X-bit labs

PowerColor RADEON X800 PRO Graphics Card: Modification, Extreme Overclocking and a Duel against Leadtek GeForce 6800 GT

Category: Video

by Tim Tscheblockov

[ 07/15/2004 | 12:55 PM ]

The first question an overclocker may ask about the RADEON X800 Pro is if it’s possible to turn its disabled pipelines back on and then overclock it to the level of the RADEON X800 XT Platinum Edition? Then, will the X800 Pro be able to beat its immediate rival from NVIDIA, the GeForce 6800 GT, which is a cheapened version of a top-end model, too? Read our review to find all these answers now!

Table of contents:

• RADEON X800 Pro from PowerColor
  
• Increasing the Core Voltage
  
• Increasing the Memory Voltage
  
• Installing a Water Cooling System
  
• NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GT from Leadtek
  
• Testbed and Methods
  
• Overclocking the PowerColor RADEON X800 Pro
  
• Performance in Gaming Tests
  
• Far Cry
  
• Halo
  
• Unreal Tournament 2004 Demo
  
• Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne
  
• Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic
  
• Prince of Persia: Sands of Time
  
• IL-2 Sturmovik: Aces
  
• Lock On
  
• Homeworld 2
  
• Conclusion
  

Recently, our test lab got a graphics card from PowerColor based on the least expensive and speedy of the new GPUs from ATI – the RADEON X800 Pro. Its frequencies are lower than those of the RADEON X800 XT Platinum Edition (475/900MHz against 520/1120MHz) and it has fewer pixel pipelines (12 against 16).

The first question an overclocker may ask about the X800 Pro is if it’s possible to turn its disabled pipelines back on and then overclock it to the level of the RADEON X800 XT Platinum Edition? Then, will the X800 Pro be able to beat its immediate rival from NVIDIA, the GeForce 6800 GT, which is a cheapened version of a top-end model, too?

I will do my best to try to answer these questions by this overclocking report. But first, let’s examine the graphics card the RADEON X800 Pro came into out test lab on.

RADEON X800 Pro from PowerColor

PowerColor’s card ships in this pretty bag:

A curious bug: although there’s a RADEON X800 Pro card inside, the paper band on the bag’s front pocket says it contains a RADEON X800 XT-based product. The many pockets, small and big, are full of the accessories PowerColor added to the device. By the way, the bag itself is a real transformer changing its shape into a back pack like this:

The accessories include a set of cables and adapters, a user manual, CDs with drivers and utilities, and a computer game called Hitman.