Date: |
Saturday, Febuary 13th 2007 |
Price: |
334.99 (Tigerdirect.com) |
Sponsors: |
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Author: |
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Editor: |
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Score: |
9/10 |
HIS x1950XT Turbo Edition First Impressions and Testing
First Impressions
Let's start with the first impressions of this product, including the
packaging that HIS used to send the card to us in and general look-and-feel of
the card, before we even start to test it out.
As always, HIS got the card out to us nice and quickly. Sending it Priority
International, we got it basically next business day. The box did not look
damaged or banged up at all, which for hardware is always a bonus. Once I opened
the package, any worries I might have had of it being banged up were quickly
allayed, as the retail packaging for the card was secured inside the standard
brown box with heavy foam that would protect anything from anything that I could
think might happen to the card during shipping.
Once out of the plain brown box, I got my first look at the retail packaging
for the card. It was nice and simple, yet informative. The back of the box was
just as nice, with all the primary features of the card, as well as a clear
window so that you could get the first look at your new piece of hardware. I
have never been let down by HIS and their packaging, it always earns high marks
for presentation.
Once taken out of the packaging, the card itself was no disappointment. It
was on red PCB with a large heat sink and a custom looking fan assembly overtop
of that. The only issue I had was due to the length of it, I had to disconnect
some power connectors from HDDs, but after that I was able to get it snug fit
and reconnect everything.
The one thing that I was slight disappointed with was the fact that the
package did not contain an adapter from legacy power to the 6-pin PCI Express
connector that many of the newer PCI Express video cards require. I know that
not all Video Card manufacturers include this, but it would have been nice.
Instead, I had to go out and buy one myself.
Testing
So lets get to the heart of the issue. How well did this card perform in the
system that we have setup to test it. The specs for the Test Box are as
follows.
Motherboard: Asus M2N4-SLI
Processor:
AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+
Hard Drive 1: Western Digital
WD2500KS
Hard Drive 2: Western Digital WD2500JB
Power Supply: XG Vortec 600
So first, we will look at some benchmarks. As previous stated, we would start
with 3dMark05 to see how this card performed. The first thing of note of course
is that it blew the socks off in these simulated Benchmarks compared to the card
that was using a grading tool. As can be seen in the charts below, no matter
what test we ran, we got nearly if not more than double the 3dMarks per setting.
The card performs beautifully even in the 2AA and 4AA tests, with HIS’ 1950xt
either being at or just below the 9000 3dMark range. The interesting thing, and
I at first did not expect this, was that the card actually performed better at
1280x720 then at 1152x768. But enough of artificially benchmarks. Lets get to
the gaming.
So, testing the card with Doom3, Quake 4, and Need 4 Speed: Most wanted is
always the best part of any review. Whom can complain about getting to sit down
and play games and then write about how much fun they had? Now in each of the
games, the frame rates where within 15-20 of each no matter the settings, but
those extra ten or more frames a second can really make a difference. I played
each for as close as I can for the same amount of time to get the closest
results possible.
In Doom 3, and Quake 4 I did notice some increases, but I think the most
noticeable one was in Need For Speed. I tested it for game playability and frame
rates at it’s default settings, and I suggest to never do that if you get this
card. It will be almost unplayable. The card responded so quickly that I had
troubles actually controlling it. But then, you put the settings up to Ultra
High, with the max resolution and full Quality settings, and it is a gem.
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