Unlike ATI’s competitive entry-level cards, the Radeon X1600 XT is fighting a losing battle in the mid-range category. With a core clock just 90MHz faster than that of the Pro variant, the 590MHz X1600 XT isn’t a particularly powerful card, ending up just below the plain GeForce 6800 on average in our tests. At 1280 x 1024, we saw frame rates of 21fps in Far Cry and 18fps in Call of Duty 2, which means you’ll have to tone down the settings to play at this resolution.

It’s priced well though, with its nearest rival being the GeForce 7600 GS, which managed 25fps in Far Cry and matched the X1600 XT’s 18fps in Call of Duty 2. MSI’s 7600 GS also has passive cooling in its favour, making it more suitable for a media centre PC, although the fan on GeCube’s X1600 XT is reasonably quiet.

The GeCube’s features aren’t bad either: it has two DVI ports and offers S-Video and component output, the latter via a bundled adapter. CyberLink PowerDVD 6 (stereo only) is included in the box, but little else of note.

Ultimately, the battle between the X1600 XT and 7600 GS is a close one, but MSI’s 7600 GS is the one we recommend out of the two.