Test Setup and Power Performance

Our testing methodology was to try and cover a lot of ground with top to bottom hardware. Including the X1300 through the X1800 line required quite a few different cards and tests to be run. In order to make it easier to look at the data, rather than put everything for each game in one place as we normally do, we have broken up our data into three separate groups: Budget, Midrange, and High End.

We used the latest drivers we had available which are both beta drivers. From NVIDIA, the 81.82 drivers were tested rather than the current release as we expect the rel 80 drivers to be in the end users hands before the X1000 series is easy to purchase.

All of our tests were done on this system:

ATI Radeon Express 200 based system
AMD Athlon 64 FX-55
1GB DDR400 2:2:2:8
120 GB Seagate 7200.7 HD
600 W OCZ PowerStreams PSU

The resolutions we tested range from 800x600 on the low end to 2048x1536 on the high end. The games we tested include:
  • Day of Defeat: Source
  • Doom 3
  • EverQuest 2
  • Far Cry
  • Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory
  • The Chronicles of Riddick
We were interested in testing the FEAR demo, but after learning that the final version would change the performance characteristics of the game significantly, we decided it would be best to wait until we had a shipping game. From what we hear, the FEAR demo favors ATI's X1000 series considerably over NVIDIA hardware, but performance will be much closer in the final version.

Before we take a look at the performance numbers, here's a look at the power draw of various hardware.

Load Power


As we can see, this generation draws about as much power as previous generatation products under load at the high end and midrange. The X1300 Pro seems to draw a little more power than we would like to see in a budget part. The card also sports a fan that is just as loud as the X1600 XT. Considering that some of the cards we tested against the X1300 Pro were passively cooled, this is something to note.

Adaptive AA Budget Performance
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  • JarredWalton - Wednesday, October 5, 2005 - link

    Hence, the non-existence of 7600 and 7200 (or whatever) cards from NVIDIA. But ATI needed to get SM3.0 into budget and mid-range cards - not because it's tremendously useful, but because they're losing the marketing campaign on that item.
  • Phantronius - Wednesday, October 5, 2005 - link

    Wheres the fucking Battlefield 2 numbers?????
  • Dudeeeeeee - Wednesday, October 5, 2005 - link

    What about testing this card with games we actually play? Good game...
  • KayKay - Wednesday, October 5, 2005 - link

    I read most of the r520 reviews this morning and I decided to read anandtech's review, since i trust yours over most others. I was rather disappointed with the layout and choice of tests.

    All around the web, the result i gathered was that the x1800xt was definitely better than the 7800gtx in a number of areas and if i had read anandtech's review first, would have been totally misled.

    I am an NVIDIA user probably for LIFE but this review didn't seem to do ATI justice
  • bob661 - Wednesday, October 5, 2005 - link

    quote:

    I am an NVIDIA user probably for LIFE but this review didn't seem to do ATI justice
    Reviews aren't supposed to be favorable they're supposed to present facts so that WE the consumer can make informed purchase decisions. And right now, ATI doesn't present a good bang for the buck.
  • KayKay - Wednesday, October 5, 2005 - link

    the review wasn't structured in a way to present a fair comparison of the cards is all im saying. look no further than some of the other websites that reviewed todays launch
  • bob661 - Wednesday, October 5, 2005 - link

    It was easy for me. What are you looking for? The X1xxx's were compared to the 7xxx's. Are you looking for an ATI landslide or are you looking for a comparison?
  • Chadder007 - Wednesday, October 5, 2005 - link

    I was hoping that the X1600 would perform better, but for the price 6600GT and X800GTO >>>> X1600 parts. Sad. :(
  • Griswold - Wednesday, October 5, 2005 - link

    Probably the weakest review i've seen here at AT so far. The benches are more than just confusing. Some benches only show the XL, some only the XT and some both. Not good.
  • DigitalFreak - Wednesday, October 5, 2005 - link

    Agreed. I'm not a stickler for perfect grammer, but the grammer & spelling quality of AT articles has gone down hill tremendously in the past year!

    Seems you guys have just been throwing stuff together at the last minute to try and make a deadline. Anand - you need to step in here and get these guys back on track. It's hurting both your and your sites reputations.

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