by Rob Williams on March 13, 2006 in Graphics & Displays
Are you building a new PC or HTPC and are looking for a great budget card? PowerColor may have exactly what you need, with their X1600XT 256MB. It offers great gaming performance for a budget card, and includes the AVIVO technology to make your video experience even better.
Like Serious Sam II, Quake IV doesn’t have mind blowing gameplay, but it packs a serious punch in the graphics department. Based on the Doom III engine, the game takes you through countless levels of demon blasting. Even though I didn’t personally enjoy the game that much, I appreciate the level design and monster graphics.
The level I played through here is convoy1, which begins you outside of a large ship. You follow your path to reach a few teammates on a small train, and you get on your way to facilities five minutes ahead. As you progress, you only make one stop to do some baddie bashing, but there is little time during this level that things are not going on. Planes flying by and crashing into walls, missiles flying through the air, and my constant firing of the Dark Matter gun… it’s great!
Just like all the previous games, I ran Quake IV using 4x AA. The High detail setting was used.
The gap between the two cards is evident here once again. The 6800GT already has an advantage for being able to handle OpenGL so well, but the X1600XT still holds its own. 1024*768 is the preferred resolution on this card though, because 1280 stuttered at some parts and would be worsened in some parts of the game.
Ok, now that we put this card through 5 first person shooters, it’s time to try something different. For our final game, let’s see how well the card can handle Age of Empires III.