Test systems and testing notes
Now that we've taken a look at the cards and their bundles, it's time to evaluate their performance both graphically and thermally along with their value for money. We're also going to explore the warranty options of these cards, which could sway your decision of which to buy, should you be in the market for such a card.
First, here's the rundown on the hardware used in our testing.
ATI test system
| Component | BIOS | Driver |
| AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+ S939 (2.0GHz, 2 x 512KiB L2 cache, dual-core) | ||
| ASUS A8R32-MVP, RD580+M1575 | 0404 | 1.0.5.2a |
| 1GByte (2 x 512MByte) OCZ4001024V25DC-K PC3200 2.5-4-4-8 2T @ 400MHz |
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| 160GB Seagate Barracuda 7200.9 (3Gb/s mode) | ||
| Dell 2405FPW Widescreen 24in TFT | ||
| Windows XP Pro SP2 | ||
| Asus EAX1600XT SILENT/TVD/256M (587/1386) | 009.012.004.002 | 8.231-060221a1-030895C-ATI (Cat 6.3) |
| GECUBE RADEON X1600XT, Dual DVI, 256MB GDDR3, AVIVO Edition (587/1368) | 009.012.004.002 | |
| Gigabyte GV-RX16T256V-RH (587/1386) | 009.012.004.002 | |
| HIS X1600Pro IceQ Turbo DL-DVI DVI 128MB GDDR3 (587/1386) | 009.012.006.002 | |
| HIS X1600XT IceQ Turbo DL-DVI DVI 256MB GDDR3 (iTurbo mode, 600/1404) | 009.012.006.002 | |
| MSI RX1600XT-T2D256EZ (587/1386) | 009.012.004.002 | |
| MSI RX1600XT-T2D256E (587/1386) | 009.012.004.002 | |
| PowerColor X1600 XT BRAVO Edition (587/1386) | 009.012.004.002 | |
| Sapphire Radeon X1600XT Ultimate Edition (587/1386) | 009.012.006.002 |
NVIDIA test system
We ran a Point of View GeForce 7600 GS through the same set of tests as the X1600s to give some figures for a comparable product from the green team. The POV card is, like a handful of the X1600s, a passive solution. It has clocks of 400/800 for core and memory, respectively.
| Component | BIOS | Driver |
| AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+ S939 (2.0GHz, 2 x 512KiB L2 cache, dual-core) | ||
| ASUS A8N32-SLI Deluxe, nForce4 SLI X16 | 1103 | 6.82 |
| 1GByte (2 x 512MByte) OCZ4001024V25DC-K PC3200 2.5-4-4-8 2T @ 400MHz |
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| 160GB Seagate Barracuda 7200.9 (3Gb/s mode) | ||
| Dell 2405FPW Widescreen 24in TFT | ||
| Windows XP Pro SP2 | ||
| P.O.V GeForce 7600 GS Silent 256MB (400/800) | 5.73.22.16 | 84.21 |
We used Far Cry, Quake 4 and Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory for our performance benchmarks. We used resolutions of 1280x1024 and 1600x1200 with 4xAA 8xAF and 0xAA 8xAF, respectively. We also ran SC:CT with and without High Dynamic-Range lighting enabled.
