Hardware Secrets has posted a review on the HIS Overclocked Radeon X1600 Pro Turbo. Radeon X1600 Pro runs originally at 500 MHz accessing its video memory at 780 MHz. This 'Turbo' model from HIS runs at 587 MHz with its memory being accessed at 1.38 GHz.

Factory-overclocked Radeon X1600 Pro from HIS runs at the very same clock rates as Radeon X1600 XT. Since both chips have identical technical specs, we though that both would achieve a similar performance on our tests. This would be correct if they both had the same amount of video memory. With overclocked Radeon X1600 Pro carrying 128 MB and Radeon X1600 XT, 256 MB, the later achieved a performance up to 167.61% higher. While on old games with no image quality settings enable the performance difference is very small (up to 8%), on newer games and/or increasing image quality settings, the original 256 MB Radeon X1600 XT achieved a performance far higher.

But there is a huge price difference between them, though. While the 128 MB factory-overclocked Radeon X1600 Pro from HIS can be found by USD 127, 256 MB Radeon X1600 XT from other brands is found on the USD 167-USD 200 range. This puts Radeon X1600 Pro Turbo from HIS competing with cards based on GeForce 6600 GT, and it was up to 91.14% faster than this model from nVidia, except in Doom 3: if you want only to play Doom 3, go for a nVidia-based solution.

It is also very interesting to note that PowerColor has a Radeon X800 GTO with 128 MB model being sold at the same price range of the reviewed video card from HIS (on our benchmark Radeon X800 GTO was up to 139.37% faster than the overclocked Radeon X1600 Pro from HIS, however it had 256 MB of video memory). So, if you are looking for an ATI solution to counter GeForce 6600 GT, this model from HIS won't let you down. However, we would seriously consider buying a 128 MB Radeon X800 GTO instead if we had up to USD 130 to spend on a video card.

You said it all :)

I know it's how the industry works and it's how "the game" must be played, but I hate how they keep releasing these "mainstream" and "value" cards based on dumbed down versions of the enthusiast parts. Seems like they are a complete waste of money and even if you get the newer technology in them you can't use it because the card is just too slow anyways.

Why can't they just only release enthusiast parts? and then when the next one comes out, the previous one becomes the "value" or "mainstream" or whatever? That way the current level of technology you get in the card you buy can atleast be used to the fullest.

For example, instead of all the 6200, 6600, 6800, 7300, 7600, blah blah GT GS crap, why couldn't they have just gone with 6800 GTX, 7800 GTX, 7900 GTX, etc. They cause so much confusion it's no wonder sales are down. People are getting pissed and just saying "F this" and buying consoles.

maybe it's really simple... they produce a bunch of chips, some good, some bad... the good ones go in high end cards, and instead of not selling and therefore losing money on the bad ones, they just put them in low end cards with the bad parts disabled.

Either way it sucks and scares people away from the market.

Edit: I only used nvidia example because it's the first thing that came to my mind. the exact same thing could be said about ati's x300 x600 x800 x1300 x1600 x1800 x1900 pro xt xtx blah blah. Probably would've made more sense to use the ATI example since this news bit is about an ATI card, but I'm tired so screw it.