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- Date:
- Friday , May 27, 2005
- Author:
- Brent Justice
- Editor:
- Kyle Bennett
- Google +1
PowerColor Bravo X700 256MB Review
We’ve got a retail PowerColor RADEON X700 256MB based video card for review today. Read inside to see which card is actually better for gaming, a 256MB PowerColor X700 or a 128MB GeForce 6600. This should prove to be interesting…
Introduction:
Back when the ATI RADEON X700 series was announced in September of 2004, there were three distinct models. The RADEON X700 XT, the RADEON X700 Pro, and the RADEON X700. It was clear that the RADEON X700 XT would have 128MB of RAM and the X700 Pro would have 256MB. It seems, however, that the RADEON X700 XT we previewed here back in September of last year never seemed to actually materialize in the real world. In fact, in looking at ATI’s website right now to see what products are available under the RADEON X700 series, ATI only lists the X700 Pro in AGP and PCIe flavors officially.
RADEON® X700 series is currently available in the RADEON® X700 PRO for PCI Express or AGP. RADEON® X700 PRO video capture edition is only available with AGP products.
It seems the RADEON X700 non-Pro is not even mentioned on ATI’s webpage despite the fact that it was announced back in September and that there are actual retail X700 non-Pro video cards you can purchase now.
Currently, the ATI product lineup for the X700 series is a bit confusing. Right now, it appears as if the top of ATI’s X700 product lineup is the RADEON X700 Pro. We reviewed a retail RADEON X700 Pro from Sapphire this past January. The Sapphire RADEON X700 Pro was actually equipped with 256MB of RAM and apparently, you can get 128MB versions as well. The 256MB version had an MSRP of $199. Right below that, which is not shown on ATI’s webpage, is the RADEON X700, which is available in retail. The RADEON X700 can also be equipped with 128MB or 256MB of RAM. Take note that the 256MB versions do typically have slower clocked memory than the 128MB models. This is all dependent on what the manufacturer sets as they have complete control over clock speeds with their models.
What we have for review today is a full retail RADEON X700 from PowerColor known as the PowerColor Bravo X700 with 256MB of GDDR2. A few basic specs about the X700 series you should know. They have 8 pixel-pipelines and 6 vertex units and communicate with the memory over a 128-bit bus. They are based on the RADEON X800 3D architecture so they are capable of Shader Model 2.0 with Pixel Shader 2.0b, 3Dc, SMARTSHADER HD, SMOOTHVISION HD, VIDEOSHADER HD and HyperZ HD. The direct competition for the RADEON X700 is the GeForce 6600 (non-GT). The MSRP of the RADEON X700 is $149 for the 256MB model.
Visiting PowerColor’s website, they currently have three PCI-Express ATI RADEON X700 models available. The one we are reviewing today, the RADEON X700 BRAVO Edition, comes equipped with 256MB of GDDR2 RAM clocked at 266 MHz (532 MHz DDR) and a core speed of 400MHz. They also have a RADEON X700 Pro-based video card also with 256MB of RAM but GDDR3 instead of GDDR2 allowing a memory speed of 430MHz (860 MHz DDR) and a core speed of 425MHz. There is also a RADEON X700 with regular DDR. It seems the only difference between these models in terms of performance is memory and core clock speeds.
There is a big difference between the three models, however, that does not relate to performance. The PowerColor RADEON X700 BRAVO Edition is a completely silent video card using only passive cooling. That’s right; it uses heat pipe technology to achieve a “fanless” operating environment. The PowerColor RADEON X700 Pro and X700 use a heatsink and fan combination.
PowerColor BRAVO X700 256MB:
On the front of the box, you’ll find a picture of the video card with the main features listed. Ours has 256MB of RAM with a 128-bit bus using GDDR2. The card supports HDTV, Dual DVI, and DirectX9. At the top of the box, there is a logo that says “Value Bundle” indicating that the full version game Hitman: Contracts is included. The back of the box lists more relevant X700 hardware specifications. The box opens up to reveal everything packed tightly in an orderly fashion.
The PowerColor X700 is a single-slot video card as we indicated above that uses a heatpipe-based heatsink so that a fan is not required. The heatsink wraps around towards the back and heat is transferred from the front heatsink to the back. You will see that there is a fan header on this video card for the optional fan.
This PCI-Express PowerColor X700 does not require external power as all power is provided from the PCI-Express slot. With the video card having large heatsinks on both sides, you will want to make sure it has clearance in your case. The total thickness of the card with the heatsinks is 1.5 inches. The total height on the back of the video card with the fan installed comes to 1 inch. Therefore, if you do need to install the fan you will want to make sure you have a little more than 1 inch of space right above your video card.
There is a slim fan included for use in systems that do not have good airflow or where it will run in a hot environment. For normal operation in a properly air cooled case, the fan is not required. If you do need to install the fan all you need to do is screw it into the back heatsink, which has screw holes for the fan and a bag of screws are provided. The fan is silent, it spins slow enough that it is not audibly detectable. Consequently, if you do not have good airflow in your case and you need to install this fan, you do not have to worry about noise. For all of our gameplay testing we ran the card without the fan.
You can see how the heatpipe wraps around to both heatsinks here. It actually sits between two sections of the front and back heatsink that are screwed down around it. The heatsinks do not make contact with the RAM modules.
The RAM modules being used are Samsung GDDR2 rated at 3.7ns. This gives them a maximum frequency of 266 MHz. Since their default speed is already at 266 MHz on our card, we don’t have much room for overclocking. Obviously the slower the RAM modules the cheaper they are, which is important when you have 256MB of it on a mainstream video card.
This video card does provide Dual DVI, which is a nice touch for those of you needing display flexibility.
There are also two DVI to VGA converters provided with a component out cable, S-video, and composite cables. There is a user manual provided with a ProPack, which provides the driver CD, CyberLink DVD software, and a full version of Hitman: Contracts.