ATI Radeon X740 XL

The ATI Radeon X740 XL is a PCIe-era graphics card built on AMD's R400 architecture, using the RV410 chip fabricated by TSMC on a 110 nm process. Released on March 6, 2005, it belongs to the Radeon R400 PCIe (X700) generation, sitting between the Radeon R300 and the Radeon R500 PCIe in the product lineage. The card is now end-of-life and holds a 50th percentile ranking across all GPUs tracked in the database, placing it exactly at the median of the historical performance distribution. With 120 million transistors on a 156 mm² die, the RV410 chip achieves a transistor density of 769.2K per mm², a figure that reflects the manufacturing capabilities of its era. The card's specifications are modest by modern standards, but its position in the database's percentile ranking offers a clear anchor for understanding its relative performance.

Power and Cooling

The data does not list a TDP figure for the X740 XL, so no thermal design power can be stated. However, the suggested PSU is 200 W, which is a low recommendation that signals the card's modest power appetite. The card requires no power connectors — the data explicitly lists "None" — meaning it draws all of its operating power through the PCIe 1.0 x16 slot. This is a significant installation convenience for legacy systems, as it eliminates the need for 6-pin or 8-pin auxiliary power cables. The single-slot form factor further simplifies integration, allowing the card to fit in compact chassis without occupying an adjacent slot.

The 110 nm process from TSMC is a key factor in the card's power profile. With 120 million transistors on a 156 mm² die, the RV410 chip is relatively small, and smaller dies generally translate to lower power consumption and heat output. The transistor density of 769.2K per mm² is a measure of how tightly the 120 million transistors are packed into the die area. For a system builder in 2005, the 200 W PSU recommendation would have been easily satisfied by most standard power supplies of the time. The absence of power connectors also means the card cannot be overclocked via auxiliary power, but the data does not include any overclocking information. The cooling solution is a single-slot design, which in this era typically meant a compact heatsink with a small fan; the data does not specify the exact cooler dimensions or noise levels, so no further claims can be made. The combination of a 200 W PSU recommendation and no power connectors suggests the card was designed for mainstream desktop systems rather than high-end gaming rigs.

Ray Tracing and Feature Set

The X740 XL has no RT cores and no tensor cores — both fields are null in the data. This is unsurprising for a card from the DirectX 9.0b era, as hardware ray tracing and tensor-based AI acceleration did not exist in consumer GPUs at that time. The card supports DirectX 9.0b with feature level 9_2, and OpenGL 2.0. It does not support Vulkan, which is consistent with its 2005 release date. The DirectX 9.0b feature level (9_2) represents an early revision of the DirectX 9 specification, which means the card can run games and applications designed for that API revision but cannot take advantage of later DirectX 9 feature levels or any subsequent DirectX versions.

The R400 architecture is a fixed-function pipeline design, predating the unified shader architecture that would arrive in later generations. The card has 8 texture mapping units (TMUs) and 8 raster operation units (ROPs), which are the dedicated hardware blocks for texture filtering and pixel output, respectively. The display outputs are 1x DVI and 1x VGA, providing analog and digital connectivity for monitors of that era. There is no support for modern features like ray-traced reflections, DLSS-style upscaling, or variable rate shading — none of these are mentioned in the data, and the API support precludes them. For users seeking modern visual effects, this card is not a viable option. Its feature set is firmly rooted in the early 2000s, and the lack of Vulkan support further limits its compatibility with contemporary graphics APIs.

Benchmark Performance

The benchmark array in the data is empty, and the average benchmark score is zero, so no direct performance scores are available. The only quantitative performance indicator is the 50th percentile ranking, which places the X740 XL at the exact midpoint of the database's GPU population. This means that, within the historical GPUs tracked by the database, approximately half are faster and half are slower — a truly median position.

The raw throughput figures provide a more granular view. The pixel rate is 3.400 GPixel/s, and the texture rate is 3.400 GTexel/s. These identical values indicate a perfectly balanced design where pixel fill and texture fill are matched, a consequence of having 8 ROPs and 8 TMUs operating at the same clock frequency. In practical terms, a game scene that is pixel-bound (e.g., heavy overdraw, many small triangles) would hit the 3.4 GPixel/s ceiling, while a texture-bound scene (e.g., large surfaces with detailed textures) would be constrained by the 3.4 GTexel/s rate. The memory bandwidth of 14.40 GB/s is the third constraint in this triad; it must supply data to both the pixel and texture pipelines. When all three are considered together, the card's performance profile is one of modest, balanced throughput — not exceptional in any single dimension, but consistent across workloads.

Because the nearestRivals list is empty, no percentage deltas against competing cards can be calculated. The 50th percentile ranking is the sole relative metric. This median placement suggests the X740 XL was a mainstream part in its time — not a flagship, not an entry-level budget card, but a middle-of-the-road offering. The lack of benchmark scores means the percentile ranking must carry the interpretive weight, and it indicates a card that would handle typical DirectX 9.0b games of its era at acceptable settings, while struggling with more demanding titles that pushed beyond its 128 MB frame buffer.

