Sapphire x1650 pro specs: ATI Radeon X1650 PRO Specs

25 февраля, 2021

Radeon X1650 PRO [in 1 benchmark]


ATI
Radeon X1650 PRO

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  • Interface PCIe 1.0 x16

  • Core clock speed 600 MHz

  • Max video memory 256 MB

  • Memory type GDDR3

  • Memory clock speed 1400 MHz

  • Maximum resolution

Summary

ATI started Radeon X1650 PRO sales 23 August 2006. This is R500 architecture desktop card based on 80 nm manufacturing process and primarily aimed at gamers. 256 MB of GDDR3 memory clocked at 1.4 GHz are supplied, and together with 128 Bit memory interface this creates a bandwidth of 22.4 GB/s.

Compatibility-wise, this is single-slot card attached via PCIe 1.0 x16 interface. No additional power connector is required, and power consumption is at 44 Watt.

We have no data on Radeon X1650 PRO benchmark results.

General info


Of Radeon X1650 PRO’s architecture, market segment and release date.

Place in performance rating not rated
Architecture R500 (2005−2007)
GPU code name RV535
Market segment Desktop
Release date 23 August 2006 (16 years ago)
Current price $205 of 49999 (A100 SXM4)

Technical specs


Radeon X1650 PRO’s general performance parameters such as number of shaders, GPU base clock, manufacturing process, texturing and calculation speed. These parameters indirectly speak of Radeon X1650 PRO’s performance, but for precise assessment you have to consider its benchmark and gaming test results.

Core clock speed 600 MHz of 2610 (Radeon RX 6500 XT)
Number of transistors 330 million of 14400 (GeForce GTX 1080 SLI Mobile)
Manufacturing process technology 80 nm of 4 (GeForce RTX 4080 Ti)
Thermal design power (TDP) 44 Watt of 900 (Tesla S2050)
Texture fill rate 2. 400 of 939.8 (h200 SXM5)

Compatibility, dimensions and requirements


Information on Radeon X1650 PRO’s compatibility with other computer components. Useful when choosing a future computer configuration or upgrading an existing one. For desktop video cards it’s interface and bus (motherboard compatibility), additional power connectors (power supply compatibility).

Interface PCIe 1.0 x16
Width 1-slot
Supplementary power connectors None

Memory


Parameters of memory installed on Radeon X1650 PRO: its type, size, bus, clock and resulting bandwidth. Note that GPUs integrated into processors don’t have dedicated memory and use a shared part of system RAM.

Memory type GDDR3
Maximum RAM amount 256 MB of 128 (Radeon Instinct MI250X)
Memory bus width 128 Bit of 8192 (Radeon Instinct MI250X)
Memory clock speed 1400 MHz of 21000 (GeForce RTX 3090 Ti)
Memory bandwidth 22. 4 GB/s of 14400 (Radeon R7 M260)

Video outputs and ports


Types and number of video connectors present on Radeon X1650 PRO. As a rule, this section is relevant only for desktop reference video cards, since for notebook ones the availability of certain video outputs depends on the laptop model.

Display Connectors 2x DVI, 1x S-Video

API support


APIs supported by Radeon X1650 PRO, sometimes including their particular versions.

DirectX 9.0c (9_3)
Shader Model 3.0
OpenGL 2.0 of 4.6 (GeForce GTX 1080 Mobile)
OpenCL N/A
Vulkan N/A

Benchmark performance


Non-gaming benchmark performance of Radeon X1650 PRO. Note that overall benchmark performance is measured in points in 0-100 range.

  • Passmark

Passmark

This is probably the most ubiquitous benchmark, part of Passmark PerformanceTest suite. It gives the graphics card a thorough evaluation under various load, providing four separate benchmarks for Direct3D versions 9, 10, 11 and 12 (the last being done in 4K resolution if possible), and few more tests engaging DirectCompute capabilities.

Benchmark coverage: 26%


ATI X1650 PRO
84

Similar GPUs

Here is our recommendation of several graphics cards that are more or less close in performance to the one reviewed.

Recommended processors

These processors are most commonly used with Radeon X1650 PRO according to our statistics.


