There is still much to discover about this latest generation of graphics products. While we now know all about the Radeon X800 and Radeon X600 series, there is still much to learn about the new NVIDIA GeForce 6600 series. Furthermore there is much unknown about ATis answer, the Radeon X700 series. This also means we are not entirely sure about what affect these new products will have on the current ones. Obviously the Radeon X800 series and GeForce 6800 series will remain the flagship products. However, we all know it is the mainstream market that will make or break the sales of these graphics products.

As we have seen, ATi was quicker in offering a current generation mainstream product, being the Radeon X600 series. Nevertheless these products are nothing more than PCIe enabled Radeon 9600 graphics cards. Therefore the GeForce PCX series, which is also based on previous generation technology, was just as effective performance wise. The current Radeon X600XT graphics cards are scoring roughly 4000pts in 3Dmark2003 Pro. Rumor has it that the upcoming Radeon X700 graphics cards that are due mid September will score at least 7000pts in 3Dmark2003 Pro. This is achieved through increase clock frequencies and an additional four rendering pipelines bringing the total to eight, four less than the Radeon X800 Pro.

The introduction of such graphics cards can only be a good thing for those shopping for a Radeon X600XT based solution. As Radeon X700 graphics cards start to become available they should push the price of the Radeon X600XT down. Currently priced at around $220 US, these Radeon X600XT graphics cards are already very good value. To date I have already reviewed two Radeon X600XT based graphics cards from ASUS and Gigabyte. Both manufacturers offered reasonably good solutions, though both had room for improvement. Early this month Hong Kong based HIS (High-tech Information Systems Limited) announced their ATi Radeon X600XT graphics card.

Titled the HIS Excalibur X600XT VIVO Limited Edition this graphics card is a member of the HIS VIVO family as the name suggests. HIS have a number of specialty products and the VIVO series is one of them. Others include the IceQ, AIW and Turbo series, each series is deigned for a different purpose. The VIVO (Video In/Video Out) series is more of an all rounder as these graphics cards are ideal for gaming, video editing, video/DVD capture and general usage. The HIS Radeon X600XT looks to be an impressive product featuring an impressive package, along with some nice on card features such as the iCooler cooling system.