Retail X700 Pro Roundup

by Derek Wilson on December 13, 2004 12:05 AM EST

ABIT

Of the four Radeon X700 Pro cards that we tested, the ABIT card was the only 128MB part that we saw. This gives it a slight price advantage, but it also falls behind a bit in stock performance because of it.

On the up side, this part was the only one to include a heatsink that covered the RAM as well as the core. Other solutions had ramsinks, but since the cooling hardware on the ABIT card has a shroud that directs air across the RAM and GPU, there should be better cooling across the entire range of things that heat up.



The core on this card didn't overclock as well as the other X700 parts. Since there isn't any difference in which cores go on 128MB and 256MB parts, this is either luck of the draw or cooling issue. Because ATI's non-XT lines don't have built-in temperature sensors, we were unable to determine which of these is the culprit here.



X700 Pro vs. 6600 GT HIS
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  • Gaia Hunter - Tuesday, December 14, 2004 - link

    @11:

    Dont forget most 6800 vanillas can easly be softmoded with rivatuner:

    -All will get the 6th vertex unit;
    -Good chance of getting the additionall 4 pixel pipes too.

    I was able to go to 16,6. That gave me a 25% boost in 3dmark03 and 33% bost in 3dmark05.~

    Also consider 6800 LE (around $250). Most can get 12 pipes and 5 vertex. If u get lucky u can get to 16,6.

    While u cant always do this, consider that nvidia is implementing a new way to mask the Pipilines! think about that :)
  • Questar - Tuesday, December 14, 2004 - link

    >>Mid range and PCIe dont mix right now. who would get mid range card if they were dishing out big bucks to get a PCIe setup??

    Me. Assuming 3Ghz is midrange.
  • Alphafox78 - Tuesday, December 14, 2004 - link

    Mid range and PCIe dont mix right now. who would get mid range card if they were dishing out big bucks to get a PCIe setup?? AGP still has 98% market share, but I guess the 2% high end stuff is worth forgetting agp over.
  • DerekWilson - Tuesday, December 14, 2004 - link

    #18

    the wildcat is a professional card, not a consumer level card. the wildcat realizm 200 competes with the quadro, not the geforce.
  • nurazlanshah - Monday, December 13, 2004 - link

    im just wondering, why dont people just use 3dlabs wildcat realizm 200 if they really want the best computer and if they have the money? i would do that.

    http://www.3dlabs.com/products/product.asp?prod=29...
  • skunkbuster - Monday, December 13, 2004 - link

    #16, i think they do that in order to eliminate the cpu as being a bottleneck
  • alexlck - Monday, December 13, 2004 - link

    nice review but there is something that i don't understand.

    When people is looking for a mid-range video card, they are usually having a medicore setup. so what's the point to test a mid-range card with a
    $1,000+ CPU?

    can you please retest those cards with 3Ghz/3000+ cpu?

    Which, i think, will give some more realistic results.
  • ShadowVlican - Monday, December 13, 2004 - link

    i can confirm #12 statement about the "2004 Performance" cause i see that too.. stoopid ad :/

    too bad ati... better bring out the new X800s now and lower the price too :D cause ur X700Pro can't touch the 6600gt :P
  • DerekWilson - Monday, December 13, 2004 - link

    Thanks Pete. Corrected the typo.
  • Pete - Monday, December 13, 2004 - link

    Hey Derek, slight typo in the Doom 3 benches. I think you mwant to say AA rather than aniso in the first sentence, as HQ mode in D3 uses 8xAF by default.

    Sorry, I can't get as excited about this article as the last simply b/c the cards are uninspiring. Better luck next SKU, ATI.

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