Core 2
Duo E8400

5. 3%


Core i3
1115G4

4%


Pentium Dual
Core E2180

2.7%


Athlon 64
X2 5000+

2.7%


Core i5
10400F

2.7%


Core 2
Duo E7500

2.7%


Core i3
1005G1

2.7%


Phenom II
X4 810

2.7%


Athlon II
X2 250

2. 7%


Athlon 64
X2 4200+

2.7%

User rating


Here you can see the user rating of the graphics card, as well as rate it yourself.

Questions and comments


Here you can ask a question about Radeon X1650 PRO, agree or disagree with our judgements, or report an error or mismatch.

Please enable JavaScript to view the comments powered by Disqus.

ATI Radeon X1650 Pro (dual link) review: ATI Radeon X1650 Pro (dual link)

Our expert, award-winning staff selects the products we cover and rigorously researches and tests our top picks. If you buy through our links, we may get a commission. Reviews ethics statement

We don’t recommend paying even $125 for this new budget 3D card from ATI, but assuming you can find it for $100 or less, the Radeon X1650 Pro will meet your Windows Vista and basic gaming needs without overheating your PC or your wallet.

Rich Brown

Rich is the editorial lead for CNET’s Home and Wellness sections, based in Louisville, KY. Before moving to Louisville in 2013, Rich ran CNET’s desktop computer review section for 10 years in New York City. He has worked as a tech journalist since 1994, covering everything from 3D-printing to Z-Wave smart locks.

See full bio

3 min read

Windows Vista

As we mentioned in our review of ATI’s other recently released budget card, the Radeon X1300 XT, the Radeon X1650 Pro is the best low-cost offering from ATI at the moment. The two cards actually have very few differences. The core and the memory clock speeds are different (500MHz core, 800MHz memory on the X1300; 600MHz core, 700MHz memory on the X1650), and they share the same number of pixel and vertex pipelines (12 and 5, respectively), but the X1650 Pro is only $10 more expensive than the X1300 XT, if you go by ATI’s MSRP figures. You’ll find Radeon X1300 XT cards with 128MB and 256MB of memory, and the Radeon X1650 Pro will have some 512MB models, which naturally cost more, but both cards use the same technology and are so close in price that you might as well drop the extra $10 for the boost in performance.

According to ATI’s suggested retail price, the 256MB Radeon X1650 Pro costs $100. At that price, it’s a great 3D graphics card that will turn any otherwise 3D-inept desktop into a basic but respectable gaming box. It will also aid your plans if you’d like to run the transparent Aero effects. The problem is that a quick Froogle search turned up prices ranging from $65 to about $225. At $100 or less, the Radeon X1650 Pro is a good deal, but don’t pay any more than that because cards in the $150 territory offer clearly superior performance.

Of course, the Radeon X1650 Pro is competing not only with ATI’s other budget cards (despite the vendor’s best intentions), but also with Nvidia’s GeForce 7600 GS-based cards. You’ll find GeForce 7600 GS cards spread across as wide a price range as that of the Radeon X1650 Pro, but even if you find one for less than the Radeon X1650 Pro, we recommend that you don’t buy it, because it’s not as fast. On every test, the Radeon X1650 outpaced the Nvidia card. On some tests, such as Half-Life 2, the two were basically tied, but on others, Quake 4, for example, the Radeon card beat out the GeForce 7600 GS by a large margin, in that case by 13 frames per second, which is a significant difference at the budget level. And of course, if you dial down the resolution and the image-quality settings, you should see your frame rates get closer to the 60-frames-per-second ideal.

3DMark06
(Longer bars indicate better performance)

1,280×1,024   

Nvidia GeForce 7900 GS

4257 

ATI Radeon X1800 GTO

3758 

Nvidia GeForce 7600 GT

3317 

ATI Radeon X1600 XT

2592 

ATI Radeon X1650 Pro

2358 

Nvidia GeForce 7600 GS

2244 

ATI Radeon X1600 Pro

1915 

Quake 4
(Longer bars indicate better performance)

1,280×1,024 (high quality)   

ATI Radeon X1800 GTO

62 

Nvidia GeForce 7900 GS

59 

ATI Radeon X1650 Pro

48 

Nvidia GeForce 7600 GT

41 

ATI Radeon X1600 XT

35 

Nvidia GeForce 7600 GS

25 

ATI Radeon X1600 Pro

24 

Half-Life 2: The Lost Coast
(Longer bars indicate better performance)

