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PowerColor X1550 512MB


Date
: 02/14/07 – 03:10:29 AM

Author
:

Category
: Video Cards

Page 1 : Index

Manufacturer:
PowerColor Computer Inc.

Price:
$99.99USD (Newegg.com) / $132CND (NCIX.com

Recent operating system advances have forced a few changes to current hardware and the discrete graphic processing segment has not gone un-touched by this. PowerColor Computer Incorporated has been a major partner producing ATI graphics solutions since 1999 under the PowerColor brand. They have a number of active products on the market right now and have had to do a couple of product line refreshes in order to keep up with the advancements in operating systems.

As I mentioned, the recent release of Microsoft Windows Vista has left some rather recent hardware releases almost obsolete overnight. Not so much in the sense that they can't do the job or don't serve a purpose anymore, but they no longer meet requirements to be certified ready for newest operating system on the market. This has forced some slight adjustments in certain ATI chipsets and one of those left out in the dark is the ATI X1300.

Because of a lack of Vista ready accreditation, the X1300 has been replaced by the chipset on the video card I will be looking at today, the X1550. PowerColor has been extremely quick to update and release the X1550 based cards in order to be Vista ready at time of Windows Vista release. The PowerColor X1550 512MB DDRII video card I have in my position sports the necessary changes to be fully Vista certified minting all the features of the previous X1300 offerings.

Page 2 : Package

I have had a few PowerColor packages show up in the mail over the last year so I am fully aware of what to expect.

This package looked very familiar and rightfully so. It is basically the same package as the X1300 Pro that I reviewed over a year ago, just with different graphics for the model designation. Either way, PowerColor packages usually come draped in images of some sort of mythical or futuristic female with proportions that would make Barbie jealous…that is certainly the case once again.

The bottom left hand corner is the location for the chipset branding letting us know what video card is inside and PowerColor makes it known that the unit inside utilizes 512MB of GDDR2 memory. The Extreme Edition sticker just above it intrigues me because there is no mention of "Extreme Edition" on the PowerColor web site.

The last of the graphics on the box front are the ATI badge and of course, the Certified for Windows Vista badge so proudly displayed in the upper right hand corner.

The ends of the package have quite a few useful lines of information including a list of exactly what is in the package and the system requirements needed to run the X1550 inside. The only thing of note is that the power supply required isn't very much as this video card isn't exactly a power beast.

The sides of the package don't have much to reveal except a bit of information about the connections and the display support. It says that a 15 Pin D-sub output is on this card but it should actually be dual DVI-I connectors.

The back of the package doesn't have a lot to offer but does provide the basic features of the video card in six different languages for the international crowd.

A quick peak inside the box shows us the card protected in bubble wrap and the rest of the contents along side. We will now go over all of the specifications and features of the X1550 on the next page.

Page 3 : Specifications & Features

I will start off by taking a look at the specifications for the PowerColor X1550 first, and then I will go a bit more into the features of the X1550 chipset. Here is the specifications list from the PowerColor web site:

We can see that the core speed is a lofty 600MHz and the 512MB of DDRII memory are clocked at DDR800 running on a 128-bit interface. Here is a look at the actual core of the video card:

The RV515 core is not the first time I have seen this die. The X1550 is basically an updated version of the X1300 that replaced the latter in order to meet the Vista ready requirements. Consider the X1550 a simple product refresh for that purpose and the performance should be very much the same.

The memory used on this PowerColor X1550 isn't really high-end being only DDRII clocked at 400MHz, but there is a lot of it. The 512MB of onboard memory appears to be Qimonda which is actually manufactured by Infineon with a part number HYB18T512161BF-25. If you are interested in in-depth specifications of this memory, you can find that information here in the form of a PDF from the Infineon web site.

