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Sapphire Radeon X1600 PRO 256MB PCI-E Review |
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Written by Mavke
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Monday, 20 March 2006 |
Legit Reviews rips out a review on the Sapphire Radeon X1600 PRO 256MB PCIe graphics card. Innovation and competition are constantly driving the high end video card market and as we have seen over the past few weeks it can happen very quickly. The introduction of the GeForce 7900 GTX and GeForce 7600 GTX have given ATI competition not only in performance but in price as well. ATI has responded in kind by lowering prices across their lineup. Prices lowering in those two areas is music to the ears of those looking to upgrade on a budget. The Radeon X1600 PRO has been available since November and up until a few days ago was considered one of the best mid-range cards on the market, but that was last week.
 Sapphire Radeon X1600 PRO 256MB PCI-E Review
With the GeForce 7600 GT being launched and the Radeon X1800 GTO on the way we find it being the subject of a significant price reduction. It can now be found just over the $100 mark and at this price represents a terrific value. It is amazing what a little more than $100 can get you in terms of video card performance in today's market. While the ATI versus NVIDIA battle is nearing a pricing war the consumers are walking away with more bang for their buck. The particular Radeon X1600 PRO that we have here from Sapphire is the 256MB PCI Express model. For those not yet ready to switch to PCI Express they also offer an AGP version of the card.
When you're out shopping for a video card in the $100 area it's a given that there are faster cards out there. Any of the cards we tested today would be a welcome upgrade from an integrated video solution but the Radeon X1600 PRO and GeForce 6600 GT extend that upgrade quite a bit further. The problem is that when you're standing in the store looking at the cards on the shelf, or comparing them online it comes down to bang for the buck. In most of our tests the GeForce 6600 GT was the slightly faster card but as we noted earlier this is the 256MB version of the card which carries a slightly higher price, pushing it into the $150 range.
For some this quickly determines that the GeForce 6600 GT won't be going home with you. However the GeForce 6600 and Radeon X1600 PRO are much closer in price and when it comes to performance the Sapphire Radeon X1600 PRO is easily the faster card. At press time the Sapphire Radeon X1600 PRO could be found for $117 plus shipping from major online retailers. As newer games are developed and released we're being promised that they are more and more dependent on shader power. The Radeon X1600 PRO has excellent shader performance when looking at the Shader Model 3.0 tests where it's faster than the more expensive GeForce 6600 GT.
In the $100 price range the Radeon X1600 PRO is the fastest video card that you can buy. The Sapphire Radeon X1600 PRO also has the added value of being able to run in CrossFire if you decided to buy a second one down the road, provided you have a motherboard with a CrossFire supported chipset. Not all GeForce 6600's are SLI capable so if running two video cards in your computer is something you might be interested in, it would be important to keep this in mind. For gaming on a budget nothing performs as well as the Radeon X1600 PRO and Sapphire has got you covered. The quiet and cool heatsink, 2 year warranty, with the excellent performance make this a great choice.
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