ATI X1600XT Video Card Review :: The Card Layout

X1600XT
Brand	ATI
Model	X1600XT
Graphics Chip	RV530
Graphics Memory Type	DDR3
Memory (MB)	256
Graphics Core Clock (MHz)	587
Memory Clock (MHz)	1380
Memory Speed (ns)	1.4
RAMDAC Frequency (MHz)	Dual 400
Active Cooling on Graphics Chip	Yes
Heatsink on Memory	Yes
Video Capture	Yes
Ports
Dual Monitor Support	Yes
VGA Out	DVI-I, DVI-I
Video In and Out	S-Video Out
Package and Support
Printed Manual	Yes
Driver CD	Yes
Performance Tool Software	OverDrive
Major Games	None
Major Software	Tenomichi 3D Edit
VR Glasses	No
DVD Player Software	ATI DVD Player
Video Recording Software	None

ATI decided to use a small PCB on their X1600XT. One of the trends that I find disturbing on today's video cards is the sheer size of the cards. A X1800XT video card or a X1900XTX video card requires dual-slot cooling and weighs a good pound and a half. The X1600XT card is scarcely longer than the normal PCI Express x16 slot and is a one slot solution.

Rear of Card

ATI decided to cool the card with a small cooling fan with 13 fins covering the VPU (Visual Processing Unit). The heat sink covers two memory chips and the majority of the rest of the card. The X1600XT has 4 64MB memory chips, providing the card with 256MB of DDR memory clocked at 1.4GHz.The X1600XT has a 128-bit memory bus providing the card with 22.4GB of memory bandwidth a second.

Fan

Memory chips

Rear of card

I/O

FanPower Connection

PCI Express connector

The X1600XT is a native PCI Express card. Early NVIDIA video cards required a Bridge chip, called the HSI (High Speed Interconnect) to work on the new interface introduced in 2004. All ATI PCI Express video cards required no bridge chip as the interface was designed to work with their cards. The PCI Express bus provides a maximum of 75W of power to the video card, and the X1600XT does not require an additional power connector like its bigger brother the X1900XTX does. ATI decided to outfit the X1600XT with two DVI-I ports and a TV-Out port on the Input/Output bracket. Flat panel monitors are the norm for every user today, with 17" LCD's being included in many system bundles. The X1600XT can support two LCD monitors, one CRT+ one LCD monitor, or two CRT monitors in dual monitor mode if you happen to have a setup like that.