The X1550 chipset is loaded with standard ATI features that include everything from full support of Microsoft® DirectX® 9.0 Shader Model 3.0, Avivo Video and Display abilities, and of course, CrossFire. You can find a complete list of features present in the ATI X1550 chipset at the ATI web site. Here is a brief quote from the ATI web site describing the X1550 chipset:

We will now take a complete look at the card itself and then onto some installation photos followed by benchmarking.

Page 4 : Package Contents

We just saw the two most important components that make up the X1550, the GPU core and the memory. Next up is going to be a look at the rest of the card and the contents that were in the package.

I have pulled the hardware from the package and spread it out here for us all to see. Included with the PowerColor X1550 is a Quick Installation Guide and driver CD. We also have received a DVI to VGA connector and adapter to convert the S-Video connection to composite video and that is about it. The accessory package isn't that big and for a budget card like the X1550, and I wouldn't expect it to be.

The card itself is a fairly simple design with the small heatsink and fan that cools the GPU core. The memory has no active cooling or even heatsinks because it isn't really going to need it. There are only a couple capacitors and MOSFETs which indicate a very small power draw, hence the requirement on the package for only a 300W power supply.

The Capacitors at the end of the card are TK and I believe a Rubycon KZG although it isn't clearly marked. As I have already said, this video card is not a power thirsty or high-end one so the components on this card are going to have to be top notch in order to survive a long time.

This is the only other area of the card with MOSFETs and capacitors but again, very few of them. We also see a single VRM tucked into the middle of this area. I believe this is where the power for the GPU core is provided from. In this area there is also a jumper to switch between NTSC and PAL video formats and the two wire fan header for the heatsink.

Smack dab in the middle of this card I found this silk-screened onto the PCB. Clearly this PCB can be designated for more than just the X1550 chipset as we see marked here in the R51B box. The R53B is the chipset used on the X1600 Pro I believe and this PCB does look very similar to the PowerColor X1600 Pro that I looked at a while ago. We also see that the PCB is marked as having 512MB of memory with the options for either 128MB or 256MB as well.

The output connections on this PowerColor X1550 are very straight forward with a pair of DVI connectors and the S-Video output. Normally on budget cards we see a single DVI and a 15 Pin D-Sub connector for standard VGA output. It is nice to see that PowerColor is offering dual DVI connections on this basic card so those looking to run dual LCDs will be able to have them both on DVI connections for the best picture quality.

The last photo is of the backside but there isn't much to look at. Obviously there are four more memory ICs that provide the second half of the 512MB of memory. Aside from the UPC and serial number stickers, there isn't much else to see back here. The last section we will get to before some benchmarks is going to be the installation section. I don't really expect any problems seeing as this video card is about as small as they will come.

Page 5 : Installation & Overclocking

The installation of this video card isn't going to be like a major surgery requiring exact attention to detail and a set of steady hands. It will be no more difficult than installing a memory module in my estimation.

I started off by pulling the motherboard into the photo booth for a couple of quick images of the card installed in the top PCI-E slot on my DFI motherboard. The single slot design barely interferes with even the top X1 PCI-E slot and if need be, you could probably still use that slot.

With such a small heatsink and footprint on this card, the backside of the PCB doesn't even come close to interfering with the Corsair memory I have installed here. The heatsink on the GPU is simply attached using plastic push-pins that barely clear the PCI-E slot itself and can hardly be seen. Obviously this card is going to fit in most, if not all, setups that can fit full size expansion cards.

Here is one more photo of the video card installed in the testing setup and you can see that the length of the card is nothing to worry about either. The rear of the card doesn't even stick out over top of the chipset heatsinks providing plenty of clearance.

Now I know I have mentioned a number of times throughout this review that this is a budget card that is meant to serve a purpose for the average gamer that wants a lot of multi-media capabilities. Despite that as being the primary role for this PowerColor X1550, I am still going to overclock it and see what it can do.

