Radeon X600 XT ATI PCI-E Giga-Byte $179.99 Sponsored by Geeks.com - only $137 Sean Gibson - email

Introduction

Finding the right video card after spending the big bucks to upgrade your motherboard and CPU to the new PCI-E standard which typically means a 64-bit solution can leave your wallet in a world of hurt. However - you want to play the games that utilize this new technology as well as buy the card from a reliable vendor at a price which reflects the discount of a smart shopper.

Geeks.com - a rising force in online retail sales of PC parts and peripherals, currently has on special the Giga-Byte Radeon X600XT video card, boasting 128MB of on board RAM. Geeks.com was kind enough to have us check out and test the card ...

Now, if you've shopped around, you know that most of the top of the line PCI-E video cards will run inexcess of $500, well out of the price range of most gamers and business professionals. So, you must shop wisely and get a great "bang for your buck" card (and if the bundle is great - then that helps all the same!).

The Giga-Byte X600 XT video card is a nicely priced card with the mid level ATI X600 XT chipset. The card features 4 vertex pipelines, a core GPU clock-speed of 500Mhz, and offers up 400 MHz rated memory. A breakdown of the card along with some other recently review cards here at NextGen Electronics...

Considering the low price on the card to begin with and the discount from Geeks.com (which is around $20 to $40 cheaper than most e-tailers) the card stacks up very well against the competition.

Features

The Giga-Byte X600 XT 128MB PCI-E offers the following features:

• Chipset: ATI RADEON X600 XT
• 16x PCI Express interface
• Memory: 128 MB DDR
• Memory Bus: 128-bit
• 4 parallel pipeline architecture
• Fully Supports Microsoft DirectX 9.X and Open GL 2.0
• Supports GIGABYTE V-Tuner II
• SMARTSHADER
• VIDEOSHADER

With the latest in ATI technologies, the card is primed to actually perform and not just be something that you discard after six months.

Retail Bundle

Retail package include...

• Gigabyte Radeon X600 XT PCI Epxress Video Card
• User's Manual
• VIVO Breakout cable
• Counter Strike Condition Zero Game on CD
• SpellForce Game on CD
• Rainbow Six3 Raven Shield Game on CD
• Graphics Accelerator driver on CD
• CyberLink PowerDirector Software
• DVI to VGA adapter

The bundle is very impressive! I love the fact that both Counter Strike: Condition Zero and Rainbox Six 3: Raven Shield are included - these are great games!

card benchmark & testing

We used the same system we tested other video cards on for this review...

Test System Specifications:
- Intel 3.0 GHz "630" processor
- GigaByte Motherboard
- 1024 MB 533MHz Dual Channel DDR RAM
- Windows XP Professional
- DirectX 9.0c

For the benchmarks we used the default 1024x768 setting, no AA, but all on very high detail. For a "real world" gaming experience, we used EA's enormously popular Battle for Middle Earth game, while capturing the FPS (frames per second) using the popular FRAPS Utility which allows you to grab the framerate for any game you play. Battle for Middle Earth was universally tested at 1280x1024 @ 70Hz, with absolutely everything turned to high, all shaders checked, and all miscellaneous video options enabled (excluding subtitles).

Benchmarks Used:

- 3DMark01
- AquaMark 3 (FPS, GFX score)
- World of Warcraft
- 3DMark05

3D Mark 2001

3DMark 01 is the old standby, and is always interesting to take a look at when benching video cards...

Giga-Byte X600 XT PCI-E SCORE: 14,930 Marks

This score marks a huge improvement over the recent PCI-E card we reviewed from a different vedor (with a different chipset) :

Aquamark 3

Aquamark 3 is a popular benchmarking utility, and we broke up the testing for both FPS (Frames Per Second) and for the GFX score...

GFX Score (higher is better)
Giga-Byte X600 XT PCI-E SCORE: 4,254

Once again compairing it to the other PCI-E card :

battle for middle earth

We decided to use the popular RTS game from EA, with the resolution at 1280x1024 @ 70Hz, with all detail levels put on high, and all shaders and miscellaneous turned on. Using FRAPS, we captured a walk through the Mines of Moria ...

LeadTek WinFast PX6200 PCI-E SCORE: 21.06 FPS
Giga-Byte X600 XT PCI-E SCORE: 30.06 FPS

In the best "real world" gaming test, the Giga-Byte X600 XT performed up for the challenge - but in all honesty, we think in upcoming reviews that this will show a 30FPS max out and will use a different title without that cap.

3dmark 2005

The latest FutureMark program to benchmark video game systems has some of the most remarkable testing features to date...

Giga-Byte X600 XT PCI-E SCORE: 1950 Marks

Comparing:

installation

The video card is quite easily the easiest thing to install in your computer. Simply uninstall the OLD drivers first (some people forget this step), turn off your computer, take out the old card, and put in the new card. Don't forget to insert a power plug to make sure the card gets the juice it needs (otherwise it won't work).

Turn on the system, insert the CD or simply download latest ATI catalist drivers (Version: 5.5 now right here for XP) and install them. After that - you're ready to go!

impressions of performance

Let's keep in mind that this card is about saving your butt some money rather than spending $200 to $500 on a performance video card. This isn't a "stop gap" card that won't get you through your gaming needs. It performed very well with strong CPU and Motherboard support to perform very nicely with one of the more graphic intensive RTS games on the market.

Giga-Byte has put together a good card here, and through the deal at Geeks.com the price is certainly right.

Conclusions

The Giga-Byte Radeon X600 XT 128MB PCI-E video card performed above and beyond expectations. Through a price analysis one can easily see that this card is indeed the "value performer" it promises to be. It's impossible to look around and find a better performing card for under $150 - and quite honestly, it performs well above that price point.

Also one must consider the pretty nice bundle in this set featuring two games you'll actually pay a lot of - Counter-Strike: Condition Zero and Rainbox Six 3. Very popular titles that if you haven't played yet makes a great value within this bundle.

The price point of the card ($137) is very low compared to the rest of the market, and when compared to the other PCI-E card we reviewed (an NVIDIA 6200 which retails around $80), for an extra $50 you are getting literally two times the performance. A smart buyer would see that this card is the one to get if you are going for one under the $180 price point.

The longevity factor of any video card takes a hit automatically because the industry moves so quickly, but this card should last you as long as you don't care about doing anything video intensive (games, video editing, etc). All things considered, this video card is a fabulous value for PC users on a budget. Kudos to Giga-Byte on a great piece of hardware, and props to Geeks.com for giving it to consumers at a price they can afford.

9 / 10 OVERALL SCORE 84% 7 / 10 9 / 10 9 / 10 8 / 10 8.4 / 10