Noise, Overclocking and 2D Image Quality

Despite our concerns, RADEON X800 XL 512MB demonstrated pretty good noise parameters. Although the card works very noisy during the system boot-up as the fan rotates at its maximum speed, it slows down significantly in just a few seconds and the noise level drops down to acceptable level. Moreover, you can barely hear the card at all against the background of other system noises. During our test session the fan never sped up, which is actually not surprising at all, as ATI R430 is manufactured with 0.11micron production technology and generates very little heat at work. Moreover, the copper footing and heatpipes of the cooling system dissipate the heat very efficiently.

RADEON X800 XL based graphics cards do not overclock that well, as a rule, as ATI didn’t use low-k technology during R430 graphics processor manufacturing. It didn’t make any sense to hope that ATI RADEON X800 XL 512MB would work wonders. And no wonder happened, although I still wouldn’t call the overclocking results we managed to achieve a failure. The maximum frequency the graphics card worked at stably and reliably reached 460MHz for the VPU. The memory overclocked to 550 (1100)MHz, which is also not bad at all, especially keeping in mind that the PCB design has become considerably more complex and that the memory chips onboard feature 2.0ns access time.

RADEON X800 XL 512MB demonstrated worthy 2D image quality, just like all other ATI graphics adapters ever tested in our lab. The image was crisp and clear in all resolutions up to 1600x1200x85Hz and 1800x1440x75Hz. Unfortunately, we didn’t manage to test the 2048x1536 resolution, because our lab monitor, Dell P1130, provides only 60Hz refresh rate in this case, which is unacceptable for comfortable perception of the image.