Testing:
We tested the HIS X1650XT IceQ Turbo using Windows Vista. Drivers and card worked flawlessly and there were no issues during the test. We did some synthetic tests and tried two games. ATI's Catalyst control center in its latest 7.4 version works like a Swiss clock, and we had no complaints.
HIS listed two versions of X1650XT IceQ Turbo card. One works at 630 MHz for the core and has 256 MB of memory, while the other is clocked slower at 600 MHz but has 512MB of memory. Our test card has 256 MB of memory while the core worked on 600 MHz. We left the card on those clocks as our box stated that card works on 600 MHz and has a 256 MB of memory. We tried to overclock it, but had no luck with it. While the memory can go up for about 6-8%, GPU is limited on 600 MHz. Maybe with new drivers overclocking would be possible. It looks like Rialto chip just doesn't like overclocking, but without any overclocking the card is still very fast.
As we didn't have any similar card for comparison, we based our tests on Vista compatibility. The card didn't show any weakness's except in overclocking.
Synthetic tests:
|
Composite Figures 3Dmark 03 |
3DMark 03 |
Game2 |
Game3 |
Game4 |
|
HIS X1650XT IceQ Turbo 600/1460 MHz |
11502 |
89.5 |
70.6 |
79.0 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
CPU Test |
CPU Score |
CPU Test 1 |
CPU Test 2 |
|
|
HIS X1650XT IceQ Turbo 600/1460 MHz |
1074 |
114.9 |
19.9 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Composite Figures 3Dmark 03 |
Single Texturinng |
Multi Textur. |
Vertex Shader |
Pixel Shader 2.0 |
|
HIS X1650XT IceQ Turbo 600/1460 MHz |
2022.1 |
4549.5 |
53.5 |
74.4 |
|
Composite Figures 3Dmark 05 |
3DMark 05 |
Game1 |
Game2 |
Game3 |
|
HIS X1650XT IceQ Turbo 600/1460 MHz |
7215 |
32.1 |
21.4 |
35.0 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
CPU Test |
CPU Score |
CPU Test 1 |
CPU Test 2 |
|
|
HIS X1650XT IceQ Turbo 600/1460 MHz |
6477 |
4.0 |
4.7 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Composite Figures 3Dmark 05 |
Single Texturinng |
Multi Textur. |
Pixel Shader |
VS/VS |
|
HIS X1650XT IceQ Turbo 600/1460 MHz |
2238.7 |
4587.5 |
198.9 |
80.4/56.2 |
|
Composite Figures 3Dmark 06 |
3DMark 06 |
|
|
|
|
HIS X1650XT IceQ Turbo 600/1460 MHz |
3008 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
SM2.0 Test |
Score |
GT1 |
GT2 |
|
|
HIS X1650XT IceQ Turbo 600/1460 MHz |
1240 |
9.051 |
11.623 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
HDR/SM3.0 Test |
Score |
HDR1 |
HDR2 |
|
|
HIS X1650XT IceQ Turbo 600/1460 MHz |
1299 |
12.291 |
13.697 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
CPU Test |
Score |
CPU1 |
CPU2 |
|
|
HIS X1650XT IceQ Turbo 600/1460 MHz |
927 |
0.291 |
0.474 |
|
In 3DMark's HIS X1650XT graphics card did a good job. All results are quite good and show the great capabilities of this card. Ati DirectX 10 cards are about to make their appearance on the market and at this time the only comparable Nvidia PCIe card would be 8500GT. Nvidia still doesn't have a DirectX 10 AGP card, but we expect them soon.
High end cards from ATI and Nvidia will not see AGP. Today, the fastest card ATI AGP card that you can buy is Radeon X1950 Pro. On 14th of May ATI will introduce new generation of PCIe cards while the AGP versions of RV630 and RV610 chips will come in a month or two after their PCIe versions.
Games:
|
FEAR |
1024x768 |
1280x1024 |
1600x1200 |
2048x1536 |
|
HIS X1650XT IceQ Turbo 600/1460 MHz |
64 |
47 |
37 |
20 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
FEAR High Quality FSAA 4X + Aniso 8X |
1024x768 |
1280x1024 |
1600x1200 |
|
|
HIS X1650XT IceQ Turbo 600/1460 MHz |
45 |
32 |
24 |
|
|
Serious Sam 2 |
1024x768 |
1280x1024 |
1600x1200 |
2048x1536 |
|
HIS X1650XT IceQ Turbo 600/1460 MHz |
76.7 |
74.5 |
71.24 |
45.67 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Serious Sam 2 High quality FSAA 4X + Aniso 16X |
1024x768 |
1280x1024 |
1600x1200 |
2048x1536 |
|
HIS X1650XT IceQ Turbo 600/1460 MHz |
70.35 |
58.37 |
47.55 |
22.12 |
As you can see from the results, all the games are playable. In Fear with all effects up at maximum, it is playable up to 1600x1200 resolution, while with Anti-aliasing and Anisotropic Filtering playable gaming comes down to 1280x1024 resolution. Serious Sam 2 works great under Vista so we tried it as a test. You can be Serious with HIS's card on all resolutions except 2048x1536 with 4x Anti-aliasing and 16x Aniso filtering.
Videos are a common part of computers these days so we tried few HD video's. CPU utilisation was about 45-50 % which isn't good, but you must take in consideration that it was done on AMD 4000+ CPU with "only" one core.
Conclusion:
In 3DMark 2006 this card gives 3,000 points which is a great score for a card that costs just a little above €100. The most interesting thing is that it works flawlessly in Windows Vista and that Aero glass and all games we tried gave excellent results.
As they say "You get what you pay", and for this "pay", "you get" an excellent card that works on older AGP systems and you can play most games on. The cooler on the card is great and almost silent, and the card will even let you watch HD video in 1080P resolution. We can easily recommend this card to anyone who wants to revive his now "old" AGP system.