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Connect3D Radeon X1300 PRO 512MB PCI-E Review |
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Written by Mavke
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Friday, 28 April 2006 |
HardwareLogic comes up with a review on the Connect3D Radeon X1300 PRO 512MB PCIe graphics card. Connect3D has been one of the leading providers of certified graphics cards powered by ATI and offers a wide range of products based on the ground breaking technologies to come out of ATI's doors, including a full lineup of the latest and greatest Radeon X1K series GPU's. How do you squeeze every last bit of performance out of a budget GPU? Well you add more memory. Connect3D has taken this approach when designing their flagship Radeon X1300 PRO with an amazing 512MB of video memory. But is that enough to shoot this card to the top of the charts?
 Connect3D Radeon X1300 PRO 512MB PCI-E Review
Since the Radeon X1300 is the budget line GPU, it is no suprise to see the Radeon X1300 PRO 512MB card from Connect3D come with a very compact PCB design, small GPU cooler, and no memory heatsinks. You should have no problems fitting this card in just about any case available on the market today. With many marketing aspects of the Radeon X1300 PRO focused on gaming, it is hard to keep in mind that this is really not a gamers card. While gaming is a definately real possibility on the Connect3D Radeon X1300 PRO 512MB, the GPU is simply not powerful enough for the latest games at high resolution.
Although the whopping 512MB of dedicated video memory can help provide better performance with AA and AF enabled, the overall performance level is just not enough for me to recommend this to someone looking for a video card to play games like Oblivion or F.E.A.R. with full detail and high resolution. However, if you want a low cost, cool running video card for playing yesterday's games at low resolution with no image enhancements or eye candy, then the Connect3D Radeon X1300 PRO 512MB is worth considering.
The real sweet spot for this Radeon X1300 PRO 512MB from Connect3D lies in the 2D arena focused on media applications and playback. ATI's Avivo technology is no doubt a very nice feature on the Radeon X1K series cards and I thought the quality of this card was top notch. If you are looking for a relatively competitively video card for watching DVD's on your 23" LCD with full 7.1 surround sound for the best possible home theatre experience, then the Connect3D Radeon X1300 PRO 512MB is a good choice. If it weren't for the obscenely loud and annoying heatsink fan, this card would be nearly perfect.
But thanks to the efforts of aftermarket heatsink manufacturers, it is incredibly easy to upgrade the cooling solution on the Connect3D Radeon X1300 PRO to suit your specific needs. Overall, the Connect3D Radeon X1300 PRO 512MB card is a very interesting product. A budget line GPU paired with a high-end amount of memory. The best of both worlds at a great price maybe? Not quite. It has usually been my experience that you often get less performance when you try to do two things well instead of one thing great.
While the quality, performance, and reliability of this card from Connect3D was great, I have a hard time recommending anyone pay the extra money for 512MB of memory on a board based on the Radeon X1300 PRO GPU. Don't get me wrong, the Radeon X1300 PRO is a great GPU, and the implementation done by Connect3D is great, but most people will be better off either sticking with the basic Radeon X1300 PRO with 256MB of memory if you want a budget solution or bumping up to a Radeon X1600 or X1800 series card if gaming is your thing.
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