Sapphire Radeon X1600 XT Ultimate Review - PAGE 1

Introduction

ATI's X1600 XT has had a fairly ill fated existence since its introduction last October. The X1600 XT, (or R530) suffered from delays along with its R520 older sibling, which ended up delaying not only the announcement by months, but also the cards release at retail. X1600 series boards were not available at retail until December, at which point NVIDIA released the 6800 GS destroying what dignity the ATI card had left. The X1600 XT performed decently against a 6600 GT, the price point however was far too high relative to the cards power, and though ATI officially cut $50 from the card's $249 original MSRP, the better performing (though Shader Model 3.0 lacking) X800 GTO could be had for less. Against a 6800 GS, both ATI cards lost significantly lending NVIDIA a definite in the mid-end segment for 2005.

We're half way through 2006 now and we have seen a refresh of both companies mid range offerings relegating X1600 series boards to the low end of the segment to jostle with the 7600 GS et al. It would seem curious then for Sapphire to release the latest board in their acclaimed 'Ultimate' lineup with an X1600 XT GPU. Typically, Ultimate cards have been a variation on the latest upper mid-range GPU, sporting a large special heatsink and often, a blue PCB. While it may seem to have made more sense conventially for todays Ultimate release to feature an X1800 GTO GPU, Sapphire are not necessarily targeting gamers with this latest card.

The Ultimate X1600 XT uses a standard clocked X1600 XT core (which you can read about here) and features a very similar cooler to the one found on their X800 GTO Ultimate. Sapphire have changed a few things around however to optimize this card for use in situations where good airflow might not be a luxury, such as in HTPC's.