14 DAY TRIAL // Sapphire Technology is now shipping its latest series of graphics accelerators based on a new architecture delivering, as the company claims, the most sophisticated yet affordable graphics processing solutions in the midrange market.
Based on a new architecture, the new X1600 series has been designed to deliver high efficiency, high performance in Shader Model 3.0 and enhanced image quality, state company officials. The architecture also supports AvivoTM, delivering high fidelity images and video playback to the latest High Definition (HD) video standards. This series is fully compatible with and ready for use in pairs in Crossfire dual graphics systems.
The Sapphire RADEON X1600XT delivers high graphics performance in its class. Equipped with 256MB of GDDR3 memory, this model features clock speeds of 590MHz for the core and 690MHz for the memory. The RADEON X1600Pro features the same exciting new architecture, operating at the slightly reduced clock speeds of 500MHz for the core and 400MHz for the memory, with a choice of memory configurations aimed at delivering a range of price/performance options.
Retail versions of these new Sapphire graphics accelerators will ship with multimedia software including PowerDVD and Sapphire Select, a new way to deliver a choice of games to the end user. Each card is bundled with a DVD containing a selection of top games from several leading software houses. The end customer can play each of the games for a one hour trial before choosing which titles he or she wants to keep and using the activation codes for those titles.
Also, recently, Palit Microsystems have announced their new ATI based graphics card, Radeon X1600PRO series which are positioned as the performance level of ATI's X1K family graphics processors. Palit Radeon X1K series graphics cards claims to raise the performance bar and broaden high-end offerings for gamers.