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Sparkle Calibre X680 Captain Review

HQV Benchmark 2.0 is an updated version of the original tool and it consists of various video clips and test patterns which are designed to evalute motion correction, de-interlacing, decoding, noise reduction, detail enhancement and film cadence detection.

There are two versions of the program, standard definition on DVD and high definition on Bluray. As our audience will be concentrating on HD content so will we.

This has a total of 39 video tests which is increased from 23 in the original and the scoring is also up from a total of 130 to 210. As hardware and software gets more complicated, the software has been tuned to make sure we can thoroughly maximise our analysis.

Read our initial analysis over here.

Sparkle Calibre X680 Captain
Dial
4
Dial with static pattern 5
Gray Bars 5
Violin 5
Stadium 2:2 5
Stadium 3:2 5
Horizontal Text Scroll 3
Vertical Text Scroll 5
Transition to 3:2 Lock 5
Transition to 2:2 Lock 0
2:2:2:4 24 FPS DVCAM Video
5
2:3:3:2 24 FPS DVCam Video
5
3:2:3:2:2 24 FOS Vari-Speed
5
5:5 FPS Animation
5
6:4 12 FPS Animation
5
8:7 8 FPS Animation
5
Interlace Chroma Problem (ICP)
5
Chroma Upsampling Error (CUE)
5
Random Noise: Sailboat
5
Random Noise: Flower
5
Random Noise: Sunrise
5
Random Noise: Harbour Night
5
Scrolling Text
5
Roller Coaster
5
Ferris Wheel
5
Bridge Traffic
5
Text Pattern/ Scrolling Text
5
Roller Coaster
5
Ferris Wheel
5
Bridge Traffic
5
Luminance Frequency Bands
5
Chrominance Frequency Bands
5
Vanishing Text 5
Resolution Enhancement
15
Theme Park
5
Driftwood 5
Ferris Wheel
5
Skin Tones
5
Total 192

The hardware scores 192 points out of a possible 210 which is excellent.

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9 comments

  1. Wasn’t expecting this. I dont see anyone in UK stocking these however?

  2. unusual design for a high end card. never really heard of the company to be honest. far east brand?

  3. I always wondered why this design wasn’t used more often (fans under cooler). it should in theory lower noise as the main fan noise is behind a rack of fins and air will be sucked in. good idea.

  4. Are Sparkle linked to Gainward? the cooler looks very like the phantom cooler they had out a while ago. (was a good cooler, not a bad thing).

  5. very impressive card, would you guys say its better than the KFA2 3 fan cards though?

  6. Thats a good question. If you like the KFA2 white PCB and want the slightly higher clocks then they are good options. They are slightly louder and more expensive however.

  7. One of my good friends once told me that Sparkle and Gainward are a sister company. I believe him now.

  8. Thank you all for reading the review, can I clarify that Sparkle are an independent company and in no way related to Gainward.
    The use of similar coolers in pure coincidence

  9. Sparkle are an independent company and in no way related to Gainward.