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Date: October 2nd, 2006
Article by: Nathan Glentworth (Owner / Head Editor)
Product was submitted by: Sapphire
<--SHOP FOR A VIDEOCARD HERE

 

SAPPHIRE CORPORATE PROFILE

Pioneers in a new era of how data is displayed and games are played, Sapphire shepherds the performance oriented with ground-breaking solutions to an environment that remains in a constant state of flux and ultimate evolution. For over ten years Sapphire has held true to its unwavering commitment, the commitment to deliver the most feature rich and soundly engineered products. Because of Sapphire's firm position on achieving excellence with each product that leaves our ISO9001 and ISO14001 certified factories, you can rest assured that your customers will recognize YOUR commitment to selling only the highest of quality components.

"Sapphire is ATI's largest and best performing partner World Wide" Dave Orton, CEO ATI

Since ATI announced its manufacturing & distribution relationships with ODMs and AiBs in June of 2001, SAPPHIRE has been THE key ATI Graphics Boards Supplier worldwide and now stands poised and ready to capture the mainboard audience of those who seek a stable platform for their mission critical operations.

 

PRODUCT INTRODUCTION

When most people think of an entry level videocard, they always think about the basics and nothing more. Gaming should be dismal, performance and features capabilities should be limited and the pricetag should be low. Granted, this x1300xt version today should be priced below the US$100 dollar mark, it oddly weighs in at around US$120-$150 if you can find it on retail shelves. But why is the pricetag higher?

Before you get all worked up, if I told you that the X1300XT's RV530Pro was an X1600 Pro in drag would you believe me? Well....you better because it is. This card's core is essentially an X1600pro with a different sticker. It still has the same 12 pixel shader and 5 vertex shader processors and 500Mhz/800Mhz clock rates as the X1600pro, but this X1300XT has a couple tricks up its' sleeve.

For one, the X1600pro and the X1300XT reference cards both use DDR2, but this version is using DDR3. But why? Well, because this version is overclocked right out of the box at 575Mhz Core and a respectable 1388Mhz memory right out of the box. This increase in memory and core bandwidth take a normal card, and elevates it into a practical videocard for the average gamer. Also, you will see a little later that these clock speeds are not even close to what this card can reach if you overclock it even further.

This is a very capable card for the money and keep reading to see why.

 

RADEON X1300 SERIES CHIPSET INFORMATION

Radeon® X1300 Series – Adrenaline for Your PC

Pay for what you need—and get a whole lot more. From playing games and surfing the Internet to watching digital video and editing photographs, the Radeon® X1300 series of graphics processors breathe life into the graphics of all your media applications.

The X1300 can accelerate digital imaging tasks, enhance 3D graphics in PC games, output a billion more colors than the competition 1 , and deliver top performance for high definition video 2 .

What's more, the X1300 has received ATI's stamp of approval for Microsoft's upcoming Windows Vista™ operating system 3 , enabling your machine to summon some serious graphical glitz without affecting system performance.

Enhanced games with more detail

With excellent shader performance and 3D image quality, the Radeon X1300 delivers advanced gaming detail. Double up your graphics potential with ATI's CrossFire™ technology for multi-GPU systems and you'll have a gaming machine to be reckoned with.

• Put shader intensive games to the test with the Radeon X1300's enhanced shader performance

  Shaders create the surface properties of 3D objects. The Radeon X1300 series of graphics processors are built to exploit the complex shaders integral to graphically sophisticated games.

  
  
• Unite the power of two graphics cards with ATI's CrossFire multi-GPU technology

  The Radeon X1300 allows gamers to accelerate their graphics even further by adding a second Crossfire Edition graphics card to deliver ultra fast performance that works with all games, all the time.

There's no need to compromise

The Radeon X1300 delivers high dynamic range lighting (HDR) effects and full screen anti-aliasing (FSAA) simultaneously while displaying over a billion more colors than competing graphics cards 1 . Plus, it's a recommended graphics solution for Windows Vista™ 3 .

• Choose not to compromise between HDR effects and FSAA

  The Radeon® X1K family are the only graphics boards on the market to combine Full Screen Anti-aliasing (FSAA)—the most advanced anti-aliasing technique in the world—with high dynamic range (HDR) technology.

  
  
• Witness a billion more colors 1 in all of your graphics applications than you would with competing graphics boards

  ATI's Radeon® X1000 series employs a 10-bit-per-color display engine that renders in excess of a billion more colors than competing graphics cards.

  
  
• Install Windows Vista™ with confidence knowing you have an ATI-recommended graphics solution 3

  ATI recommends the Radeon X1300 as a suitable graphics card for Windows Vista. It meets the requirements of image-intensive features such as Aeroglass, and enhances Vista's gaming, digital photo, and multimedia applications. <

Crystal clear video playback

Thanks to ATI's Avivo™ display technology, the Radeon X1300 delivers high quality video performance in both standard definition and high-definition digital video.

• The Radeon X1300 scores 123 out of a possible 130 points in HQV tests, the highest score of any graphics card 2

  The X1300 is the industry leader in its class in video performance according to HQV testing, the standard method of measuring the picture quality of DVD playback. Its amazing score is more than twice that of its immediate competition.

  
  
• Avivo display technology guarantees sharpness, clarity, and realistic colour reproduction

  Avivo uses proprietary video scaling technology to display crystal clear images on high resolution displays. Video images sent to your display will be hardware accelerated for superb, stutter-free viewing.