1,600×1,200 (high quality, 16x anisotropic filtering)    1,280×1,024 (high quality, 16x anisotropic filtering)   

Nvidia GeForce 7900 GS

56 

75 

ATI Radeon X1800 GTO

51 

67 

Nvidia GeForce 7600 GT

39 

53 

ATI Radeon X1600 XT

25 

33 

ATI Radeon X1650 Pro

25 

33 

Nvidia GeForce 7600 GS

24 

34 

ATI Radeon X1600 Pro

18 

25 

The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion
(Longer bars indicate better performance)

1,280×1,024    1,024×768   

Nvidia GeForce 7900 GS

27 

29 

ATI Radeon X1800 GTO

27 

30 

Nvidia GeForce 7600 GT

21 

23 

ATI Radeon X1600 XT

16 

18 

ATI Radeon X1650 Pro

16 

18 

Nvidia GeForce 7600 GS

14 

15 

ATI Radeon X1600 Pro

13 

14 

Once again, we need to thank Sarju Shah at GameSpot for hooking us up with the test results, which he produced for GameSpot’s own graphics card roundup. We highly recommend that you check it out for a broad overview of the entire graphics card market.

Test bed:
AMD Athlon 64 FX-62; Asus A8RMVP-Deluxe motherboard; 1GB Corsair XMS 3200XL DDR SDRAM; 160GB Seagate 7,200rpm hard drive; ATI Catalyst beta version 6.8_8.282.1 graphics driver software; Nvidia ForceWare 91.31 graphics driver software.

6.3

ATI Radeon X1650 Pro (dual link)

Score Breakdown

Design 6Features 6Performance 0Support 7

See full specs

ATI Radeon X1650PRO Graphics Cards Compared

Video Cards & GPUs

AMD Radeon GPU

ATI Radeon X1650PRO comes in at around $120 USD and offers pretty good performance — we check out a few in this roundup.

Published Oct 22, 2006 11:00 PM CDT   |   Updated Tue, Nov 3 2020 7:04 PM CST

Manufacturer: none

14 minute read time

Introduction

So, you can’t find any of the new ATI Radeon X1300XT graphics cards on the market or your wallet doesn’t looks like its going to have the dollars in it for a new nVidia G80 that’s due out just around the corner but you want. .. no… you need a decent performing mid-range graphics card, that isn’t going to force you to eat Two Minute noodles for the next month?

Well, the new ATI Radeon X1650PRO is available — it is priced well and of course performs well. So like our round up of the Radeon X1300XT cards just the other day, we will be doing the same thing with the new X1650PRO from ATI and four of its partners — GeCube, PowerColor, Sapphire and HIS. We will be looking at the cards alone with a pair in Crossfire mode to see what type of performance is on offer from one of ATI’s newest GPU’s.

Continuing with the same layout we used for the X1300XT round up, we will have a quick look at the cards on offer, quickly run over the test bed, check out the results and wrap it all up trying to find out which ones deserves your hard earned dollars.

Let’s get it started!

GeCube X1650PRO

The Cards — GeCube X1650PRO

Since we again have the same four brands as our previous round up joining us we will continue in the same order. GeCube X1300XT performance was good but nothing outstanding. It was clearly not the fastest out of the pack but nor was it the slowest.

Unlike the X1300XT from GeCube, they have opted for a larger box this time around. Very similar to the other boxes we have seen from them except different information on the front with the card being the X1650PRO. The main thing we can notice is of course the 256MB of DDR-3 memory onboard, other standard features are across the bottom with one of the nicer features being the inclusion of a couple of Dual Link DVI connectors for people who are lucky enough to own two 30″ LCD monitors that require the Dual Link connectivity.

The back of the box is of course very standard — we have an extended specifications list on the back, some information in regards to the ATI Catalyst software, awards and also a connectivity chart so you know what all the ports on the back of the card are capable of doing.

While the X1650PRO is more mid-range, they still have quite a small bundle on the inside with only a single DVI to VGA connector, component out cable and a S-Video/RCA cable so you can make use of the TV-Out functionally on offer from the GeCube X1650PRO.

The card itself is quite good looking with quite a high quality heatsink fan combination. What makes it better quality over other coolers is the inclusion of the copper fins, as opposed to standard aluminum. It’s the little things that stand out which make one card better than another.

