Half Life II had been expected for quite awhile, as those who bought ATi cards last year (like me) and those who were just waiting had to wait till this year before the game finally arrived. However the graphics provided by this card were simply beautiful, especially the water effects in the game. So lets see how this game is handled by the X700.
We see at this resolution that the X700 easily makes it past the 60fps average frame rate. Overclocking doesn't add much to the overall results just 1fps. The FX5750 makes a nice showing here and is playable, but is using the lower quality DirectX 8.1 code path. Lets see if adding AA and ansiotropic filtering can bring the X700 below 60fps on average.
We see that the X700 can still make it over the 60fps mark, though only barely at stock speeds. However this still means that at all settings with the resolution of 1024*768 this card can provide very playable frame rates in this game. Overclocking only yields a 5% improvement, meaning the card is still mostly CPU limited even here.
At this resolution the X700 can't make it to 60fps on average. However it is still quite playable at this setting, as I played the entire game at 1280*800 on my laptop's ATi 9600, and it was very smooth for the most part with approximately 30fps on average.
In this last test of this X700 we see that it barely gets above 30fps when overclocked. So while it should be playable to those that don't mind the occasional slow down, it isn't playable for some. Overclocking gives a 10% increase in frame rates which is pretty good, for the extra 3fps it gives.
Conclusion
We've taken quite an extensive look at this card, from the package it arrived in, the software it came with, the image quality of all its parts, and finally its gaming performance. So what can we conclude?
First of all the packaging. HIS did a good job with the package the card came in, as you are able to see the actual card in plain sight when you look at the card. The internal package was very good too, with the cables that you would need, for both input and output. The very good thing they did was include a component video adaptor in the bundle, something I haven't seen many other companies do with their products, and this includes ATi. The card itself is massive, not in length but in slot usage, as it takes up two slots for its cooling solution. I didn't mind this as much as the card was very quiet in our tests which in my mind more than makes up for the loss of a slot that I don't use anyway. The heatsink made contact with the GPU by means of thermal paste, though the RAM seems to use thermal pads, but those are bonded well to the memory with their heatsinks.
The quality of the image that this card provided was pretty good overall. The high points were 2D quality as it came behind only the Parhelia and Radeon 9800XT, and the latter only by a small amount. 3D quality was up to ATi's usual standards, which means it was very good indeed. One of the downsides came from the video-in quality, as that wasn't that great, much worse than the Radeon AiW 9000 Pro that is one of the higher quality cards. The video-out quality wasn't that great using the SVHS connection, but using component connectors made for a better image.
3D performance was very good in most of the games tested. This card can play any current game at 1024*768 without any real problems, especially when overclocked. The DirectX tests showed that this card can play at 1600*1200 with AA and ansiotropic filtering in older games such as UT 2004. Newer games such as Doom 3 and Half Life II, aren't really playable at 1600*1200, at least in most peoples minds, and Far Cry is half way between playability at this resolution.
Now we take a look at the price of this card, how much does this card go for. This card is going for a little more than the ATi X600 AiW. This means that for a extra couple of dollars you get a very good increase in performance, but you lose TV-In ability and also lose quality of your video-in. Which is more important is up to you, but this card provides a decent compromise in what you have versus what you lose.
Good Points
Bad Points
Bottom Line
As long as you have the space for this card, and don't mind the lack of a TV Tuner, then this card is pretty good for what you pay for it. This card is really the compromise of price, performance, and bundle, and does well in all areas.
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