Doom 3	Source: id Software

Doom 3 is the most advanced OpenGL game to date. It takes advantage of the latest videocard technology and pushes the processing power of the CPU to its absolute limits. At its highest setting, Ultra quality, texture sizes pass the 500MB mark which means even tomorrow's videocards will have a hard time running everything. The frame rates in the game itself are locked at 60 fps so anything above that point is wasted. Each test is run three times and with the third run being recorded.

Doom 3 - 1024x768-32bit
Anti-Aliasing	FPS	Ranking
PowerColor Bravo X700 2x AA	58.1
PowerColor Bravo X700 4x AA	36.8
PowerColor Bravo X700 6x AA	20.1
Anisotropic Filtering	FPS	Ranking
PowerColor Bravo X700 2x AF	79
PowerColor Bravo X700 4x AF	77.5
PowerColor Bravo X700 8x AF	77
PowerColor Bravo X700 16x AF	79.6
Anti-Aliasing and Anisotropic Filtering	FPS	Ranking
PowerColor Bravo X700 2x AA, 8x AF	57.1
PowerColor Bravo X700 4x AA, 16x AF	36.2

Doom 3 is very hard on the PowerColor Bravo X700 as we saw in the regular benchmarks. You probably won't want to turn AA when playing this game.

Final Words

High-end videocards generate more noise than a stock Intel/AMD CPU HSF. That's ok for 3D rendering in a workstation environment but noise can be an issue when you're fragging away and need to know where your enemies are, or running a home theatre PC in the living room.

The new crop of low-noise mainstream videocards is addressing this issue, part in parcel with features which make them great for HTPCs. With two DVI outputs, the Bravo X700 is also good for business users who want to use dual digital LCD monitors.

Included in the Bravo X700 package is a CyberLink DVD entertainment suite and Hitman Contracts, both of which should keep users busy for a good little while. Since the Bravo X700 supports TV-Output/Component Out, PowerColor also includes all the necessary cables you'd need to attach your computer to the TV (aside from component cables).

The gaming performance of the Powercolor Bravo X700 was mediocre at best, but then again it's not aimed at the high end market. The card is quite capable at pushing a lot of polygons at lower resolutions though; those who want to do a little gaming on a large HDTV screen will be happy with the performance of the PowerColor Bravo X700. When it came to overclocking, the Bravo X700 we tested acted a little crazy, setting its core to 75 MHz anytime the memory speed was increased over stock.

The PowerColor Bravo X700 retails for about $190CDN ($150 USD) online. If you're looking for the perfect HTPC videocard, or need an engine for your dual LCD monitors, be sure to look into the PowerColor Bravo X700.

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