Entered CNET Catalog: 10/09/2004
SKU: CNETATIX700XT
Manufacturer: ATI Technologies Inc.
Manufacturer description
The RADEON X700 delivers excellent graphics performance for gaming and visual processing, at a price suited to a broad range of customers. Delivering a gaming experience that is anything but mainstream, the RADEON X700 visual processing units (VPUs) include the advanced, cutting-edge features previously introduced in ATI's RADEON X800 family of VPUs and a higher level of performance than some of last year's high-end visual processors. Based on the award winning RADEON X800 architecture and designed to closely adhere to Microsoft's DirectX 9 specification, the RADEON X700 includes advanced architectural elements and features previously reserved for products twice the price of the RADEON X700. The eight pixel pipe and six vertex pipe architecture is unique for products in this class, enabling unprecedented processing power than any other mid-range priced graphics processors on the market. The RADEON X700 products, built by either ATI or one of its board partners, are supported by ATI's award winning CATALYST suite of software. CATALYST AI, a newly introduced feature of ATI's software suite, allows customers to enjoy improved levels of performance and a better overall experience with today's popular games. Users enable and control their preferred level of performance enhancement without having to sacrifice image quality. The RADEON X700 family includes the RADEON X700 XT, the RADEON X700 PRO and the RADEON X700, with a variety of memory configurations and speeds to meet the wide range of needs of customers looking for a visual processor for gaming, streaming video, digital photo editing and other visually demanding activities.Product summary
The good: Plays older 3D games at respectable frame rates; affordable 3D graphics card; customizable new driver software.
The bad: Doesn't play newer games fast enough with even moderate image quality settings.
The bottom line: ATI's new midrange Radeon X700 XT delivers fair performance, but neither it nor its Nvidia-based competition satisfies in newer games.
Editors' review
- Editors' Choice: No
- Reviewed on: 10/20/2004
ATI's Radeon X700 XT isn't the first new midrange graphics card from ATI this year, but it's the first to use new technology from the chip on up. The Radeon X600, released this past July, used the same core chip as the old Radeon 9600--only ported over to the new PCI Express (PCIe) interface so that ATI could be first to market a 3D card that used the latest standard. The Radeon X700 XT also uses PCIe, but it features an entirely new processing chip that provides twice as much pixel-processing bandwidth as the X600. The X700 also supports a new type of video memory, and because it sells for roughly the same price as the X600, it represents a much more compelling option for a midrange 3D card. It also stacks up very favorably against Nvidia's new midrange card, the GeForce 6600 GT. Which card you should buy depends on what games you want to play. If you have your eye on some of today's newer titles, the Radeon X700 XT may disappoint.
The X700 XT is essentially a paired-down version of ATI's high-end Radeon X800 XT Platinum Edition card. Instead of the X800 XT's 16 pixel-processing pipes, the X700 XT provides 8, but ATI generously gives the X700 XT all of the X800 XT's six vertex-processing pipelines. In addition, the X700 XT uses new GDDR3 memory, which runs at 520MHz--up from the 370MHz DDR1 memory of the previous-generation X600 XT.
The hardware is not the only new component of the X700 XT. It also comes with ATI's new Catalyst Control Center driver software. Instead of taking the usual approach of integrating the driver control screens into Windows' display settings, Catalyst Control Center provides a standalone miniapp that makes tweaking your 3D settings as easy or as in-depth as you feel comfortable with. The most noticeable change in the new software is a 3D preview window that displays your settings changes in real time using a small scene of a 3D race car. When you change the level of antialiasing or toggle some other setting, the change appears in the scene. The visual difference between 2X and 4X antialiasing might be hard to differentiate, but for those who can tell, this feature is quite useful. You also get different options for adjusting your settings. You can make it as simple as adjusting a slider bar between the Performance and Quality settings, or you can get more granular and dig down to mip-map detail levels and the like.
While the new driver software is welcome, with graphics cards the proof is in the benchmarks, and while the ATI Radeon X700 XT and the nearly identical Nvidia GeForce 6600 GT card fared well on some tests, the Doom 3 performance for both was disappointing. As with its high-end counterpart, the the Radeon X800 XT, the X700 XT comes in slower than its Nvidia competitor on every Doom 3 test. The X700 XT scored only 35.5 frames per second (fps) on the Doom 3 test at 1,024x768 resolution, compared to the GeForce 6600 GT's 41.8fps--a difference of about 18 percent. It's also interesting to note that at this resolution, Doom 3 taxes both cards, producing frame rates that are lower than the industry-accepted ideal of 60fps, though still playable. True, Doom 3 is a great-looking game, and the graphics are still amazing if you drop the resolution to 640x480. But $200 is a significant amount of money. Considering that the Doom 3 engine may very well be the basis for other games down the road, we feel that a midrange card should be able to play it at a frame rate that meets the 60fps industry standard.
