Noise, Overclocking, 2D Quality

The PowerColor X800 GTO 16 is equipped with a standard cooler other graphics cards from this manufacturer come with and its noise characteristics are exactly alike (for details see our previous reviews called PowerColor X800 GT Graphics Card Review: Worthy Competitor to NVIDIA GeForce 6600 GT and GeForce 6800 Meets New Contender: PowerColor X800 GTO VIVO Graphics Card Review ). The card is not absolutely silent, but its noise always remains within comfortable limits. There’s a fan-speed control system on the card, but the fan was working at the same speed through all of our tests.

Overclocking the PowerColor X800 GTO 16 proved an even gloomier task than we had apprehended. Even with additional power attached we couldn’t lift the GPU frequency up higher than 430MHz, our labs’ record with the R430 chip being 480MHz (for details see this article ). We don’t expect much of a performance growth from such a small core frequency gain, of course. The memory did no better, notching 510 (1020) MHz only, although such chips are generally stable at 550-570 (1100-1140) MHz. So, our sample of the PowerColor X800 GTO 16 proved to have a paltry overclocking potential. Therefore, it doesn’t suit for the category of users we talked about at the beginning of the review. You may be luckier than us with your sample of the card, but if you are seriously into overclocking, the PowerColor X800 GTO 16 is definitely not your choice.

Like all contemporary graphics cards of a high enough class, this one produced a sharp 2D image in all display modes supported by our Dell P1110 and P1130 monitors, up to 1600x1200@85Hz and 1800x1440@75Hz.