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HIS X700 iCooler Dual DVI VIVO 256MB


Date
: 07/5/05 – 03:37:09 AM

Author
:

Category
: Video Cards

Page 1 : Index

Manufacturer
: HIS Digital

Price
: 145.00

HIS has been a fast growing name in the past year, however their popularity spread even further when they previewed their upcoming products (CrossFire), which appeared far superior to other companies, at Computex. In today's review, we won't be taking a look at CrossFire, as much as I would love too, instead we're going to focus in on a video card dubbed the X700 iCooler Dual DVI VIVO 256MB PCI-E.

This card has a number of features not available in the PowerColor Bravo X700, but the heart and soul of all X700's remain the same. How well the HIS X700 performs remains a mystery to be solved in the upcoming pages.

Page 2 : Package

The HIS package arrived overnight from FedEx in excellent condition. Packaged in its retail form, there's no wrapping over the entire box, though it would be prefered to see wrapping implemented in retail packages. Why you may ask? It prevents greedy little retailers from opening up the package for themselves and swiping something from the consumer. Believe me, it happens!

HIS doesn't actually list the full name of the HIS X700 iCooler Dual DVI VIVO 256MB PCI-E, instead they brand it as a Radeon X700, as it is, and shows all the features on the right edge of the box. This helps to identify the product and tell you what you should expect.

The back of the box lists some of the specifications, and we'll go into more detail with those on the next page, as well as with some more key features that HIS doesn't want you to miss. I'm surprised that the iCooler cooling technology, slightly below the middle of the box, got such a small section of the box. It's one of the key features noted in the model name.

The sides of the box aren't nearly as informative: a repeat of some of the features and the contents of the box.

With the package in hand, let's head on to the specifications and features before moving onto the contents of the box.

Page 3 : Specifications and Features

Here are the specifications taken from HIS:

This is what HIS has to say about their own product.

Let's keep rolling with the goods!

Page 4 : Package Contents

Opening up the box, we're presented with a very organized package. The two DVI to DSub converters on the left with the VIVO cables, CDs and manuals resting on top of the card in the middle and HDTV cables on the right.

A closer look at the contents, with the exception of the card.

The software bundled is quoted as the "Platinum Pack". Here is what HIS has to say:

Removing the anti-static protective box, we can see the card in all its glory.

It's unfortunate that the X700 iCooler does
not
come with any memory cooling; active or passive. Every iCooler model before this one came with four memory heatsinks, and each were capable of cooling two memory ICs.

The back of the card is pretty bland.

We'll see how the lack of memory cooling affects the memory overclocking.

A closer look at the memory modules and we see that they are made by Samsung.

These TSOP modules are rated for 500 MHz at 2.6V. Seeing as HIS runs these at 500 MHz, we'll have to see how high these puppies can run without any cooling. Here is the rest of the specifications on these modules:

If we pop off the heatsink by unclipping it from the base of the card, we can lift it off the die and reveal the serial number.

So far I haven't seen anything that is really breathtaking.

Looking at the cooler, it's mighty small. The fan is enclosed in the heatsink, having one blue LED for visual effect.

The base of the heatsink was sanded smooth but it hasn't been polished.

You will most certainly want some thermal paste to ensure proper contact.

The front of the card has two DVI outputs; a really nice feature for those with dual LCDs. More companies should adopt this as the standard design. Dead in the middle is the VIVO and HDTV output.

This feature is made available through the inclusion of the ATI Rage Theatre chip.

With the basics of the board covered, we're going to pop this kitten in and see how well she roars.

Page 5 : Installation & Overclocking

Installation of a video card is like installing any expansion card, you need to have the right tools and the right equipment. For our X700 iCooler, we'll need to make sure our motherboard supports PCI-E. If it doesn't, then you're going to run into some issues where you can't use this card!

With the X700, there's no need to provide additional power to the video card. It's all drawn straight from the motherboard.

Assuming you have the right slot, you'll want to remove your old video card and slide in this one and secure it to the frame.

You can see the blue LEDs in action with this cooler. Had I paired it up with my Cooler Master Hyper 6+, I would have had blue LEDs everywhere!

Unlike the HIS iTurbo series, no additional overclocking software is bundled with the iCooler. Instead, you get your basic drivers and software for Hydravision. In today's review, we'll be installing the ATi Catalyst 5.6 drivers and using ATiTool for overclocking. The process of overclocking was running the "max. memory" feature for 4 hrs followed by 4 hrs of "max. core". I then ran the "find artifact" option for 6 hrs before lowering the clock settings by 5 MHz for added stability. In the end, I ended up with a respectable, 440/630 (2*315). Not too shabby, a little disappointed on the core but I was surprised that I got over 100 MHz (effective) from the uncooled memory. With some heatsinks, I probably would of been able to pull a few extra MHz out of the memory. Not bad.

