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Quality
of
the VisionTek Ti Series |
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GeForce Lovin' |
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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...
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Installation and
Drivers of the VisionTek Ti Series |
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Better With Age. |
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