The back of the card doesn’t show much but a whole lot of my finger prints over the metal clip that holds the heatsink in place. We have our normal array of stickers and circuitry that is pretty standard across the board.

Finally moving to the I/O side of things we have two Dual Link DVI ports and S-Video connector which makes use of the s-video, RCA and component cable included in the package. We can also see that the GeCube X1650PRO is only a single slot solution.

Clock Speeds

The GeCube X1650PRO is quite an aggressively clocked graphics card — we see a core clock speed of 650MHz and a memory clock speed of 1500MHz DDR.

PowerColor X1650PRO

The Cards — PowerColor X1650PRO

PowerColor are again using a small box for the X1650PRO which states that the card includes Dual DVI and 256MB of DDR-3 memory. We also see the new Windows Vista Ready logo which is starting to pop up on a number of ATI cards these days. To the left of the box are a few of the key features found on the X1650PRO.

The same problem we saw on the X1300XT is also present on the X1650PRO box with the board features stating only 256MB of DDR-2 memory as opposed to the DDR-3 that we saw on the front of the box.

Opening up the box we have the same package that is found in the X1300XT. Along side the quick installation guide we have an S-Video to RCA connector, DVI to VGA connector and a Cyberlink DVD Solution which comes with a few copies of different Cyberlink software.

We can see the heatsink fan sits directly on top of the core with the fins leading out over the memory. The heatsink design is actually quite good as you can see the fins are able to push the air out all sides of the card, helping keep it as cool as possible.

Turning over the card we can see that the card is stated as a X1650PRO 256MB DDR-3 card. The heatsink is simply held together with the four screws.

Dual DVI is included like the GeCube offering along with our video out port. It’s a bit disappointing about the video cables that come with the card as there is simply a converter and to make use of the TV Out you will have to purchase an S-Video or RCA cable separately, while its not expensive it is just frustrating that PowerColor don’t choose to include it.

Clock Speeds

Looking at the clocks we find a core clock speed of 600MHz and a memory clock speed of 1400MHz DDR.

Not the fastest card out of the pack like we found with the X1300XT article but we will see what it is capable of and what kind of performance the lower clocks do to the overall score.

Sapphire X1650PRO

The Cards — Sapphire X1650PRO

Next is Sapphire with their normal square white box. The same gripe can be found with this box as the other one with it simply stating that 256MB of G-DDR memory is included. If someone was to walk into a shop they would see this and look at the offering from PowerColor and GeCube see that it says DDR-3 on the front of the box and instantly assume that the card is probably better. Apart from this gripe we have our normal information along with the Windows Vista Ready logo and a small picture showing that a copy of DaVinci Code game is included.

The back of the box states what is included, product highlights, awards that have been won over the time and the main features again. There is still no mention of the fact that the Sapphire card is making use of DDR-3 memory — hopefully this is something they choose to fix in the near future.

Going inside we have one of the larger packages with the manual, two converters, HDTV component out cable, copy of PowerDVD and the inclusion of DaVinci Code game — Sapphire and HIS are the only companies that choose to include a game. It’s just nice to see that Sapphire give us something a little different which we have seen before. They clearly offer one of the best game bundle packages with this seen and the Sapphire Select program we see on a lot of their higher-end cards.

The card itself uses quite a thin cooler with a smaller fan on the left of the card which pushes air across the fins and helps cool the core and the memory. The fan doesn’t directly blow onto the core like the PowerColor but works similar to GeCube solution. Also like the GeCube solution, Sapphire opt for the higher quality copper solution to dissipate the heat unlike aluminum which we see in most low to mid range cards.

The back has our screws that hold the large heatsink in place, more importantly we see the first sign of the fact that the card is making use of DDR-3 memory.

Like all the other cards here today, Sapphire are utilizing a couple DVI ports along with the video out port. The X1300XT article saw Sapphire being the only card not to include Dual DVI, so it is good to see on the higher-end X1650PRO that they are making use of it.

Clock Speeds

Sapphire’s card comes in with a little overclock like their X1300XT which was clearly the fastest overall card out of the pack in our previous round up. The core is clocked at 635MHz and the DDR-3 memory comes in at 1440MHz DDR.

So, not as high as what GeCube are offering this time around but ahead of what PowerColor is offering.

