Late last year, to much pomp and fanfare, ATI released the X1000 family of graphics cards. Amongst the high-end X1800 and the low-end X1300 was a mid-stream X1600 that, quite honestly, failed to impress.

At the time, the X1600XT was overpriced and underperforming part that made many of those that had the opportunity to test it out give it a solid thumbs-down. Making matters worse was the delayed launch of the part. Initially launched in early October with a release date of late November, the part never showed up on shelves until mid-December.

Thankfully ATI appeared to agree with what users were saying, that at $249 the X1600XT was way overpriced for the level of performance it offered, and it wasn’t much longer after retail availability that the price was slashed from $249 to a much more reasonable $179.

Seated in its proper price bracket, the X1600XT had one problem remaining: noise. The stock cooler with its tiny, high-RPM fan produced a level of noise that few could tolerate for any extended period of time, and with competing cards offering better performance at lower dB levels, it was a hard sell for the X1600XT.

Enter HIS and their X1600XT IceQ Turbo. Not only did the loyal ATI partner effectively solve the noise problem by installing a double-height, ultra-quiet cooler on the card, they also potentially helped alleviate the performance issues as well by providing a tool to automatically overclock the card.

It’s an improvement, no doubt, but whether it makes the X1600XT a valid entry into the ultra-competitive mid-stream market segment is something we’re going to take a look at in this review. Read on.