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HIS Radeon X1300 HyperMemory 128MB Review |
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Written by Mavke
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Friday, 07 July 2006 |
Hexus shares a review on the HIS Radeon X1300 HyperMemory 128MB video card. ATI may make lots of noise regarding its Radeon X1900 XTX 512MB graphics card as amongst the fastest around, but it's not the SKU that makes up the largest percentage of revenue. For that, you have to look at low-end to midrange parts, whose selling price is more palatable to the average consumer looking to upgrade. That's why HIS, one of ATI's AIB partners, focusses heavily on the lower end of the pricing spectrum. It has a complete top-to-bottom SKU list, sure, but the real money's in the volume movers, the Radeon X1300, for example.
 HIS Radeon X1300 HyperMemory 128MB Review
HIS currently has about nine SKU's dedicated to the Radeon X1300 GPU, highlighting just how much importance it places on low-end, affordable GPU's. The newest of the bunch, the HIS Radeon X1300 512MBB HyperMemory with 128MB DDR2 framebuffer, is, perhaps, the most interesting. What's peculiar about this effort, then? Most readers, we bet, will say that the half-height nature of the PCB, making it perfect for a multitude of HTPC orientated cases, is what's different from the norm. That's true enough, but take a closer look at how the card interfaces with your motherboard.
This HIS card hooks up to your system by using a physical x1 PCI Express interface, rather than the x16 we're used to seeing. Thinking about it for a second, even a x1 PCI Express lane provides 250MB/s of bandwidth in either direction, so 500MB/s in total, and the Radeon X1300's architecture isn't one to overly tax motherboard's PCI Express to chipset bandwidth limits. Having a x1 interface also makes it useful in instances where low-cost motherboards don't feature a discrete x16 PCI Express slot but do specify a couple of x1 slots for peripheral connectivity.
This HIS Radeon X1300 is physically equipped with 128MB's of onboard DDR2 memory from Hynix which runs at 500MHz. The card also leverages ATI's HyperMemory technology, which can borrow up to 512MB of system memory, assuming there's at least 1GB system RAM, as a means of creating a larger framebuffer. However, coming back to the x1 PCI Express interface and thinking of HyperMemory in relation to this, system bandwidth, if required, will need to be transferred by that x1 PCI Express interface, thereby significantly reducing available bandwidth when HyperMory is used.
Let's state the obvious first. The HIS Radeon X1300 HyperMemory with 128MB DDR2 x1 PCI Express graphics card isn't a gaming goliath. A combination of low-end architecture and bandwidth starved HyperMemory support leaves it trailing, quite considerably, behind a regular Radeon X1300 PRO 256MB card. If HIS wants to enhance the performance of this card, outfitting it with a greater level of onboard memory will help. It bears repeating that HyperMemory simply isn't suited to delivering performance if constricted by a low-bandwidth link. The Radeon X1300 architecture is also Vista Premium ready.
Ideally, then, the HIS Radeon X1300 HyperMemory with 128MB DDR2 shouldn't be evaluated in performance terms. It's a SKU that's been designed with a specific market in mind, and having a x1 PCI Express interface opens up a vast array of possibilities. We'd stick one in a svelte media center PC or add it in as a secondary card for greater output connectivity. About £50 or so will buy you a faster graphics accelerator from ATI or NVIDIA, but they can't match the versatility of HIS' Radeon X1300 x1 PCI Express card. A product for a market that requires flexibility more than pure pixel-pushing power.
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