HIS X1650PRO

The Cards — HIS X1650PRO

We did have a look at the HIS X1650PRO in our Low and Mid Range Crossfire article but we will have a quick look at it again if you didn’t venture across to that article. Like usual we have our standard box with the window that is used to show off the extra fancy cooler used. We also have the standard array of stickers to let us know the main features of the card with the inclusion of 256MB of DDR-3 memory. This is also an iTurbo model which of course means it comes with the higher speeds compared to the reference design.

Moving to the back we have our key features of the card along with the key specifications. Across the bottom we see a small amount of the hundreds of awards that HIS have seen over the years. We also see the key features that the cooler offers like less noise, cooler temperatures and the fact that it is also UV reactive for people with UV lights in their cases.

HIS, as always, offer one of the better bundles including two DVI to VGA connectors, S-Video to RCA connector, S-Video cable and HDTV Component out cable. We also have the manual, driver CD and the very expected HIS DVD which includes a few different programs and a full version of Dungeon Siege. We really have our fingers crossed that they are on the last of these DVDs as it really is time to stick a new game inside.

With the massive cooler on the front of the card there isn’t much to see aside from the large fan on the right which pushes air directly across all those little parts that get hot and straight out the back of your case. Clearly one of the best coolers here today but does take up two slots.

Turning over there really isn’t much to see at all apart from the norm. We can see that the cooler hangs just over the back of the card though.

I/O wise is the same as all the other cards we have here today — two DVI ports are included along with the video connector to make use of the S-Video cable or Component out cable that is included in the package.

Clock Speeds

Like we mentioned earlier the card is an iTurbo model which of course comes with the higher clocks speeds.

While the speeds are above stock, on paper it is the second slowest card in this roundup with the core coming in at 625MHz and the memory clock speed at 1400MHz DDR.

Benchmarks — Test System Setup and 3DMark05

Test System Setup

Processor(s): Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 @ 3430MHz (381MHz FSB with 4:5 memory)
Motherboard(s): DFI Infinity 975X (Supplied by Bronet)
Memory: 2 X 1GB G. Skill HZ PC8000 @ 476MHz 4-4-4-12 (Supplied by Bronet)
Hard Disk(s): Hitachi 80GB 7200RPM SATA 2
Operating System: Microsoft Windows XP Professional SP2
Drivers: ATI Catalyst 6.9 and DX9c

Continuing on with our Core 2 Duo test bed we will throw our cards into the system today and see just what they are capable of producing in terms of the benchmark numbers.

Like we mentioned we will be using a pair of HIS X1650PRO cards in Crossfire mode so you can see where they compare against a single card solution. A couple of these cards are going to cost you around $240 USD which is about the same price as a single Radeon X1950PRO graphics card. It will be interesting to see the performance numbers.

We will be using our same array of benchmark as usual which cover all important aspects of gaming — synthetic, real world, HDR, AA and AF, OpenGL and D3D.

Let’s check out the performance numbers now.

3DMark05

Version and / or Patch Used: Build 120
Developer Homepage: http://www.futuremark.com
Product Homepage: http://www.futuremark.com/products/3dmark05/
Buy It Here

3DMark05 is now the second latest version in the popular 3DMark «Gamers Benchmark» series. It includes a complete set of DX9 benchmarks which tests Shader Model 2.0 and above.

For more information on the 3DMark05 benchmark, we recommend you read our preview here.

We can see that the highest clocked card, the GeCube, comes out ahead of the pack with it being roughly 8% faster then the slowest card.

The benefits of Crossfire are clear offering almost a 40% increase in performance over the fastest single card.

Benchmarks — 3DMark06

3DMark06

Version and / or Patch Used: Build 102
Developer Homepage: http://www. futuremark.com
Product Homepage: http://www.futuremark.com/products/3dmark06/
Buy It Here

3DMark06 is the very latest version of the «Gamers Benchmark» from FutureMark. The newest version of 3DMark expands on the tests in 3DMark05 by adding graphical effects using Shader Model 3.0 and HDR (High Dynamic Range lighting) which will push even the best DX9 graphics cards to the extremes.

3DMark06 also focuses on not just the GPU but the CPU using the AGEIA PhysX software physics library to effectively test single and Dual Core processors.

3DMark06 continues to see the GeCube offering dominate the pack. The Sapphire sits just behind it with the HIS just behind it and the PowerColor trailing at the end of the pack.