I wasn't really expecting a lot and that is about what I got out of the card. I was able to only raise the GPU core from 600MHz to
620MHz
and the memory from 400MHz to
440MHz
. Anything higher on either core or memory would result in erratic behavior in 3Dmark and gaming. Here I have shown the stability of this modest overclock through 3 full hours of scanning for artifacts in ATITool. Overclocking shouldn't even factor into your decision making process when buying a video card of this nature but I thought I would show the results anyway.

Page 6 : Test Setup

The benchmarks will all be run on my standard AM2 setup which consists of the following hardware:

I have used this configuration for a number of video card reviews so there are a handful of cards that I will be comparing the performance of the PowerColor X1550 to. The one thing to keep in mind when looking at the results on the upcoming pages, is that the X1550 is pretty much out-classed with the other cards in this list. It is not intended to compete with them in the gaming world but certainly is capable of gaming at lower resolutions. Here is a photo of the running system as the benchmarks were being completed:

It is normally here that I will test and discuss the thermal capabilities of the provided heatsink and fan by doing some load testing while monitoring the GPU temperature but as we saw in the Overclocking section, there was no temperature readout that ATITool could pick up. Riva Tuner also had no temperature reading to draw from so it is clear that either this card doesn't have a sensor in it, or the drivers I tried weren't able to make the sensor function. Being a brand new chipset I wouldn't rule the second scenario out but for now, there will be no thermal testing of this PowerColor X1550.

I will however comment on one thing. I used this video card with my Dell E228WFP LCD monitor which has a native resolution of 1680×1050. When using the provided drivers with the video card, I was un-able to get the X1550 to display this resolution properly. I then tried the newest drivers from the ATI web site and although I did manage to get the proper resolution to show up and set, sometimes after a reboot, I would have to fiddle with the Catalyst Control Center software to allow me to set the 1680×1050 resolution again. It may have just been a driver issue with the monitor and this card but something I thought you the reader would want to be aware of.

Page 7 : Synthetic Performance

Here is a quote taken from previous reviews outlining my benchmarking process for the following pages of results:

We start off with a look at how the card performs in the 3DMark series of benchmarks from FutureMark.

3DMark 01 se / 03 / 05 / 06

The numbers may look rather lop-sided but in reality, the X1550 shouldn't be considered fair competition to the other cards benchmarked on this system. I am not so much concerned with the comparison of the cards but rather just the numbers that the PowerColor X1550 puts up. The X1550 results on the 3DMark series are basically right where the X1300 results would be as well. It is clear that the X1550 is very much the same type of card as the X1300.

SpecView Performance

SpecView Performance results show similarities between the X1550 performance and X1650 performance in some programs such as Catia. In others, however, the stronger X1650 Pro does show a decided advantage like 3D Studio max. If you are in the market for a video card for one of these programs, you will definitely want to do your research because more expensive is not always better.

Page 8 : Battlefield 2 Benchmarks

I know I said that my last video card review was going to be the end of benchmarking of Battlefield 2 and I would switch to Battlefield 2142, but I guess I lied. I still haven't ironed out the benchmarking wrinkles and had time to get all of my old video cards benchmarked on Battlefield 2142 so I will continue to use Battlefield 2 until that time. As always, the method I use for benchmarking BF2 is from Guru3D. Here are the results:

Clearly the PowerColor X1550 didn't handle Battlefield 2 that well with all the details turned up to the maximum. Even at 1024×768, the card struggled to maintain an average 40 FPS throughout the custom time demo that I recorded and use for benching. Turning down some of the details in the game will significantly bring that FPS up to the point of being playable at 1024×768 and maybe even 1280×1024 with the right adjustments.

Page 9 : Doom III Benchmarks

Doom III is another "oldie but a goodie" as they say. With the details turned up to maximum, Doom III still has the ability to push some of the higher-end video cards out there, especially ATI based cards. Right off the bat, ATI based cards are hard pressed to run Doom III as it is optimized for video cards that handle OpenGL better than DirectX which means NVIDIA based cards are at the advantage.

