ATI X1000 Series Video Card Roundup

The ATI X1600 XT and X1600 Pro

The X1600 XT is designed and priced as a mainstream video card. It carries an MSRP of $129 for the 128MB version and $179 for the 256MB version. On our X1600XT the GPU frequency is set at 590MHz with the memory at 1.38GHz. There is no external power required for this video card; all power is provided by the PCI-Express slot. The heat sink is made of copper and dual DVI comes standard on the X1600 XT. During operation, the fan is very quiet. The X1600 Pro runs at 500 and 780MHz GPU and memory frequency, respectively.

Our test model is the X1600XT. Note that there is no external power required for this card. The design is nearly identical to the X1300 Pro and provides quiet operation while easily keeping GPU temeratures under control.

Unlike the 1300 series there are no memory modules on the back of this card.

The dual DVI connectors.

The ATI X1600XT comes with 256mb of DDR3 memory. Our test card was using Samsung GDDR3 memory IC’s with the part number K4J52324QC. These IC’s feature a 136 Ball FBGA configuration and were found to be rated at 1600MHz, which is the far more than the 1380Mhz that ATI has chosen to run the X1600XT at. If you plan on overclocking you should be able to find ample room for these IC’s to overclock.

Let’s take a look at the next step up in performance.