Here at the higher resolution and when the graphics system is put under more stress, Crossfire offers over 40% performance improvement.

Benchmarks — Half Life 2 (Lost Coast)

Half Life 2 (Lost Coast)

Version and / or Patch Used: Unpatched
Timedemo or Level Used: Custom Time demo (Demo. dem)
Developer Homepage: http://www.valvesoftware.com
Product Homepage: http://www.half-life2.com
Buy It Here

By taking the suspense, challenge and visceral charge of the original, and adding startling new realism, responsiveness and new HDR technology, Half-Life 2 Lost Coast opens the door to a world where the player’s presence affects everything around him, from the physical environment to the behaviors even the emotions of both friends and enemies.

We benchmark Half Life 2 Lost Coast with our own custom timedemos as to avoid possible driver optimizations using the «record demo_name» command and loading the timedemo with the «timedemo demo_name» command — For a full list of the commands, click here.

While on the graph makes the Sapphire and GeCube look a lot faster when you look at the real FPS performance difference, it isn’t huge. It isn’t till you move to HDR that you can see the difference impacting performance more. The GeCube is almost able to achieve an average of 60FPS (which we consider the minimum average FPS for a good game play experience) while the slower PowerColor is sitting 5.5FPS slower.

Benchmarks — PREY

PREY

Version and / or Patch Used: Unpatched
Timedemo or Level Used: HardwareOC Custom Benchmark
Developer Homepage: http://www.humanhead.com
Product Homepage: http://www.prey.com
Buy It Here

PREY is one of the newest games to be added to our benchmark line-up. It is based off the Doom 3 engine and offers stunning graphics passing what we’ve seen in Quake 4 and does put quite a lot of strain on our test systems.

Moving to PREY sees that only the GeCube and Sapphire offerings are able to achieve an average of over 50FPS at the lower 1024 x 768 which makes them roughly 10% faster than the PowerColor card.

Here at the higher resolution we see Crossfire offering a performance improvement of about 33%.

Benchmarks — F.E.A.R.

F.E.A.R.

Version and / or Patch Used: Unpatched
Timedemo or Level Used: Built-in Test
Developer Homepage: http://www.vugames.com
Product Homepage: http://www.whatisfear.com/us/
Buy It Here

F.E.A.R. (First Encounter Assault Recon) is an intense combat experience with rich atmosphere and a deeply intense paranormal storyline presented entirely in first person. Be the hero in your own spine-tingling epic of action, tension, and terror…and discover the true meaning of F.E.A.R.

We can see here that there isn’t a huge difference with the minimum but when we move to the average we can see the speeds fluctuate more at the lower resolution with both the Sapphire and GeCube breaking the magic 60FPS mark.

Benchmarks — High Quality AA and AF

High Quality AA and AF

Our high quality tests let us separate the men from the boys and the ladies from the girls. If the cards weren’t struggling before they will start to now.

Our first HQ test shows what we have seen all a long with the GeCube coming ahead of the pack but the Sapphire not far behind.

HDR performance see the cards sit closer together but the stand out again is the GeCube offering which is almost able to crack the 40FPS average in Half Life 2 (Lost Coast) with HDR AND AA and AF enabled.

Crossfire again shows its muscles by being able to offer around about a 35% improvement in performance and an enjoyable playable experience in Lost Coast even with the graphics settings turned up quite high.

Finally we leave with PREY which sees the GeCube have quite a large lead over the other cards.

Final Thoughts

ATI’s Radeon X1650PRO graphics card is a good performer and the ability to simply just buy two and throw them into Crossfire without much effort at all is fantastic and the performance gain varies from around 25% to 40% or so. While buying a couple at the same time and placing them straight into Crossfire won’t always be an option for all users, with the ability to simply buy one card now and get a second one at a later date does make it more attractive.

GeCube when it came to performance today was the real stand out card, which was to be expected though with the highest core and memory speed on offer. With that said though, it isn’t the cheapest cards on the market like we quite often find with the GeCube cards and with one of the lighter packages, it is a little disappointing in that respect.

PowerColor performance was down again like the X1300XT round up. With the lowest core and memory speed out of the bunch and also the cheapest X1650PRO DDR-3 available, we thought at the beginning we would find it at the bottom of the pack. There isn’t a huge difference between the slowest and fastest card but there is a difference none the less.

