AMD ATI Radeon X1300 Pro 256 MB PCI-E Card

List Price: $129.00

Features:

• 105 million transistors on 90nm fabrication process
• Four pixel shader processors
• Two vertex shader processors
• 128-bit 4-channel DDR/DDR2/GDDR3 memory interface
• 32-bit/1-channel, 64-bit/2-channel, and 128-bit/4-channel configurations

Accessories:

Vcool VGA Cooler

Customer Reviews:

Not compatible with Vista [Posted on 2007-06-02]
As of June 2007, many of ATI's products (including the ATI Radeon x1300 Pro) remain incompatible with Vista. Now understand, ATI will claim that it is compatible but buyer beware because once installed with Vista your machine may essentially become unusable. The problem stems from the software drivers that ATI has made available for their products, with the latest being Catalyst 7.4. The software drivers are extremely buggy and there are many, many users who are pulling their hair out because of poor customer service in resolving these issues. Note, most of these bugs, including a broadly experienced problem where a system process known as ATIMKDAG.sys fails, have been oustanding and unresolved by technical support since Vista was first released. Beware ATI's products until they can fix their software for Vista, I advise that you go with Nvidia for the time being.

I suggest that interested buyers do a few internet searches on the ATIKMDAG issues that users are having with Vista to see if it has been resolved before purchasing what is a defective product, in my experience.

Does what it's supposed to do [Posted on 2007-11-17]
The X1300 has been a reliable low-end standby for entry-level gaming systems for several years. There's no reason to avoid this card because of Vista issues (or other Windows issues). ATI Radeon cards have fewer issues than nVIDIA cards, overall, with drivers and compatibility, and the X300/1300 line has been and continues to be well-supported even with finicky, demanding games like Sims 2. I have read about many issues with nVIDIA cards with Sims 2, even when used with nVIDIA motherboards (for example).

Do your research before you buy any video card, but if you're planning to play a game with your card, research that game's forums - fansites or official - to get the real scoop on drivers and compatibility. Don't rely on an Amazon review that has nothing to do with the card or software and everything to do with Microsoft's less than stellar implementation of the Vista OS.

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