PowerColor X1600 XT & X1300

Introduction

*Important update*

It has come to my attention that Tul does not carry a regular X1300 PRO. Instead it has its Bravo model with custom cooling device. The PRO model with golden heatsink you see on their product page does NOT exist.

What Tul is doing is they are providing customers with an OC BIOS. When you flash your regular PowerColor X1300 (400 MHz / 250 MHz) it will be clocked to PRO speeds (600 MHz / 400 MHz). This was exactly the card I have gotten -- a non PRO flashed with PRO clockrates. What does that mean? Both PRO and non PRO models are equipped with the same type of memory, capable of 800 MHz DDR speeds. does NOT exist. Since I wasn't aware of this fact, I assumed it was a PRO model based on the specifications on their website. The card I have received is indeed a retail product.

PowerColor X1300 to X1300 PRO BIOS mod (rar, 120KB)

X1300's (R51B-ND3) default clocks are 450 MHz / 250 MHz. After the flash they will match X1300 PRO speeds: 600 MHz / 400 MHz!

Instructions (use the included ATIFLASH utility):

Backup your BIOS: atiflash -s 0 <BIOS name>.sb -f (ex. backup.sb)
Reflash BIOS: atiflash -p 0 x1300oc.sb -f (x1300oc.sb is the new BIOS)

Reboot and enjoy your brand new PowerColor X1300 PRO :)

About a month ago I've reviewed a flagship card from PowerColor: X1800 XT with all the bells and whistles; that is Avivo, new memory bus and SM 3.0 support. Based on the new R520 core, ATI tried to climb up and reach G70 performance. In some cases it succeeded, but whether you like it or not it's losing the battle in a lot of scenarios. Comparing it to last year's X800 generation it does sport significant performance boost over the old high-end card however.

Today I have less expensive parts to test for both middle and low-end sectors of the market. They are PowerColor X1600 XT and X1300. The first card is based around RV530 core. There should be a lot of different SKUs mainly because ATI allows for handful of configurations ie. memory size and type. As far as memory bus is concerned, it features two 128-bit rings which is essentially a 128-bit architecture (ATI calls it 256, but that's obviously wrong). It comes with 4 pixel pipelines, 12 pixel shader units and 5 vertex pipelines -- not a standard 1:1 configuration. The X1300 sample is equipped with 4 pixel pipelines, 4 pixel shader units and 2 vertex pipelines (1 to 1 ratio, just like R520). As with X1600 XT it's also a 128-bit offering and should be available in many different configurations.


Should you require more detailed information on X1K please revisit our article: The X1000 series - ATI goes SM3.0


PowerColor is a consumer brand focused on providing cutting-edge graphics card products to retail customers. Our goal for the Tul brand is to be the industry's number one provider of technology product solutions. Our goal for the PowerColor brand is to be the world's number one brand of graphics cards. PowerColor is in effect owned by Tul Corporation, however the brands are operated independently of each other.