Sapphire again comes with an overclocked card though not quite as aggressive as what the GeCube card offered. Performance was up there with the top card but it consistently trailed just behind due to the slightly lower core and memory speed. While the Sapphire performance is number two, it clearly has one of the best packages out of the box but this does come at a price.

Lastly we have the HIS offering which we looked at in our Crossfire on a budget article. It has one of the best coolers available out of the bunch but one of the lower clock speeds. It would have been nicer if HIS made better use of the cooler by increasing the core and memory speed up and beyond what GeCube offered. HIS bundle as always is quite good as well, though we have no doubt that people are becoming tired of the same DVD bundle and hopefully HIS will step it up a notch with a new game with new cards like the Radeon X1650XT.

All cards have their pros and cons — GeCube offer the best out of the box performance but with no real bundle, PowerColor while being the slowest is also the cheapest so its good for people who want a DDR-3 X1650PRO but aren’t all that concerned about not necessarily having the fastest. Sapphire performance is up there as usual and also has a good little bundle, it is the most expensive though out of the four cards, you will have to see if you can justify the game for those extra hard earned dollars. Finally there is the HIS — it is quiet and priced well but the lower clocks force it to sit down the bottom of the pack when compared to some of the other brands.

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Shawn Baker

Shawn takes care of all of our video card reviews. From 2009, Shawn is also taking care of our memory reviews, and from May 2011, Shawn also takes care of our CPU, chipset and motherboard reviews. As of December 2011, Shawn is based out of Taipei, Taiwan.

Sapphire Radeon X1650 Pro Ultimate Review

Sapphire Radeon X1650 Pro Ultimate


Written by John Yan on 3/12/2007 for
PC  


More On:

Radeon X1650 Pro Ultimate


Sapphire’s always trying to do something new with video cards to make them stand out. It’s not unusual to see Sapphire put out cards with different types of coolers. If you want a mid-range card that’s completely silent, they have a product for you. The Sappire Radeon X1650 Pro Ultimate gives you a completely silent card that would fit well in an HTPC. This is a card I first saw at CES 2007 and it’s here now in the GN labs.

The specifications of the Radeon X1650 Pro Ultimate is the same as a regular X1650 Pro. You get a card that’s got the GPU running at 600MHz and the memory running at 1400MHz DDR. There’s a total of 256MB of memory on this card.  12 shader units and 4 pixel pipelines outline the rest of the specifications. It’s really no different from my earlier review of Sappphire’s Radeon X1650 Pro and in that review you saw that this card is really a re-branded X1600 XT with some minor bumps in speed. All told, the performance of this card should be pretty much the same with the two cards. It’s not going to be a powerhouse but it’ll give you ok performance for current and older games. DirectX9 support is in there so those looking for a DX10 card will have to pass on this one.


AN8 where the slot next to the first What sets this card apart from the rest, of course, is the cooling solution present. From the pictures, you can see it consists of nicely sized heatpipes that carry heat to the back of the card where a large aluminum heatsink sits. The plate on the GPU is pretty small and is outfitted with the Sapphire branding. The heatpipes, 8 mm in diameter to be exact, are larger than many solutions so that it can carry more heat to the heatsink.  The heatsink sits on the back of the card and you can see it’s very large.  With the card running on load, the heatsink heated up well when I touched it. For some motherboards, this will save an expansion slot as it won’t impede the space next to it. On the other hand, for a motherboard like the abit AN8 SLI where the space above the PCI-E slot houses the audio riser card, this can be an issue. On a board like the abit NF-M2 nView, the large heatsink can interfere with an over-sized after market CPU cooler. Before you purchase the card, make sure your motherboard’s first PCI-E slot is clear on the side.


While it is a thicker card than a normal Radeon X1650 Pro, the length of the card is pretty short. Considering all the high end cards coming out these days, it’s nice to see a somewhat normal sized card.

The card’s design sets it up perfectly for a HTPC. You definitely want a quiet machine for those types and the Radeon X1650 Pro Ultimate fits the bill. The card supports HDCP so you won’t have any problems viewing HD content on HDCP capable monitors. Also included to help with picture quality is AVIVO support. I always liked AVIVO and what it has to offer. There’s software available to easily convert media from one format to another ad well so if you want totranscode it for say a portable device, you can easily do it with this card since any card in the 1K line will do that.

