VisionTek XTasy Titanium Series Lineup


The VisionTek XTasy Titanium Series Lineup - Page 2

The VisionTek XTasy Titanium Series Line-up
Taking Graphics to the Next Level

By - Jeff Bouton
November 1, 2001

Quality of the VisionTek Ti Series
GeForce Lovin'

The Xtasy 5864 GeForce 2 Ti

The first item on our list is the the Xtasy 5864 GeForce 2 Ti.  This card falls between a GeForce 2 Pro and and Ultra on the GeForce 2 evolutionary chart.  Boasting clock speeds of 250MHz. core and 400MHz. of DDR Memory, the GF2 Ti is well equipped for quality gaming and should make for an excellent entry level card.  Let us not forget that this card has TV-Out capability as well, making it an excellent value.  If a user is looking for quality gaming on a low budget, the Xtasy 5864 should do the trick.

     

As we can see with all of their cards, the Xtasy models are all based on the standard reference design for their class.  What VisionTek has done is add a high efficiency cooling solution as well as RAM sinks, giving their cards a little extra help in keeping things cool.  Now boys and girls, we all know that these little extras can only mean one thing...these cards are built with overclocking in mind! 

The Xtasy 6564 GeForce 3 Ti200

The next video card in the line up is the Xtasy 6564 GeForce 3 Ti200.  The Ti200 is an mid-level GeForce 3 card designed for high-performance at an affordable price.  With a core speed of 175MHz. and 400MHz. of DDR memory, the 6564 should provide adequate horsepower to run most of today's DirectX and OpenGL intensive games.  This model comes equipped with an Analog monitor connection and TV-OUT.

     

Essentially, the Ti200 uses the identical GPU as the Ti500, only the timings have been reduced by 65MHz. Later, we'll take a ride down overclocking lane to see how close we can get to Ti500 performance.

The Xtasy 6964 GeForce 3 Ti500

Saving the best for last, the final card in the line up is the Xtasy 6964 GeForce 3 Ti500.  This is the top dog in the Titanium line with a 240MHz. GPU and 500MHz. of DDR RAM.  The 6964 is the Holy Grail of the Xtasy Series with the muscle to insure a high-quality, high-performance gaming experience.

     

Although the the Ti500 may be the priciest card in the line up, it comes equipped with the most amenities.  Like the 5864 and the 6564, the Xtasy 6964 comes with an Analog monitor connection and TV-OUT, but has added suport for digital flat-panel display capability.

Overall, the new Xtasy line-up from VisionTek is pretty impressive with quality features, added cooling solutions and additional software, but we did find one item that was less than impressive.  Before we got going with the long line of benchmarks we had in store for these cards, we wanted to see what was underneath the heat sink to assure good heat transfer.

What we found, unfortunately, is an ordinary thermal pad.  It would have been nice to see VisionTek continue with the qualities we've seen so far by using a decent thermal compound, whether it be paste or even a good epoxy...anything but a thermal pad!  After cleaning the GPU and heat sink, we applied some Artic Silver II Thermal Paste to the GPU and reaffixed the heat sink.  With the RAM sinks, there wasn't much of a choice in the matter and they appear to be adhered with thermal epoxy.

Now we'll move on to the drivers to see what make everything all work in harmony...

Installation and Drivers of the VisionTek Ti Series
Better With Age.
 
The one thing that really impressed me was that VisionTek actually includes drivers that are current!  It is an unusual sight when a video card that has been recently released doesn't include drivers that are several months old.  Fortunately for us, the VisionTek comes with the 21.85 Detonator 4 drivers to maximize each card's potential.  Ever since the release of the 21.81's, all GeForce 2 and GeForce 3 cards have shown significant performance gains.

         

    

Some of the more notable changes we've seen since the release of the 21.81's is the addition of several new features.  The first feature that is most obvious is the Desktop Utilities section that allows for multiple virtual desktops, particularly useful for people like me who can have 6 different programs running at any given time.  The next less obvious feature is the "Anisotropic" setting under "OpenGL".  Anisotropic filtering is another means of filtering textures for better image quality.  The major difference is the quality of image that can be obtained with minimal drag on gaming performance.

 

The H.H. Test Rig & DirectX 8 Benchmarks

 

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