SUMMARY: It started off with a couple ATI Radeon X700 graphics cards and then everyone wanted to get in on the act. Today we've got an absolute monster of a roundup for you comparing 11 Radeon X700 cards from 8 different companies including ATI, GeCube, PowerColor, HIS, MSI, Sapphire, Gigabyte and ASUS. Read on as we take a close look at all the cards, their packages and most importantly how they perform against each other!
The two offerings that we received from PowerColor included a X700PRO utilizing 256MB of DDR3 memory and a heat pipe X700 (Non PRO) with 256MB of DDR2 memory. You can see in the above pictures that the front of the boxes is similar to each other with the most noticeable difference being the picture of the heat pipe version on the X700 BOX.
The X700 is labeled BRAVO as Dual DVI is offered on this card and you can see the key points of the card including 256MB, 128-bit, HDTV along with the Value Bundle that is included inside. The X700PRO box goes into a little more detail of the card on the front of the box along with the main points again being showed on each side.
Software wise we have our Driver CD along with a Cyberlink DVD solution CD which offers a few useful programs, PowerColor have also included a full version copy of Hitman Contracts so you can get playing with these cards as soon as you take them out of the box.
In the cable department we have a long S-Video and RCA cable along with an S-Video to RCA adapter and the HDTV cable so we can make use of the HDTV output on offer.
- A Closer Look
The PowerColor X700 Bravo offers a more traditional heat pipe variant with the heat pipe running out the right hand side of the card and onto the back heat sink.
Turning the card over you can see we have the optional extra fan attached which is designed to help cool the card down if you find it is getting too hot and causing instability. While this is a good idea, if you come to the point where you have to use the fan constantly the high RPM and small size produces quite an annoying high pitched sound.
You might find yourself wishing you bought the cheaper non heat pipe variant of the card since the idea in the first place is all about silence. With this said though, during our whole testing phase of this graphics card, we did not have the fan attached and had absolutely no problems with heat related issues.
The X700PRO offering from PowerColor like GeCube also follows the reference cooler with it not quite covering the memory on the front of the card.
With following the reference design on the front of the card we can see the back of the card is very bare.
