X700 Architecture Overview
As previously mentioned, the X700 graphics chips are based on the same architecture as the X800s and are thus identical in terms of features supported and functionality as that of the faster parts. While the X700 graphics chips have half the pixel pipelines they do still offer two shader and one texture unit per pipe, the same as the X800s. The following is a brief specifications list for the X700s:
- Smartshader HD – support for DirectX 9.0 pixel and vertex shaders, multiple render targets (MRTs), and OpenGL support for complete feature set via extensions.
- Smoothvision HD – support for 2x/4x/6x programmable and temporal multisampling anti-aliasing modes, adaptive anisotropic filtering modes, and lossless color compression.
- 3Dc – support for normal map compression (4:1).
- Hyper Z HD – support for hierarchical Z-buffer with early Z test, lossless Z-buffer compression, and fast Z-buffer clear.
- Videoshader HD – support for Real, DivX, and WMV9 formats, all-format DTV/HDTV decoding, and adaptive per-pixel de-interlacing and frame rate conversion.
- Display Outputs – dual integrated 400 Mhz DACs, integrated TV output up to 1024×768 resolution, and YprPb component output for HDTV support.
A more comprehensive features list for and description of the X700 architecture can be read in SimHQ’s Radeon X800 XT review here.
Test System Setup
- Intel Pentium 4 3.46 GHz Extreme Edition processor
- Intel D925XECV2 (925XE chipset, 1066 Mhz FSB) motherboard
- 1 GB (2×512 MB) Micron DDR2 533 Mhz memory
- ATI Radeon X700 XT and X800 XT PCI Express graphics cards (Catalyst 4.11)
- Windows XP Professional (SP2)
- DirectX 9.0c
The benchmark suite used to evaluate this test system is listed here. Again, unless specified otherwise all games are configured to their highest settings, and 32-bit color and trilinear texture filtering are the default baseline during testing. Also, Windows XP is configured to have Automatic Update, System Restore, and all unnecessary startup services disabled. Fraps 2.3.3 is used to record performance scores unless otherwise noted, and care is taken to ensure that ATI’s A.I. optimizations are disabled during testing.
