First of all, yes, we know we are delayed in posting this review. Radeon HD 2400 is around the corner and will replace this video card.

In our review we were able to compare the overclocked Radeon X1300 XT from HIS with a vast range of new and old mid-range PCI Express video cards, as you could see on our previous pages.

Officially costing around USD 100 in the USA, this video card competes in price with GeForce 8500 GT.

In our MSI GeForce 8500 GT review we came to the conclusion that even though Radeon X1300 XT does not feature a Shader 4.0 unified engine – i.e. not supporting DirectX 10 –it was a better buy than GeForce 8500 GT, being the product we recommend if you are looking for a video card on the USD 90-100 range.

This overclocked model from HIS is even better than GeForce 8500 GT. To begin with, it was between 10% and 22% faster than the standard Radeon X1300 XT based on GDDR3 memories, depending on the game and video configuration we used, and this overclocking really boosted the performance difference between the reviewed card and GeForce 8500 GT.

Radeon X1300 XT IceQ Turbo was between 11% and 64% faster than GeForce 8500 GT, depending on the game and video configuration we used, except on Quake 4, which continues to be nVidia’s territory (on Quake 4 both cards achieved similar results at 1024x768 with no image quality settings enabled and at 1600x1200 with image quality settings enabled, with the reviewed card being 4% faster at 1600x1200 and with GeForce 8500 GT being 9% faster at 1024x768 with image quality settings enable – in our benchmark this was the only test that GeForce 8500 GT was faster than the overclocked Radeon X1300 XT from HIS).

For the kind of user this video card is targeted – someone willing to spend only up to USD 100 on a video card – we think this overclocked Radeon X1300 XT with GDDR3 memories from HIS is the best buy.

But beware. We only recommend this video card if you can find it being sold up to USD 100. Above this price limit there are better options on the market, for example the Radeon X1650 Pro at the USD 120 price range and the GeForce 8600 GT at the USD 150 price range.

Also keep in mind that the majority of Radeon X1300 XT around are based on GDDR2 memories, not GDDR3, running at a lower clock rate.