Sapphire Technology Radeon X1600 PRO 256Mb

**hunter260859** · June 22, 2006, 11:03 AM

i would like to know peoples views on this card

**Shaun** · June 22, 2006, 11:08 AM

I was going to get that card actually.
Get the X1900, you can get a bargain on one of these with 256MB, and they are a lot better than the X1600 PRO. If you can afford it, get the Sapphire X1900XT 512MB Crossfire edition, it kicks ass, the fastest card around. But anything less than the X1800 is outdated, and a waste of time, as the basic X1800 can be had for quite cheap now, and its a lot better then the X1600.

http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/s...tml?C3D-X18GTO look this one is really good value. Just look at its specs.

**hunter260859** · June 22, 2006, 02:17 PM

sadly thats pci e and im using AGP

**Hadrian** · June 22, 2006, 03:59 PM

Don't buy it hunter260859! Sapphire makes excellent products but that particular design is no good! It combines some of the the weakest elements of ATI's designs and it makes for a very disappointing VC. It is outdone by an OCed Sapphire Radeon X850XT, hands down. Besides, its already on the edge of outdated. Not enough memory or bandwidth. Shauns right, its about outdated. The X1800XT is an awesome value...

**Incinerate_IV** · June 22, 2006, 08:35 PM

Hmmm, an X1600 costs only ~$110, yet you guys are recommending cards that costs $200+, am I missing something here? Anyways, an X1600Pro is actually a pretty good deal for the price now thats its selling for $110 on Newegg, its a pretty nice overclocker and it can play most of the new games on near max, if not max settings.

**Hadrian** · June 22, 2006, 10:38 PM

Tom's Hardware says even the 512MB version of that card can't adequately drive the latest games on even the modest resolution of 1024x768. They basically suggest spending $300.00 on a 7800GT, or getting a new mainboard, because the X1600 Pro isn't a good OCer and even for the price the performance will be disappointing....

The article (written 06/06) questions the merit in trying to keep an AGP mobo because of the dwindling choices of VCs and the fact that all the new cards for AGP are adaptations of PCI-E designs....

**Incinerate_IV** · June 22, 2006, 10:49 PM

I had a X1600Pro 256MB and it can play all the latest games fine. I even played Half Life 2 at 1280x1024 6xAA 16xAF nicely with the card doing a steady 30-40 FPS, which to me is more than enough. BF2 also ran well on max settings. The card isn't powerful enough to use HDR (on Lost Coast at least), but other than that its a pretty nice card for the price.

**Hadrian** · June 22, 2006, 10:57 PM

The THW article was unusually negative for it being fairly new product (the 512MB version) so I'm not sure whats up with that. None of the test games they ran could it get much over 15-20 FPS with any kind of filtering, check it out, they beat it to death with their review...

**Incinerate_IV** · June 22, 2006, 11:34 PM

Well, when you are buying a low end video card, you DON'T buy the 512MB version, it's just a waste of money. The 256MB version only cost ~$110 on Newegg, for that price, the X1600Pro is a good deal. But for the overpriced 512 version TomsHardware is reviewing, stay far far away.

Oh yea, checked the review. The framerates is little lower than my X1600, but thats probably because I had my X1600 OCed another 120mhz on the core. I agree on new games like Oblivion and GRAW, the X1600 won't be enough unless you want to play it on low, but then thats expected for a card this cheap.

**hunter260859** · June 23, 2006, 02:52 AM

i just want a AGP VC which will allow me to play bf2 more smoothly than my nivida geforce 6200

**Shaun** · June 23, 2006, 08:24 AM

Originally Posted by hunter260859

i just want a AGP VC which will allow me to play bf2 more smoothly than my nivida geforce 6200

How about a 7800GS? http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/d....html?s=7800GS

I know its expensive, buts its probably the best AGP card out there.
But if you are ever going to upgrade you comuter again, i reccomend the switch to PCIe, your standated AGP gets 2.1GB/s, PCIe on the otherhand gets about 250Mb/s per pin, and since most PICe graphics cards use 16x pin config, multiply ths by 16 and you get 4Gb/s, nigh on twice as fast as AGP! now with 32x PCIe on the horizon, well, thats the stuff that dreams are made of!

Originally Posted by Incinerate_IV

Then the X1600Pro should be just enough to run BF2 at max settings, at 1280x1024.

True, but you dont buy a GPU on the basis that it can play a year old game at full settings, you also want something that can handle todays games at ease, and even play tomorows games as well, and the X1600 PRO dosent cut it.

But, on the otherhand if you still want to get it, get it here http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/s...html?SAP-X16P5
This one has 512mb memory and a 500MHz core clock speed

**Incinerate_IV** · June 23, 2006, 05:02 AM

Then the X1600Pro should be just enough to run BF2 at max settings, at 1280x1024.

**rayzzz** · June 23, 2006, 08:49 AM

Hunter how long do you want this to last you? be cause there is no point in getting a really expensive gc if you are going to get a new comp.

**Shaun** · June 23, 2006, 08:57 AM

Originally Posted by rayzzz

Hunter how long do you want this to last you? be cause there is no point in getting a really expensive gc if you are going to get a new comp.

Erm, yes there is. Only the really expensive PCs (+1£1000) come with a GPU worth shouting about, but they still have a fast CPU, tons of RAM and so on, so all they really need is a new GPU, and then they are excelent computers.