Yes, you read that right. A video card that uses the classic PCI bus: all 33Mhz of it. VisionTek has offered a few unique options with the ATI graphics chips they use. They are the only manufacturer of a Radeon X1600XT with an AGP flavor, and now this X1300 with PCI interface.
The Radeon X1300 was designed to be a PCI Express graphics chip, and VisionTek has ported it to the classic PCI bus. I wondered why anyone would even bother doing this, since there are already tons of AGP and PCI-Express versions of the X1300 with both 256 and 512MB of memory. There are a few reasons why a classic PCI card might be handy, especially for compact Home Theater PC, which would benefit from a low profile video card.
A lot of modders don’t go out and spend a fortune on a top-of-the-line Home Theater PC. They usually construct one out of spare parts they have lying around from previous upgrades, and they may have an old motherboard that doesn’t feature AGP (or have blown their AGP bus, as I have). Some of the old compact Shuttle systems only feature PCI expansion slots, so a PCI version of the X1300 may be just what the doctor ordered.
There might be some demand for a PCI video card with a modern chip, but it appears to be a niche item for those who still want to get the last once of usefulness from antequated hardware. VisionTek stated upon releasing this new graphics card that “Not all computers even nowadays feature PCI Express or AGP slots for graphics cards, however, virtually all PCs feature PCI slots.” Because of this, this X1300 is universally compatible with every motherboard made within the past 15 years.
In its most basic terms, you could quite easily consider the RV515 core that powers the Radeon X1300 as simply quarter of an R520, due to its featuring a single quad of pixel pipelines complemented by four texturing units (compared to four quads of pipelines and sixteen texture processors on R520) and two vertex shaders (against eight in R520). Each pixel shader unit within the core has the same ALU configuration and abilities as the rest of the Radeon X1000 series. The Ultra Threaded Despatch Processor used by R520 is also present in RV515, but again its abilities are a quarter those of its big brother, with it being capable of processing 128 threads here compared to 512 in R520 and R580.
One area where RV515 does miss out over its more powerful siblings is with regard to the memory controller – The ring bus controller used in RV530/RV535, R520 and R580 is absent here (no doubt due to the massive amount of die space it occupies), replaced by a more traditional crossbar controller which is 64-bits in width in this instance.
In terms of feature support the X1300 is largely identical to the rest of the Radeon X1000 series, from Shader Model 3.0 capabilities down to the ability to perform floating-point blending (with multi-sample anti-aliasing no less!). The X1300 also features the same anti-aliasing and anisotropic filtering abilities of the rest of the family, including the rotationally invariant ‘High Quality’ mode. Indeed, compared to R520, RV515 actually holds one feature over it – Fetch 4, present on all ATI’s current product line-up aside from the Radeon X1800, makes an appearance here too. If you want to read more about the functionality of Fetch 4, take a look at our Radeon X1900 XTX review. The Radeon X1000 series architecture itself is covered in more detail here.
VisionTek Radeon X1300 PCI Specifications
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High Definition 3D Performance & Image Quality to Your PC
Step-up to serious 3D performance and high-definition image quality with the VisionTek X1300 series of graphics cards. For enhanced graphics, the X1300 combines a radically new and efficient ultra-threaded core architecture with ATI’s revolutionary Avivo™ video and display technology. The VisionTek X1300 delivers exceptional visual performance for all types of PC entertainment and productivity. The VisionTek X1300 can integrate your digital home by connecting your PC and consumer electronic devices together.
Advanced Multi-Display Capability
VisionTek’s Radeon X1300 PCI card brings advanced multi-display capabilities to your personal computer. Easily connect and run two (2) displays simultaneously using a single X1300 card, from VisionTek. Achieve your maximum productivity by running two (2) separate applications, when utilizing side-by-side dual monitors on your desk top. Add two (2) VisionTek X1300 PCI cards to your PC and manage four (4) or more monitors at once.
Brilliant New Avivo Video and Display Technology
With ATI’s Avivo™ technology the X1300 connects to home entertainment devices and allows you to view your digital media and play games with vibrant colors, ultra sharp images, true-to-life image reproduction, and the smoothest video playback ever offered by ATI.