The results on our Far Cry tests show more promise, but the game still gives the Radeon X700 XT some difficulty. Far Cry works well as a modern game test because it is one of the first built using the DirectX 9.0 version of Microsoft's Direct3D specification. We expect to see many high profile games use this same framework. And if the Radeon X700 XT's Far Cry performance is any indication, this card does not look promising for the future. With a score of 43.7fps on the relatively forgiving 1,024x768-resolution test, the Radeon X700 XT still falls short of the 60fps sweet spot. And while the GeForce 6600 GT card technically beats the ATI card, the former's 46.3fps score isn't that much better.
We won't call the ATI Radeon X700 XT a bad graphics card--all of the games we tested were playable. But because our tests represent the future of 3D gaming, we feel that for your $200 investment, you should get a product you know will deliver down the road. The long-held sweet spot for frame rates is 60fps at a resolution of 1,024x768. We could forgive a $100 budget card for falling short, but both ATI's and Nvidia's midrange cards should do more.
 |
1,600x1,200, High Quality, with 4X Antialiasing and 8X Anisotropic filtering | |
1,280x1,024, High Quality, with 4X Antialiasing and 8X Anisotropic filtering | |
1,024x768, High Quality, with 4X Antialiasing and 8X Anisotropic filtering |
|
1,600x1,200 with 4X Antialiasing and 8X Anisotropic filtering | |
1,280x1,024 with 4X Antialiasing and 8X Anisotropic filtering | |
1,024x768 with 4X Antialiasing and 8X Anisotropic filtering |
|
1,600x1,200 with 4X Antialiasing and 8X Anisotropic filtering | |
1,280x1,024 with 4X Antialiasing and 8X Anisotropic filtering | |
1,024x768 with 4X Antialiasing and 8X Anisotropic filtering |
Note: ATI driver used: Catalyst 4.11 (Beta); Nvidia driver used: ForceWare 66.81 (Beta)
Find out more about how we test graphics cards.
Graphics card test bed:
Intel 3.4GHz P4 Extreme Edition CPU; Micron 1,024MB DDR2 533MHz memory; Intel D925XCV motherboard; Intel 925X chip set; Maxtor 250GB 7B250S0 SATA hard drive; Microsoft Windows XP Professional SP2.
User opinions
Select a User Opinion to view: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8out of 8 user reviews
Solid card, but poor driver support
Pros: cheap, durable
Cons: poor software support, frequent crashes
out of 8 user reviews
DA BOMB DA BOMB
Pros: DA BOMB DA BOMB
Cons: NONE NONE nONE
out of 8 user reviews
This is a great card
Pros: Runs games at acceptable levels at decent framerates
Cons: The mid range offerings by both ATI and nvidia have been disapointing based on performance - I was expecting MORE
out of 8 user reviews
Does not work with Viewsonic DFP
Pros: Seems to be a great card for the money. I didn't want to spend $500 for a video card, and the 700 seemed the answer at $250. I bought the ASUS EAX700PRO, which is an ATI X700 with a few extra features and over-clocking capabilities.
Cons: I cannot get this card to work with my Viewsonic VX2000 in DVI mode. Installed all the latest drivers, upgraded mobo BIOS, changed various BIOS settings, but no DVI. Was able to get DVI output to a Dell FP1900 (Ultra Sharp), and have tested my monitor wi
out of 8 user reviews
This card "Rocks"
Pros: Fast, stress test on Half-Life2 I hit 91pfs at 1600x1200 using a 3G Pentium w/DDR2 Ram
Cons: Could only use med texture at 1600x1200..if I would have spent $300.00 more I could use high texture easily...I can deal with the med setting..Only a really detailed gamer with a magnifying glass could tell the difference. Bought it at Best Buy for $199.9
out of 8 user reviews
should kick the 9800 but doesent
Pros: none to many features striped out
Cons: why buy a card that wont play next gen games you cant really buy either ATI X800 OR NVIDA 6800 high end cards unless you luck out they dont seam to be able supply stores
out of 8 user reviews
Where can i get the x700 xt???
Pros: The benchmarks I've read doubled the scores of my currant x600 xt
Cons: WHERE can I Find This???
out of 8 user reviews
Tastes Great!
Pros: The marbling was above average, leaving some grease in the pan, the texture was as good as older chipsets, but the flavor was better
Cons: Hard to find in supermarkets, meat managers don't even know what it is.