Who Should Consider It

The X740 XL is best suited for systems running older software that targets the DirectX 9.0b feature level. The 128 MB VRAM capacity is the primary limitation; games with large texture sets or high-resolution render targets will exhaust this memory quickly, causing performance to drop as the card is forced to swap data through the 14.40 GB/s bandwidth. For this reason, the card is most comfortable at lower resolutions and with reduced detail settings — the data does not specify exact resolutions, but the qualitative guidance is clear: keep the workload light.

Users building a retro gaming rig or a period-accurate system from the mid-2000s would find the X740 XL a reasonable match, provided the games they intend to play fit within the DirectX 9.0b API and the 128 MB frame buffer. The single-slot design and lack of power connectors make installation straightforward in legacy motherboards with PCIe 1.0 x16 slots. The 200 W PSU recommendation means even modest power supplies can drive the card. However, the card is end-of-life, so it is not a sensible purchase for new systems or for running modern games. Its 50th percentile ranking indicates it is an average performer in the historical context, which is appropriate for casual or older gaming but insufficient for demanding contemporary workloads. The 8 TMUs and 8 ROPs provide a baseline for fill-rate performance, but the 128 MB memory capacity will be the binding constraint in most real-world scenarios.

How It Compares

The nearestRivals list is empty in the data, so no direct competitor scores or deltas are available. However, the card's position in the product lineage offers qualitative context. Its predecessor is the Radeon R300, which represents the prior generation of Radeon graphics. The X740 XL, built on the R400 architecture, would have brought architectural improvements over the R300 — though the exact performance difference is not quantified in the data. The move from R300 to R400 was a generational step, and the X740 XL's 50th percentile ranking reflects where it landed in the broader GPU landscape.

Its successor is the Radeon R500 PCIe, which would arrive later with further architectural refinements. The X740 XL is explicitly part of the Radeon R400 PCIe (X700) generation, and the RV410 chip is the specific implementation used in this card. Compared to the R500 PCIe successor, the X740 XL is an earlier PCIe implementation, and the R500 generation would build upon the foundation laid by the R400. Without scores or deltas, these comparisons must remain qualitative, but the generational placement is clear: the X740 XL is a middle child, sitting between two architectural generations and holding a median performance position.

Memory Subsystem

The X740 XL is equipped with 128 MB of GDDR3 memory on a 128-bit bus. The memory clock is 450 MHz, which translates to 900 Mbps effective (double data rate, as implied by the "effective" designation). The resulting bandwidth is 14.40 GB/s. This is a modest memory configuration by any standard. The 128-bit bus width is a mid-range choice; wider buses were reserved for higher-end cards, but the data does not specify those alternatives, so no comparison can be made.

The 128 MB capacity is the most significant constraint for high-resolution gaming. At higher resolutions, frame buffers grow, and 128 MB quickly becomes insufficient. When the frame buffer overflows, the card must resort to slower memory operations, which the 14.40 GB/s bandwidth cannot fully compensate for. The memory bandwidth must serve both the pixel pipeline (at 3.400 GPixel/s) and the texture pipeline (at 3.400 GTexel/s). In texture-heavy scenes, the 14.40 GB/s bandwidth must supply texel data to the 8 TMUs, and if the texture working set exceeds 128 MB, performance degrades. The data does not list fp32 or fp16 compute figures, so no compute throughput can be stated. For the era, GDDR3 was a reasonable memory type, offering higher bandwidth than the DDR2 alternatives common in budget cards — though the data does not provide comparative figures. The 128-bit bus combined with 450 MHz GDDR3 yields the 14.40 GB/s figure, which is the card's memory throughput ceiling.

FAQ

Q: What DirectX version does the ATI Radeon X740 XL support?

A: The card supports DirectX 9.0b with feature level 9_2, along with OpenGL 2.0. It does not support Vulkan.

Q: Does the X740 XL support ray tracing?

A: No. The data lists no RT cores and no tensor cores, and the card's DirectX 9.0b feature set predates hardware ray tracing entirely.

Q: How much VRAM does the X740 XL have?

A: It has 128 MB of GDDR3 memory on a 128-bit bus, with a bandwidth of 14.40 GB/s.

Q: What power supply is recommended for the X740 XL?

A: The suggested PSU is 200 W. The card requires no power connectors and uses a single-slot design.

Q: What is the memory clock speed of the X740 XL?

A: The memory runs at 450 MHz, which is 900 Mbps effective (double data rate).

Q: What is the transistor count and die size of the RV410 chip?

A: The RV410 chip contains 120 million transistors on a 156 mm² die, fabricated on a 110 nm process at TSMC, giving a transistor density of 769.2K per mm².

Q: What are the display outputs on the X740 XL?

A: The card provides 1x DVI and 1x VGA outputs.