CrossFire
So
you heard that the X16xx series can plug and play into CrossFire
mode? Well that USED to be the case, this is not Asus fault by
any means, the onus is entirely on ATI/AMD. Looking through the
catalog Asus sent me (remember, there was no information about
this card on their website at time of writing) you would see an
“Asus EAX1650XT-CF” available, that is the CF Master needed
to run CrossFire
Being
the consummate reviewer, I attempted to run CF with the X1650XT
in PCIe slot1 and the X1600Pro in PCIe slot 2, I then attempted
it reversed, both tries gave me 2 video cards, but no CrossFire.
Overclocking
Built
into the Asus driver CD is a little application called “Asus
SmartDoc”. Beyond the “What is my card doing now” function,
there is the ability to OC as well. This is a good thing as my
favorite ATI OC tool, ATITool, does not support it yet (at time
of writing).
I
was able to garner a respectable 621MHz for the RV560 and 1446MHz
for the GDDR3.
The
results increased the fan speed just a little, well, a little
is condescending; I heard the small Asus fan over the 120MM
pumping away on my TechStation.
Not
a solution I could live with on a day to day basis, however if
you must OC, it is here and very viable as the results below will
show.
Image
Quality
With SM3.0/HDR the Asus EAX1650XT does not disappoint. Quake 4,
COD2 and even F.E.A.R played well and looked damn good doing it.
Here are some snapshots of COD2 and Quake 4 with and without AntiAliasing
/ Anisotropic Filtering.
No
AntiAliasing/Anisotropic Filtering left, 4x AntiAliasing/8x Anisotropic
Filtering right
Over on the 2D side of things, we found the DVI quality to look
very good, as good as we have seen in fact. For desktop use, the
fonts were clear at 1680x1050 and very readable on a Dell 2005FPW
Final
Words
While
the availability of the X1650XT has been spotty, the results appear
to be worth the wait. Asus
has done a nice job, and maybe the added external power is the
oomph needed to allow this card to outperform equal costing cards
on the nV side of the house.
The
Asus EAX1650XT
enables you to make a viable HTPC graphics solution. Great graphics
output, and interconnect cables for DVI (which would include a
DVI-->HDMI cable solution) and HDTV (YpbPr). The silence of
the Asus cooling
solution (as long as you are not Overclocking it), along with
the affordable price point makes this a logical choice for such
a solution. If you are seriously looking at building an HTPC,
the Asus EAX1650XT
should be at the top of your list.
As
a gaming card it performs well enough for the intended target
market. Quake 4 played very nice, as I mentioned earlier, the
engine on this game is beginning to age and the hardware has more
then caught up especially with iD's implementation of dual core
CPU support. While turning on AA/AF was noticeable, it wasn't
enough to deter me from playing it with AA/AF enabled. Go ahead
and play at 1680x1050, turning on AA/AF is an option. Call Of
Duty 2 was quite difficult to run at 1680x1050; it was just about
playable, however there was noticeable lag in the mouse response
to your position when the action got hot and heavy. Turning on
AA/AF made it impossible to play as the lag was so great that
you couldn't hit any of the targets unless you were in sniper
mode and not moving at all. You will want to play at 1280x800,
and without AA/AF on for the smoothest play possible.
Unfortunately,
ATI has muddied the waters with the whole CF Master scenario again,
I liked it much better when it was plug and play similar to the
nVidia SLI... So is the EAX1650XT
a proper replacement for your aging X850XT? I would answer most
certainly, is it a proper replacement for that X1600Pro? A tougher
call to be sure!
If
you have any comments, be sure to hit us up in our forums.
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