIA chip except on Doom 3.
Sapphire Radeon X1600 XT Ultimate was between 10% and 25% faster than GeForce 7600 GS on 3DMark03, between 31% and 73% faster on 3DMark05 and up to 22% faster on Far Cry. On Doom 3, however, GeForce 7600 GS was between 12% and 31% faster.
GeForce 7600 GT provides a far better performance than GeForce 7600 GS and is faster than Radeon 1600 XT (except on Far Cry with no image quality enhancements enabled): it was between 30% and 66% faster than the reviewed VGA on 3DMark03, between 5% and 19% faster on 3DMark05, between 31% and 101% faster on Doom 3 and between 46% and 59% on Far Cry with image quality settings enabled.
Oh yes, GeForce 7600 GT is more expensive and, generally speaking, is a far better product than Radeon X1600 XT. But then comes pricing, and this model from Sapphire is quoted exactly between GeForce 7600 GS and GeForce 7600 GT.
So, here are our conclusions: if you are thinking on buying a GeForce 7600 GS, consider this model from Sapphire – but there are two “ifs”. First, we think USD 140 is a great price for this card, and it is only worthwhile if you find it costing around this value. You will pay just a little bit more and will carry home a VGA with better performance – if (and here is our second if) you don’t run Doom 3 or any games based on the same engine, like Quake 4.
But if you have more than USD 140 to spend on a video card, go for a GeForce 7600 GT, as it smashes Radeon X1600 XT, especially on Doom 3 (it achieves the double of Radeon X1600 XT performance at 1600×1200).
Bottom line: this is a terrific card if you can buy it around USD 140 and you don’t play Doom 3 or Quake 4.
We are giving this card our “Silver Award” (our Golden Award goes to GeForce 7600 GT), but keep in mind these “ifs” when thinking about it.