Thoughts
ATI Radeon X1650 PRO is set to be available for around the same price as GeForce 7600 GS at the time of writing (if not a touch more, but it's hard to get an accurate ASP), matching up pretty nicely with the NVIDIA SKU that performs closest to it in our tests. For the three examples on test, expect to pay most for the HIS IceQ Turbo because of its excellent non-reference cooler and the least for the Sapphire (at least in the UK). In the mid-range, the advantages a modern Radeon has over a modern GeForce in absolute image quality are somewhat negated by the fact it becomes more difficult to have the GPU exploit that difference effectively, given there's never really a surfeit of performance available with which to use to turn on IQ enhancements that take extra rendering power to achieve, if you want to play at a reasonable resolution.That said, the Radeon X1650 PRO does enough at the common resolutions it'll be used at, and offers up the potential for better-looking pixels on your screen, so as to make it recommended over GeForce 7600 GS. You'll struggle to find a silent one as easily as you will a 7600 GS, and the Radeon will consume more power, but those negatives are easily outweighed by everything else.
On balance, the Sapphire is what we'd choose because of its one-slot cooler and best-on-test price, but the HIS has a lot going for it if you don't want to squeeze it into a small space and you get more software with it than you do the other two. The GeCube doesn't excel in any one area, but neither does it do much wrong. All have great output options and potential quality, and with best performance for the money, Radeon X1650 PRO is a fine spend.
In summary, with card pricing hovering around the £80 mark for the Sapphire and projected to be around £95 for the better-cooled HIS, and the GeCube sitting somewhere in between, each card is worthy of consideration. However, ultimately, our buying advice would be to spend around twenty extra pounds and opt for the faster NVIDIA GeForce 7600 GT 256MiB SKU, priced from £100, if gaming, and pure gaming performance alone, is your only criteria for choosing a card. As a well-rounded solution with respect to 2D and 3D abilities, though, the Radeon X1650 Pro SKU is reasonable enough, and that's why HEXUS awards each card a recommended gong at the sub-£100 pricepoint. Of course, you'll opt for a particular model depending upon your exacts requirements, and we've delineated each card's strengths and weaknesses on the previous pages.
HEXUS Awards
Sapphire Radeon X1650 PRO
GeCube Radeon X1650 PRO GDDR3
HIS Radeon X1650 PRO IceQ Turbo
HEXUS Where2Buy
As so often happens with brand-new SKUs, it's difficult to provide pricing and stock links at the time of review publication. We've managed to track the Sapphire X1650 Pro 256MiB card down, priced at around £80, at SCAN.co.uk, and you can find the SKU's URL here.One extremely important point to remember is the overall cost of purchase. You need to weigh up pricing and shipping, which in most cases can amount to 10% for £80-90 graphics cards such as the ones submitted for review.
SCAN in conjunction with HEXUS is currently exclusively running the SCAN2HEXUS free shipping program (conditions apply) for active users of the HEXUS community. More details of the Scan2HEXUS loyalty programme can be found here. After speaking to a bunch of manufacturers, it's an absolute no-brainer, we feel, to take advantage of an offer of free carriage from a well-respected etailer with an excellent after sales, customer care and technical support services. Why pay for costly carriage if you don't have to?
HEXUS is firmly entrenched on the side of the consumer, and this program offers significant savings when purchasing online. Frankly, you'd be remiss not to take it up.
