X1600XT Crossfire VS X1900XTX/Looking for a review.

[DaMulta]

http://www.cluboc.net/reviews/video/...0xtx/index.htm

Motherboard: Abit AW8D Crossfire
CPU: Intel Pentium D 940
Overclocked: 219MHz FSB/3490 MHz
Memory: OCZ: 2x1GB PC5400 XTC Gold
4-4-4-12
Power: Antec TruePower Trio 650 Watt

The Conclusion:

By now it should be amply apparent that the ATI Radeon X1000 series of video cards have a lot of raw power. Adding a second card should increase the performance measurably right? Our testing has made several things readily apparent. First and foremost, Abit and Connect3D make fantastic hardware. Every attempt at overclocking was met with no fear of ever loosing any of the hardware to permanent damage. Temperatures remained manageable and the products look great.

Secondly, but perhaps more important, the raw power of the ATI X1000 series is hidden behind a layer of drivers and technology that currently makes all but the most basic attempts at harnessing that power maddeningly just beyond our reach. My attempts to overclock the X1600 XT Crossfire setup became an exercise in frustration making me wish I was working with my SLI setup time and time again.

It is comforting to know there are several third party tools in development that may become available at any date. However, a simple trip to the support forums for each of these tools reveals the lack of ATI support for bringing these tools to fruition. It's as if ATI has become the OZ behind the curtain and we all must accept the performance we have been given.

I spent several weeks downloading and testing every tool that showed any promise with no successful overclocking results. Every attempt not using the Overdrive tool was met with failure. Short of making risky BIOS changes I was forced to admit defeat.



The Conclusion:

By now it should be amply apparent that the ATI Radeon X1000 series of video cards have a lot of raw power. Adding a second card should increase the performance measurably right? Our testing has made several things readily apparent. First and foremost, Abit and Connect3D make fantastic hardware. Every attempt at overclocking was met with no fear of ever loosing any of the hardware to permanent damage. Temperatures remained manageable and the products look great.

Secondly, but perhaps more important, the raw power of the ATI X1000 series is hidden behind a layer of drivers and technology that currently makes all but the most basic attempts at harnessing that power maddeningly just beyond our reach. My attempts to overclock the X1600 XT Crossfire setup became an exercise in frustration making me wish I was working with my SLI setup time and time again.

It is comforting to know there are several third party tools in development that may become available at any date. However, a simple trip to the support forums for each of these tools reveals the lack of ATI support for bringing these tools to fruition. It's as if ATI has become the OZ behind the curtain and we all must accept the performance we have been given.

I spent several weeks downloading and testing every tool that showed any promise with no successful overclocking results. Every attempt not using the Overdrive tool was met with failure. Short of making risky BIOS changes I was forced to admit defeat.



The Winner:

A simple review of the overclocking results reveals the XTX retains its crown for overall performance. And yes the margin would have been larger had we applied the same overclocking efforts to the XTX. But the results of our overclocked X1600 XT Crossfire configuration were astonishing. Looking at the dramatic performance gains possible when adding a second NVIDIA card for SLI, I can only ponder the numbers we could get if we could just get to the true potential of our Crossfire setup.

More impressive is the fact that our Crossfire setup did score higher than the X1900 XTX in several of the benchmarks. And that's using the simplistic ATI Overdrive tool as our only functional option. The scores in F.E.A.R. and Half Life 2: Lost Coast show just how close the X1600 XT Crossfire solution is to taking the crown from our XTX. Both games favor the ATI architecture and seem to have found good use for the extra card.

I am afraid I have to give David the win on this round. Despite the fact my Connect3D X1900 XTX managed to edge out David's Crossfire challenger in raw performance, the tight margin of most of the numbers just doesn't make me feel all warm and fuzzy about the extra $100 plus dollars for the XTX. Add to that the ability to purchase a single X1600 XT for around $150 now and add a second X1600 XT or better when the budget allows. Or better still; keep your X1600 around for a dedicated physics card and move up to your own XTX (or better when the next generation hits the shelves)!

David's Bio: David Makin has been working with computer resellers and their customers since 1997. He is the Director of Marketing for Connect3D in the US. In his spare time he works with the computer gaming community promoting Connect3D products and technologies. He has been featured in more than 15 articles on various hardware sites for his creative approach to capturing the attention of LAN party attendees.

What realworld benchmarks Editor had to say.

Originally Posted by ChrisRam

What is sad is they used an Intel board that only supports 8x PCI E lanes per card in that article you are talking about at Clubidontknowtech.net. If they would have used a 3200 ATI chipset the 1600 cards would have been faster. As for the 1300's you will just have to wait for The Configurator.

http://www.legitreviews.com/article/329/3/

vs

http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=29990

the difference is amazing on the same motherboard.

ASUS Extreme AX1600XT SILENT/TVD, Radeon X1600 XT, 256MB GDDR3 cards will cost your around €199 or roughly ₤149 and is a great way to make your Crossfire system silent. Akasa EVO 120 cooler helped us out in that task and for roughly €600 for two graphic cards and a motherboard you got a very decent performance rig. It won't have any power or stability issues. Let me remind you that a single X1900 XTX card will cost roughly the same and the performance will be very close, plus you need to spend additional €200 for the motherboard. The choice is always yours but we like this silent way of doing a dual card Crossfire. µ

Same website with the 3200 chipset


Posted: 7th April 2006,drivers have improved

2 1600XT in crossfire/same as the X1650pro

http://www.tweaktown.com/reviews/886...ion/index.html
16x
9th October 2006
8x
http://www.tweaktown.com/articles/96...k06/index.html

http://www.tweaktown.com/reviews/899...k06/index.html

X1900xt
http://www.tweaktown.com/reviews/925...k06/index.html
X1900XTX

WTF same website, yet they show a X1900gt is faster than x1650 crossfire, a few months before on the same site.They did a review and the scores were better than the x1900XTX
(Granted Chris pointed out the 8x but they should of caught this)/

So has anyone found this review done on a 3200 chipset? X1600XT(OR X1650pro) Vs X1900XT

[DanTheBanjoman]

PCIe 8x shouldn't make a real difference. I'm more interested in the extra power it requires to run the Crossfire cards.

[DaMulta]

The 8x vs 16x does make a difference in X1600, X1300 Crossfire, because the crossfire talks over the bus. This does not make that much of a difference in X1900XT crossfire because it doesn't need the extra bus speed to talk between the cards. Wiz should do a review on the differences.

[Agility]

Its a huge difference between PCI-E 8 and PCI-E 16.