A New Era of 3D Gaming
Enjoy a smooth gaming experience and control texture-rich games with advanced 3D features including: a 90-nanometer process GPU, a new ultra-threaded 3D processing architecture, an advanced memory controller and 256MB DDR2 RAM.
Opening Doors to Visual Realism and True-to-life image Graphic Animation With industry leading 90-nanometer process technology and ultra-threaded shader core the X1300 is optimized for Shader Model 3.0 to deliver new high dynamic range visual effects, enhanced adaptive anti-aliasing realism and lightening fast performance.
In addition to a change in this card’s architecture, the chip also deviates from its original clock speed. The average Radeon X1300 board comes with both clock and memory cores clocked at 400MHz, but they are boosted significatnly on this PCI version. The core is clocked at 450MHz and the 256MB of DDR2 memory is clocked at 533MHz. This is a rather amazing feat considering that the card gets all power from the PCI bus (3.3 volts).
The board’s VGA port is attached using a ribbon cable, so it can be easily removed for use in half-height cases. The card’s single-slot active heatsink is made of aluminum and is typical of other X1300 boards, covering the chip. The VIVO port (S-video) is sandwiched between the VGA and dual-link DVI port.
There are four memory modules on the back of the card, as well as the PCI to PCI-Express bridge chip. This bridge chip was manufactured by PLX technology (part number PEZ8111), and is equipped with a single PCI-Express lane, making this card a PCIe 1x equivilant device. The maximum peak bandwidth for the entire PCI bus is 133MB a second, which is well within PCIe’s 1x limitations. This chip does not get very hot, so no heatsinks are required for this seperate chip. There are four DDR2 modules from Hynix, rated at 533MHz.
Test Bed
- Intel E6600 Core2 Duo
- 2048MB Crucial DDR2 PC2-5400
- Asus P5W Deluxe Motherboard
- Western Digital 300GB HDD (SATA2)
- Gigabyte Radeon X1300 Pro (256MB) PCIe
- VisionTek Radeon X1300 (256MB) PCI
- Windows Vista Ultimate
3dMark 06
F.E.A.R.
Quake 4 (Low) No FSAA
Unreal Tournament 2004
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The tests show that the card is less than half as slow as the native PCI-Express version of the X1300 in every gaming benchmark. Even though the margin between these two boards was great, the VisionTek still managed playable framerates at 1024×768 resolution. To our surprise, even F.E.A.R. was quite playable with this card, with an average 40 fps at 1024 resolution (although it did get choppy during some intense moments). The regular X1300 managed nearly double the framerate, and experienced no slowdowns.
In the Home Theater setting, the X1300 PCI could not playback High Definition video without frame skips, and wouldn’t play at all in Media Center (I would get a generic “an error has occurred” message). I also had problems playing DVDs, and tracked down that the culprit was that the S-video port was enabled, which alerted Vista’s copy protection. Disabling the S-video output allowed for good DVD playback.
On average, the cheap ($60) X1300 PCIe card delivered over 100% more performance at half the price.
The VisionTek X1300 PCI is a reminder as to why the industry needs to move beyond the PCI bus. Although there is a powerful and solid graphics chip behind it, this card simply fails to make any impact on games or video. The PCI bus is just not fast enough to transfer all the texture and vertex information for games.
Playback of standard definition video is smooth, but at a cost of higher processor use. High definition playback just isn’t possible, even with a processor capable of handling it: 720p is right out, so don’t even think about playing 1080p.
There are a few advantages that the VisionTek X1300 PCI has over older PCI cards, like dual-link DVI and HDTV 1080p support. These features alone make this card perfect for a home theater PC, depending on your needs.
The VisionTek X1300 PCI is definately an innovative product, and probably the most powerful PCI-based video card ever made. This would be a killer video card for anyone building a retro rig, but for modern tasks this card is a little hard to swallow, especially considering the $130 price tag. If you need to upgrade your video card and have a motherboard with AGP or PCIe, then you save money by purchasing a standard X1300 or X1600 video card (which should cost half of the X1300 PCI). For the cost of this card you could buy a more capable motherboard; one that even has decend onboard graphics.
The VisionTek Radeon X1300 PCI video card is a niche item for specific purposes. The majority of users will pass on it, but it is a godsend for those that need it.
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