PowerColor X1300 PRO BRAVO Edition / X1300HM Review

[Neeyik]

<a href="http://www.beyond3d.com/reviews/powercolor/x1300/"><img border="1" src="http://www.beyond3d.com/reviews/powercolor/x1300/images/focus.gif" align="right" width="120" height="75"></a>The modern graphics card market thrives on having as many sections and sub-sections as possible, each containing a sufficient number of examples to ensure that all niches, needs and interests are covered. The ball is started by IHVs and then kept rolling by AIB vendors, who often create many variants of the same SKU. PowerColor (the well-known brand name of Tul Corporation) are one such example; their list of available models based on ATI's X1000 series of graphics processors currently accumulates to 20 but their largest sector is surprisingly the budget/low-end market, sporting 7 versions of the Radeon X1300 board.

In this review, we shall examine the two ends of this spectrum: the X1300 Pro BRAVO Edition and the simpler, HyperMemory-based X1300. The former has VIVO capabilities, 256MB of GDDR3 memory on a 128-bit bus and a 600MHz core speed; in contrast, the other board uses 256MB of GDDR2 on a 64-bit bus, with the core clocked to 450MHz.

Read the full review <a href="http://www.beyond3d.com/reviews/powercolor/x1300/">here</a>.

[Geo]

Thanks for your efforts, Neeyik. Green love left in the usual place.

The PRO looks generally playable at 10x7, actually. And if you're trying to play at higher res than that, you've bought the wrong card anyway.

[oddfellow]

Nice review :)

I agree with you geo.
I owned an X1300pro, and from my experience, 10x7 is playable without AA for the most part, and even with AA in some apps.

I now have 2 X1300pros in crossfire. I've been playing a lot of Half-Life 2:ep1 recently. Crossfire pushes the playable rate up to 1280x1024 with 4AA and 8AF no problem (with full HDR etc).

I'd suggest that, while not an amazing performer, the X1300pro is quite underestimated overall.
Crossfire with 2 X1300pros is an interesting proposition. Doesn't make much sense at first glance; ~ X1600XT performance for slightly more money, it does however give the budget user the opportunity to get there in 2 stages.