On the bracket, there are two Dual-DVI connectors that let you connect up to two monitors. If you want to connect the card to a TV there’s a multipurpose connector that can serve as the output for a S-Video, composite, or component connection. It’s a pretty standard bracket for most video cards that you see nowadays.

Sapphire bundles this card with Cyberlink PowerDVD 5.0 to let you view DVDs and Just Cause as it’s game bundle. Just Cause isn’t too shabby of a game and it’s nice to see Sapphire changing their bundles around instead of sticking with an older product. You also get twoDVI to VGA converters, a composite cable, an S-Video plug, and a component cable. The bundle isn’t spectacular bit it’s serviceable for this product.So let’s put this card to the test against Sapphire’s own X1650 Pro that we reviewed a while back. Our test setup consists of:

  • AMD64 X2 3800+

  • ECS KA3 MVP Extreme

  • 2 GIGs Crucial Ballistix PC2-6400 (2 sticks of 1GB each)

  • Seagate 160GIG 7200RPM HDD

  • Windows XP w/ Service Pack 2

  • Catalyst drivers from the package

3DMark®06 is the worldwide standard in advanced 3D game performance benchmarking. A fundamental tool for every company in the PC industry as well as PC users and gamers, 3DMark06 uses advanced real-time 3D game workloads to measure PC performance using a suite of DirectX 9 3D graphics tests, CPU tests, and 3D feature tests. 3DMark06 tests include all new HDR/SM3.0 graphics tests, SM2.0 graphics tests, AI and physics driven single and multiple cores or processor CPU tests and a collection of comprehensive feature tests to reliably measure next generation gaming performance today. We tested at the standard 1280×1024 resolution.

Quake 4 is Raven Software’s true sequel to the id classic. The game uses an improved Doom 3 engine for some great graphics. For the test we ran a demo featuring a few enemies and some squad mates. We set the graphics qualities at maximum and ran it on three different resolutions. A new demo was used over my previous tests that feature a more intensive battle. All of the options were set to maximum for the run.


One of the surprise hits out of Monolith was F.E.A.R. This supernatural FPS looks incredible and really pushes a video card to its limits. For the benchmark, we ran three resolutions using the in game benchmark with all the settings set at max.

Prey has been in development for many years but the folks at Human Head finally released the game this year. The game utilizes the Doom 3 engine like Quake 4 and features the really cool Portal technology to garner some interesting game play aspects. All settings were set to maximum and three resolutions were chosen for the test.

Half-Life 2 is Valve’s sequel to the mega hit that just keeps on going. The game features incredible physics and highly detailed graphics. A scene near the beach with attacking ant lions was used to test this card along with setting the graphics at maximum.

As you can see the performance is pretty much the same compared to a regular Radeon X1650 Pro. While I didn’t enjoy Sapphire’s regular offering as much, I do give them credit for trying something different and putting on a passive cooling unit does make this a unique card in its class. What you do get is above average game performance coupled with great multimedia support inAVIVO and a quiet card that will go great in an HTPC. Because of the tight spacing in HTPC boards that are typically mATX, the cooler might get in the way of some after market CPU cooling solutions. Overall, the Sapphire Radeon X1650 Pro Ultimate brings something different to the market in its segment and doesn’t follow the reference design that other companies offer. You are paying a little more for having a silent solution but it does bring something different to the table.


The heating solution makes this card completely silent and offers ok performance. It’s not going to run games at high resolutions but if you don’t to spend too much or need a silent card for your PC, this card fits the bill.

Rating: 7.7 Above Average

* The product in this article was sent to us by the developer/company.

About Author

I’ve been reviewing products since 1997 and started out at Gaming Nexus. As one of the original writers, I was tapped to do action games and hardware. Nowadays, I work with a great group of folks on here to bring to you news and reviews on all things PC and consoles.

As for what I enjoy, I love action and survival games. I’m more of a PC gamer now than I used to be, but still enjoy the occasional console fair. Lately, I’ve been really playing a ton of retro games after building an arcade cabinet for myself and the kids. There’s some old games I love to revisit and the cabinet really does a great job at bringing back that nostalgic feeling of going to the arcade.

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Specs MSI RX1650PRO-T2D256E graphics card Radeon X1650 Pro GDDR3 (RX1650PRO-T2D256E)

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