ATI Radeon X1650 Update: Passive cooling and DDR2

MSI RX1650PRO-T2D256E

As mentioned MSI chose to keep the price of their version of the X1650 Pro as low as possible, and uses DDr2 on the card in stead of the normal GDDR3 memory. The clock frequency of the memory is therefore lower than that on other cards, which has a negative impact on its performance. The use of DDR2 does have a positive effect on the price: the MSI card seems to be at least $ 20 cheaper than other, regular X1650 Pro cards.

The card sports a total of 256MB 2.5ns Hynix memory, clocked at 400MHz. The GPU runs at the standard 600MHz, and when trying to overclock the GU and memory we managed an unimpressive 702MHz on the GPU and 459MHz on the memory.

As all other X1650 Pro cards the MSI offers two DVI connections and a combined TV-out/component port. The cooler used is golden, which gives the card a high "Bling" factor. The memory chips on the front of the card have heatsinks on them, however the ones on the back of the card have not.

MSI does not offer any kind of software with the card, again a way of keeping the price at an absolute minimum.