Clearly the higher resolutions are too much for this video card but it was obvious that the X1550 is only going to be able to handle newer games at resolutions of 1024×768 or 800×600. Much like Battlefield 2, Doom III could be made to run well at 1024×768 with some slight adjustments of detail levels. Even at the maximum detail settings, the X1550 almost pulls off a 40FPS average.

Page 10 : FarCry Benchmarks

FarCry is a little bit less demanding on video cards when compared to the two games we have already looked at. We should see much higher frame rates from the X1550 and I fully expect the game to be very playable at 1024×768 even with the detail levels maxed as they are for benchmarking.

I was definitely correct about the X1550 being more than capable of playing FarCry at 1024×768 with the detail levels set to maximum. Heck, even with Anti-Aliasing and Anisotropic Filtering turned on, the X1550 was able to maintain a 40FPS average throughout the time demo. Personally, I would adjust the detail levels slightly and play FarCry at 1280×1024. I played around briefly with the setting levels at 1280×1024 and found it to be quite playable on the levels I tested and it looked really good.

Page 11 : Half-Life 2 Benchmarks

Of all the games that we looked at today, Half-Life 2 is the easiest on the GPU. The Steam engine that runs Half-Life 2 is more intensive on the system than the GPU. That doesn't mean that you don't need any video card power to run it, it just means that less video card will go a lot farther in powering the game through higher resolutions. Let's see how the PowerColor X1550 made out.

I find that Half-Life 2 needs more than the standard 40FPS average in order to be completely playable but even at 1280×1024, the X1550 maintained a solid 79FPS on my custom demo of the Coast level. Playing with detail levels would even further increase that FPS average. 1600×1200 might be a little bit out of reach for this card but 1280×1024 is definitely do-able for the PowerColor X1550 in Half-Life 2.

Page 12 : F.E.A.R. Benchmarks

F.E.A.R. might be asking a bit much out of this video card, even if I was doing testing at 800×600. The complex shaders used in F.E.A.R. make it hard on pretty much every video card out there at high resolutions and even at lower resolutions, it cripples all but the strongest of GPUs.

As I expected, F.E.A.R. at maximum detail levels is a little too hefty of a task for the X1550. I did the benchmarks with everything turned to maximum except that soft shadows was turned off. This leaves plenty of options to be turned down that could bring the average FPS up to a playable level at 1024×768, but it appears that 800×600 is more of a realistic resolution for F.E.A.R. on this video card.

Page 13 : Conclusion

PowerColor has always produced quality video cards at good prices with all the features that the chipset they are based upon offers. The PowerColor X1550 512MB is no different in that regard. Despite being more or an entry level, budget orientated solution, the X1550 512MB comes with dual DVI connectors which is so very important with the popularity of the LCDs and the fact that so many people run dual LCDs now. It is nice to see dual DVI connections instead of a 1 and 1 type setup we might see on other X1550 brands.

The X1550 512MB from PowerColor did everything I expected it to do and didn't let me down anywhere. Aside from the slight issue with setting the resolution on my Dell wide screen monitor, the experience with this video card was flawless. The small fan didn't seem to make a lot of noise and it, combined with the small footprint of this video card, will allow for easy installation in any system.

The feature set of the ATI X1550 chipset is represented well in this PowerColor offering providing all that ATI intended for the consumer from AVIVO video out enhancements to the Catalyst Control Center software that really lets the user control the abilities of the video card. If you are looking for a video card for a multi-media system then the PowerColor X1550 512MB is a great budget conscious option to look into. It even handled gaming better than I expected so if your looking for a budget gaming solution, don't cross this video card off your list just yet.

Advantages

Feature packed ATI X1550 chipset in a budget package
Dual DVI connectors is not commonly found on budget solutions
Handled gaming at lower resolutions
Small footprint for easy installation in any system

Disadvantages

I was a bit surprised at the price of this card online

Overclockers Online would like to thank PowerColor for the review opportunity.