Page 2 - A Closer Look
The PowerColor X1550 is quite a small card in relative. At the top is the Asus X1950 Pro compared to the PowerColor X1550 (Bottom). The PowerColor X1550 is much shorter, and in terms of height, it is about 3-quarters as high as a standard graphics card. I put a ruler in the photo as a reference.
A shot of the reverse side of the PowerColor X1550 graphics card. A total of 3 outputs is present at the back; including DVI, S-Video, and VGA. The VGA output is implemented by a ribbon extending from the main PCB to the bracket, and a S-Video to Composite video out adapter is included for users with input sources that require composite video in. Too bad dual DVI is not available.
The small aluminum heatsink with a 40mm fan is attached by two plastic clips. The mounting hole is significantly larger than old cards with similar heatsink mounting implementation such as the Radeon 9600 and 9800 series from back then, which means it is very easy to remove without much effort.
The heatsink covers only the core, and not any memory chips. A thermal pad is used; not thermal paste.
Removing the heatsink reveals the core of the graphics card. Utilizing an ATI RV515 core, it basically means it's the same chip remanufactured from the Radeon X1300 and reimplemented (Err, let's say 'optimized') to become to Radeon X1550. The pipeline architecture sports 4 ROPs, 4 pixel pipelines, 4 Pixel Shader units, 4 TexUnits, 4 Z-samples/clock, as well as 1 full and 1 mini ALU unit. As for all X1000 series graphics card from ATI, Shader Model 3.0 is supported.
2 memory chips are located on each side of PowerColor's X1550 for a total of 4 units at 256MB. The chips are manufactured by Qimonda; a company owned by memory giant Infineon. It is rated at 400MHz (800MHz effective), 1.8V & 2.0V according to the manufacturer's information page.
Page Index
1. Introduction, Specifications, Bundle
2. A Closer Look
3. Test System, Benchmark: Half Life 2: Lost Coast
4. Benchmark: FEAR
5. Benchmark: Prey
6. Benchmark: Quake 4
7. Benchmark: CS:S cs_militia
8. Benchmark: 3DMark06
9. Power Usage, Overclocking
10. Noise Factor and Conclusion
