MaximumPC 2005 12

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TI has launched a variety of bang-for-the-buck GPUs this year; the 16-pipe

X800 XL and the eight-pipe X800 GT are particularly impressive. In fact, if

it wasn’t for Shader Model 3.0 support, we’d have difficulty understanding why

ATI even built this 12-pipe X1600 XT.

But ATI now has a whole family of GPUs that support SM 3.0, all of which

are manufactured using a 90nm process that enables impressive core clock

speeds—in this case, 590MHz. The entire X1000 series also features an innova-

tive “ring bus” memory architecture that enables ATI to hyper-clock the 256MB

of GDDR3 memory on the X1600 XT to the tune of 690MHz. Despite these high

speeds, this card requires only a

single-slot cooler (the appeal of which

is severely watered down by a very

noisy fan).

Aside from feats of engineering,

what has ATI wrought with the X1600

XT? Not much that we’re impressed

with. In our real-world benchmark

tests, this card’s performance was

akin to nVidia’s GeForce 6800 and

ATI’s X800 XL. That means it falls well

behind cards based on nVidia’s slightly

more-expensive GeForce 6800 GT, and

it’s leagues behind the much-more

costly GeForce 7800 GTX.

ATI’s reference-design X1600 XT squeaked past the Radeon X800 GT and

the GeForce 6800 on most scores, but ATI’s mediocre OpenGL support enabled

the nVidia card to outperform ATI by more than four frames per second in Doom

3. Move into 16-pipe territory, and both nVidia’s 6800 GT and ATI’s own X800 XL

give the X1600 XT the beat-down.

The lesson here is clear: When it comes to GPUs, ground-breaking manufac-

turing processes and high clock

speeds are no substitute for an

abundance of parallel pipelines.

—MICHAEL BROWN

ATI Radeon X1600 XT

Marvelous engineering; mediocre performance

84 MA XIMUMPC DECEMBER 2005

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ATI RADEON X1600 XT

$250, http://www.ati.com

DOOM3 (FPS) 20.3

FAR CRY (FPS) 36.2

HALO (FPS) 47.1

3DMARK05 5,273

3DMARK03 9,632

3DMARK03 GAME 2 (FPS) 16.5

3DMARK03 GAME 4 (FPS) 21.5

HQV SCORE 51

BENCHMARKS

Refer to the Benchmarks page at

http://www.maximumpc.com for full testing details.

ATI’s new Radeon X1600 XT delivers ho-hum gaming performance;

its video quality is even less inspiring.