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ATI Radeon X700 Pro Roundup
[Abstract]
The Midrange Sweet SpotJust recently we brought you a RADEON X800 PRO Shootout targeting upgraders on the AGP platform and continuing our Shootout plans, this article is tailored for people ass...
[Content] PCDigitalMobileGame
ATI RADEON X700 PRO 256MB
Besides designing the Visual Processing Units and reference boards, ATI also offers their own graphics card retail kits and the RADEON X700 PRO 256MB is one of such unit from them. Their product packaging sure looks bold and eye-catching, but inside, you'll get only the bare essentials, which are the accessories and the graphics card only. There are no software or utilities to mention of, besides the driver disc as the contents below dictate:-
DVI-I to VGA adapter
S-Video to Composite converter
Component-output cable dongle
S-Video extension cable
Composite extension cable
Setup Manual
Driver CD
Though there were no bundled software or games, we have to commend ATI for meeting our expectations in the accessory department. The graphics card itself is no different from the reference unit we received earlier for performance evaluation.
The front face of ATI's very own RADEON X700 PRO 256MB graphics card. |
A rear side of the card. |
Close-up of the RAM parts revealed them to be the same as that on the ABIT and many other cards in the review. |
The faceplate too is no different from the other cards (and that's quite expected since ATI does not manufacture the cards themselves). |
While it's a fine product, the cooler design however is not the most desirable as mentioned in a related article previously. The photo shot below shows the cooler overshadowing the memory parts and this can be a potential heat trapper as the heatsink was not designed to cool the memory parts. Systems with strong casing ventilation however, should not have much to worry about. Even in systems with below optimum ventilation, this issue would pose no problem to the card's working nature other than a higher operating temperature.
The highlighted region indicates the narrow spacing between the cooler unit and the memory parts that could promote a hot spot in poorly ventilated systems. |
The underside of the cooler unit shows that the heatsink was not designed to conduct heat from the memory parts. |
In terms of fan noise, expect the card to be fairly audible as the original cooler on the ATI card uses a rather small 37mm diameter fan and operates at a high RPM rate.
Another view of the ATI RADEON X700 PRO 256MB graphics card. |
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