PowerColor X1300 HyperMemory 2 PCIe Video Card Review

VGA Reviews by SidneyWong @ 2006-02-20

Sales of video cards, manufacturers depend on high volume mainstream cards. They know gamers are no different than exotic car or sports car owners, who are in fact the minority in car ownership. Today, we are looking at just one of these video cards, PowerColor X1300 PCIe with 128MB onboard, HyperMemory? 2 supporting 512MB in total in 64-bit.

Introduction

Introduction:

In any game forum, you find mid and high end card owners exchanging FPS from their favorite games, installing memory modules that cost as much as an entire low cost system, or 3DMark scores that you may find alien to you. Well, it is because you are a computer user who is not into gaming, or not as enthusiastic about it. It has no bearing on your PC knowledge; likely you may well be a successful manager who is extremely good at what you do in data analysis, marketing and sales presentation etc.

Today, we are looking into a video card for people who play games occasionally and not willing to pay more than necessary. Or, system integrators who must find the intricate balance in both cost and performance to customers at large. PowerColor X1300 128MB may be what you are looking for.

The card came in a white OEM box without graphic; included are driver CD, manual and video out cable.

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The retail pack looks better with color graphic box.

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Specifications:

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Detail of X1300 Graphics Technology can be found here.

A closer look ->

Closer Look

Closer Look:

The half size card will fit nicely in a HTPC.

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For the curious minded the 90nm GPU (RV515) and Hynis DDR2 Memory.

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I was informed after the sample arrived by PowerColor that this model will be called X1300 HyperMemory 2 supporting 512MB, and will be factory overclocked with a core running at 600Mhz instead of 450MHz default when the card arrives in retailers shortly afterward.

Let's see how it performs in both synthetic benchmarks and real world games ->

Performance

Performance:

Lazyman Test Setup
Case and Cooling	X-Dreamer II case with fans at 2000rpm: - 2x80mm intake - 2x80mm exhaust - 1x80mm top blower
CPU	AMD Opteron 165 @2.6Ghz 1.427 vcore
Motherboard	DFI LanParty UT Ultra D (2x40mm fan added over PWM)
Memory	GSKill PC4400 2x512Mb 2.5-3-3-7 1:1 290 HTT
Other	Seasonic S12 500W PSU PowerColor X1300 128MB Hitachi 160GB SATA HDD Windows XP Pro SP2 - lastest updates ATI Driver 8.221 (6.2)

I ran Futuremark’s 3DMark benchmark suite fully aware of the fact that gamers are not totally relying on synthetic results but real game play. Nevertheless, it may show to those who use 3Dmarks for reference.

I tried using both ATI tool and Riva Tuner; both were unable to unlock memory setting; since the BIOS has a default 450 core, I ran 3DMarks using default (450), "factory overclocked" (600) and 650 MHz. While the core is doing very well, the memory cannot be changed.

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For comparison, I am using Nvidia 6200 128MB memory and 128bit bus bandwidth card at BIOS default; a card that is similar in value with older generation technology (110nm versus 90nm GPU).

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With only 64bit using system memory to arrive 512MB, this card doesn't respond well to the scores despite the overclock in 3DMarks.

Let's see how the X1300 does in games. Knowing any gamer may be uninterested with these numbers and X1300 is aimed for different group of audience, I am merely trying to show that this card can be used for game provided you are not demanding for a lot.

While 3DMarks were artifacts free, I could not hold 650mhz core speed without seeing artifacts in games. 637mhz was used for however slight the gain is, free of charge nevertheless.

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Both BF2 and Doom 3 were set to medium quality; 1024x768 and 75Hz refresh rate, both games were "playable" marginally at these settings with 4xAA in BF2 and no AA for Doom 3 which I found unplayable at 4xAA. As you can see there is no loser in choosing ATI or NVIDIA. Depends on what your favorite game is, Doom 3 likes Nvidia and BF2 is pro-ATI. I am sure Half Life 2 will be better in performance with ATI card; most of the time.

Click to enlarge

Conclusive Thoughts ->

Conclusion

Conclusion

Being an occasional gamer, it took me six month to finish Doom 3, three months for Half Life 2 and I am taking my time with Battle Field 2. I played HL2 twice (start to finish) using an ATI 9600XT and once with R9000 Pro, just to show you my 'love" and Enthusiasm in games. I mention that my PCX6200 soft modded and overclocked to Geforce 6600 speed which did give me satisfaction at times, particularly when I did good in a game section.

The PowerColor X1300 will be fine for those who find the onboard graphic card is acting up and in need of a replacement; play computer games so that you are not totally out of touch with your friends or co-worker; a graphic card that does not cost more than a pair of value memory modules.

Yet, it delivers the latest technology at the time you really want to play that popular game so many people are talking about. MSRP is US$79, a price that is only slightly lower than the PowerColor X1300 256MB 128bit card being sold at Newegg for US$89 at time of this writing. I wonder how much lower the street price will be once the new card is released.

PRO
Economical entry card
It is good option for the casual gamer
Good candidate for HTPC setup

CON
64-bit
Unable to overclock the card’s memory

I like to thank Mr. Raymen Wu for the review sample.

Question/Comments: forum thread