The ATi Radeon X700 Pro is a mid-2000s PCI Express graphics card based on ATI’s RV410 GPU, produced during the transitional era between classic fixed-function GPUs and fully shader-driven designs. The X700 Pro typically features 8 pixel pipelines, a 128-bit memory interface, and 128MB or 256 MB of GDDR memory. At the time, it was positioned as a solid mainstream option—offering strong DirectX 9 performance without the heat, noise, or power demands of flagship cards like the X800 or GeForce 6800 series.
What makes the X700 Pro especially interesting today is how well it fits into retro-friendly Windows 98 and Windows XP builds. It sits on a sweet spot of compatibility: new enough to support advanced DX9 titles such as Half-Life 2, Far Cry, and Doom 3, while still being old enough to retain driver support for early Windows games running under Windows 98.
From a practical retro-hardware perspective, the card is also refreshingly easy to live with. Power consumption is modest, many models require no auxiliary power connector, and cooling solutions are usually quiet and compact — ideal for small form-factor or OEM-style retro PCs. Performance is well balanced: fast enough to run late-90s and early-2000s titles at high resolutions with anti-aliasing, but not so fast that it causes speed-sensitive games to misbehave.
My model is the 128MB Connect3D Radeon X700 Pro, manufactured by Connect3D using silicon from ATI.
Unfortunately the years haven’t been kind to my card. The fan bearings have worn, leaving an audible grating sound, and both text and graphics mode video is corrupted - indicating a VRAM issue.
Some TLC required!