Page 6 : Testing Guidelines

For testing, we've set everything up on the following machine:

We'll be using a number of synthetic applications and games to judge the overall performance of the HIS X700 iCooler. We'll start everything off with the standard 3DMark 2003 and 3DMark 2005 benchmarks. To wrap off our synthetic runs, we've included Spec View Perf 8.1. Our gaming runs include Q3A, Far Cry, UT 2004, Halo, Doom III and Half-Life 2. This combination should give us a good range of performance over a majority of the graphic intensive games many of our readers will be using.

Benchmarks were run with Benchemall. Each application was run three times with a reboot between each complete run. The average score was tabulated and in graphed on the upcoming pages.

On to the next page to see how it all performs.

Page 7 : Synthetic Performance

First up is FutureMark 3DMark 2003 and 3DMark 2005.

If this first benchmark is any indication of how the HIS will perform against the PowerColor X700 Bravo, we should be in for an interesting ride. Both cards are performing well with the PowerColor taking a slight edge over the HIS X700 iCooler. Since no one really runs everything at stock, we've maxed out both cards for the overclocked runs, and here we see the HIS card pulling ahead with the much higher memory setting but slightly lower core clock frequency.

Jumping to our other synthetic benchmark, Spec View Perf 8.1, it's another toss-up. The results are essentially unnoticeable to most users and both HIS and PowerColor take turns edging each other out in various benchmarks.

It seems that both cards are performing quite well, with HIS taking a stronger lead during the overclocked runs. Lets see what the games say.

Page 8 : Gaming Performance

We'll start things off with Quake 3 Arena where HIS starts to take a lead over PowerColor. We're noticing a difference of approximately five to eight frames per second. Keep in mind that this is Quake 3 Arena and there's no chance you'll be getting these types of frame rates in any modern game.

One of the more modern and popular games has been Half-Life 2. This game relies on the GPU, but also tends to be very CPU limited.

We can see that PowerColor has a slight advantage over the HIS card at the higher resolutions. In all honesty, the difference between 55.25 (HIS OC) and 55.23 (PowerColor OC) is negligible.

Things look quite different in UT 2004 where HIS powers ahead of PowerColor by nearly 10 frames.

A similar story but to a lesser degree in Doom III.

More or less the same deal with Far Cry too.

We'll cap things off with Halo. We get some unexplainable results….the 1024*768 resolution performs better than the 800*600 resolution! These problems can be attributed to Gearbox.

Page 9 : Gaming Performance 8X AF

The same benchmarks were done with 8X Anisotropic Filtering.

Quake 3 Arena

Half-Life 2

UT 2004

Doom III

Far Cry

Halo

The with AF results tell a very similar story, and that's that the HIS outperforms the PowerColor card after it's overclocked. In the stock settings, HIS and PowerColor alternate between first and second place. Keep in mind that the HIS card is clocked 33 MHz higher than the PowerColor card in the memory department.

Page 10 : Gaming Performance 4X AA

We can't skip out on 4X Anti-Aliasing.

Quake 3 Arena

Half-Life 2

UT 2004

Doom III

Far Cry

Halo

Anti-Aliasing gives both cards a beating. While image quality comes at a cost, chances are many of you won't have this featured enable. At least not for cards near the lower end of the spectrum. With SLI in the market and ATi's CrossFire only a few steps behind, AA will be a reasonable option only for those who can afford it.

Page 11 : Gaming Performance 8XAF 4XAA

To wrap up all of our benchmarks, we throw in both 4X AA and 8X AF.

Quake 3 Arena

Half-Life 2

UT 2004

Doom III

Far Cry

Halo

More or less the same story as with AA. Nothing new to report on here if you've read the previous pages.

Page 12 : Conclusion

So what does ten pages of content mean? We've got a ton of pictures, graphs and numbers. Much like the PowerColor Bravo X700, this card was good, but not breathtaking. Power and performance simply can't come from an X700, no matter who you buy it from. What we have here is a card that's perfect if you're the occasional gamer, someone who loves their dual LCD displays or a home theater enthusiast who just needs their HTPC projected on to a HDTV.

Despite the lack of memory cooling, the X700 iCooler does not disappoint in added headroom. We were able to push its memory frequency an additional 100 MHz (effective) while maintaining 100% stability, though some additional cooling could possibly help in reaching a 150 MHz increase. The iCooler proves to be a simple cooler that looks good and performs as expected. While we were able to get an extra 40 MHz out of the core frequency, there's clearly potential for more. The true advantage of the iCooler is its silence. HIS can always be counted on for quiet cooling.

Advantages

Dual DVI
Quiet
Good memory overclocking
Large Software Bundle

Disadvantages

Average performance
Lack of memory coolers
Hard to find!

Overclockers Online would like to thank HIS for providing this sample for evaluation.