Date:
Monday , September 25, 2006
Author:
Mark Warner
Editor:
Brent Justice
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VisionTek PCI RADEON X1300 256 MB

VisionTek’s PCI based RADEON X1300 256 MB graphics card is a unique product that fills a unique niche. Does this PCI graphics card stack up to the PCI-Express competition? What potentials does it hold beyond 3D gaming?

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System Test Setup

For our system platform setup we are using the ASUS A8N-SLI Deluxe with an AMD Athlon-64 3500+ and 1GB of Corsair XMS DDR400 RAM. We are evaluating the VisionTek Radeon X1300 PCI video card against two cards: the NVIDIA GeForce 7300 GS 256 MB and the NVIDIA GeForce 7600 GS 256 MB, explanations below.

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Video Card Test Setup

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All three video cards were tested at their default frequencies as you can see above. For the VisionTek Radeon X1300 PCI and NVIDIA GeForce 7300 GS we used the latest drivers at the time of evaluation. For the GeForce 7600 GS we used data from a previous evaluation, since there are no performance improvements between the two driver sets for this GPU in the games we tested the GeForce 7600 GS evaluation data is valid..

A Departure From the Norm – GPU Class and Price Class Comparisons

Whenever possible, we like to compare video cards within each other’s price range. We either compare by street price or MSRP as the need demands. With this evaluation, however, there are a few crucial issues that have resulted in a departure from the norm. First, the video card we are evaluating today is a PCI-based graphics adapter, and there are no other comparable PCI-based video cards to compare it with.

Second, the video cards that are similar in price to the VisionTek X1300 PCI are much more powerful than the X1300 GPU. The NVIDIA GeForce 7600 GS and ATI Radeon X1600 PRO can easily be acquired for the same price, if not less, than VisionTek’s Radeon X1300 PCI. Comparing a Radeon X1300 to a GeForce 7600 GS is not apples-to-apples in terms of GPU class. But it is apples-to-apples in terms of price class.

For that reason, we are including the NVIDIA GeForce 7300 GS in this evaluation, even though it is considerably less expensive than the card that is the focus of this evaluation. This will give us a pairing of the same GPU class.

We will also be including the NVIDIA GeForce 7600 GS in this evaluation, even though it is much faster than an X1300 GPU. This will give us a pairing of the same price class. Please keep this in mind as you look through the gameplay evaluations.

Game and Video Card Evaluation Setup

Please be aware we test our video cards a bit differently from what is the norm. We concentrate on examining the real-world gameplay that each video card provides. The Highest Playable section shows the best Image Quality delivered at a playable frame rate. We use a high performance system, with a very fast CPU in order to remove CPU bottlenecking.

In our graphs we use some abbreviations to indicate the method of AA or AF being used.

In our graphs, we use some abbreviations to indicate the method of AA or AF being used.

AD AA = Adaptive AA – Indicates the use of ATI’s Adaptive AA on X1000 series video cards.

HQ AF = High Quality Anisotropic Filtering – Indicates the use of ATI’s High Quality option for Anisotropic Filtering that is not angle dependent.

TR MSAA = Transparency Multisampling Antialiasing – Indicates the use of NVIDIA’s Transparency Multisampling quality setting on GeForce 7 series video cards.

TR SSAA = Transparency Supersampling Antialiasing – Indicates the use of NVIDIA’s Transparency Supersampling quality setting on GeForce 7 series video card