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Reviews Around The Web
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Choose Web Reviews from this Maker:
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Wednesday, October 18, 2006
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Today sees the launch of another SKU in ATI's desktop graphics line-up. Before you become overwhelmed with the possibility that it's R600 in the flesh, ready to roll, we have to report that Radeon X1950 Pro is debuting, becoming the new ATI midrange SKU.
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Tuesday, October 17, 2006
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While GeForce 7900 GS is still a great card with a fantastic price point, it seems that ATI has revealed its hand and has come up trumps with four aces. The only way that GeForce 7900 GS is going to compete with Radeon X1950 Pro is for it to receive a price reduction. It?ll be interesting to see how NVIDIA reacts to ATI?s new performance-mainstream star.
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Monday, October 16, 2006
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When contemplating my upcoming review of the X1650 PRO, I considered this card to perform exactly like the X1600 PRO tested earlier. They are essentially the same other than the slightly different core and its smaller manufacturing process. Now add in the fact that it is lacking one texture unit and I was also contemplating maybe even a slight decrease. But surprisingly, the card performed well beyond my expectations and proved to be a valuable mainstream alternative for your next purchase..
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Monday, October 2, 2006
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When Sapphire first contacted me to review this X1300XT, I'll have to admit I was not looking forward to it. All my previous budget videocard reviews have been predictably slow and boring to review. This card to say the least has been a surprise. Think of this lower end and cost effective option to be that little kid in your neighborhood that you have picked on only once, had your ass kicked and learned your lesson. That is what this card has done to me. I underestimated it.
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Tuesday, September 26, 2006
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Sapphire's PC-AM2RD580 is an incredibly solid motherboard that deserves recommendation for those who aren't worried by the lack of expansion options on both the I/O panel and on the board itself. There is still some work to do on the BIOS before the full potential of this board is unlocked; hopefully Sapphire will address these problems directly and we should see this board reach another level altogether on the overclocking front. If the high price isn't an issue and the lack of expansion options doesn't concern you, Sapphire's PURE CrossFire PC-AM2RD580 is well worth considering at the heart of a Socket AM2/CrossFire system.
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Friday, August 18, 2006
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Sapphire has been a popular brand for some time now, which is in part due to their innovative products. From the lowest card in the 3D graphics food chain, to the their flagship products, Sapphire has something for almost any price range. While they've produced X1600 cards before, their Ultimate series boasts a much improved heatsink design. Both the X1600 Pro and X1600 XT kept under 65oC during our testing (with an ambient temp of 28C), and the design is small enough that it should fit in most cases without much of a hassle. While there are certainly better buys out there from a price / performance perspective, like the $140 EVGA e-GeForce 7600 GT for example, if you're in the market for an X1600 Pro or X1600 XT, the Sapphire Ultimate series is a good choice.
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Wednesday, May 10, 2006
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The TOXIC cooler is an almost complete replacment for the standard one with only the retention bracket on the rear kept. The block comes preattached to the card and pre-plumbed to the all-in-one, fits-in-a-mainboard-slot reservoir, pump and heat exchanger combo. The use of the standard retention bracket on the rear means that you could retro fit the TOXIC hardware to your existing high-end X1K hardware, and indeed Sapphire have plans to do so. Nothing's been announced yet, though. Read on...
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Wednesday, April 26, 2006
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For just under £170 where you can find it in stock in the UK -- *cough* eBuyer *cough* -- the Radeon X1800 GTO is an interesting proposition. On the one hand it's a hot, noisy board that's matched by 7600 GT performance wise, dulling its appeal, while on the other hand it's able to offer higher overall IQ if that's what you covet. Depends how much you crave the best looking pixels since that's where ATI beat NVIDIA these days...
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Wednesday, April 5, 2006
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Sapphire's A9RD580 has pretty straightforward specifications. It'll support all single and dual core Socket 939 processors from the Athlon 64 to Athlon 64 FX. ATI's Radeon Xpress 3200 north bridge has been paired with the abysmal SB450 south bridge-quite the disappointment for those expecting to use external USB storage devices. While the SB450 is sufficient for most tasks it lacks updated features such as support for SATAII or Native Command Queuing. There's also the slightly lower USB performance that we've seen in the past on every SB450 equipped motherboard. ULi's ML1575 south bridge would've been a better solution than ATI's SB450-though NVIDIA is slowing shipments of the south bridge...
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Monday, March 20, 2006
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It is amazing what a little more than $100 can get you in terms of video card performance in today's market. While the ATI versus nVidia battle is nearing a pricing war the consumers are walking away with more bang for their buck. The particular X1600 Pro that we have here from Sapphire is the 256MB PCI- Express model. Sapphire offers three memory choices on the X1600 Pro, the 512MB DDRII, 256MB DDRII, and 128MB DDR III...
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Wednesday, March 15, 2006
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The Sapphire Ivory is an excellent player and with a £63.45 price tag, I would find it very hard not to recommend this to anyone. It's light weight, fully featured and has an excellent battery life. The only downside are its looks and slight interface complexity...
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Saturday, March 4, 2006
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The X1800 XT has significantly dropped in price over a very short period of time. Just a few months ago this card was priced at over £400, but now costs roughly £250~£270. This is quite a bit cheaper than the 7800 GTX. You can even grab an X1800 XT 256MB for around £230, too. I already know of many who are making the logical choice and are moving from 7800 GT's to X1800 XT's. Essentially what I'm saying is, the X1800XT is a very interesting card right now, much more interesting than when it was launched...
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Monday, January 30, 2006
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ATI has restored its credibility with the successful launch of its Radeon X1900 series recently. After looking at the slightly more affordable Radeon X1900 XT, we now take a look at the truly awesome Radeon X1900 XTX 512MB, a leader in both price and performance. Read on as we look at Sapphire's best...
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Tuesday, December 13, 2005
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For those in the know this is the best, worst kept secret in the graphics market right now. Since the price of X850 XTs has come down, it's not quite the bargain it once was, but it's still great value. If £150 is the kind of money you want to spend, this is a card worth hunting down...
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Friday, November 25, 2005
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The board may not perform as absolutely cutting edge as an nForce4-based motherboard, but it's certainly not slow. Unless you're some kind of serious benchmarker who is obsessed by the smallest of differences that we've highlighted, the performance differences will be invisible during normal system use. It may not look as clean as other motherboards, with its mass of unused solder points and big gap in the rear I/O panel, but the red and cream colour scheme is very unique and appealing. It also has everything there that you could need, too. At least, where the motherboard is concerned...
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