X-bit labs

ATI's 0.11 Micron Chip on the Run: ATI RADEON X800 XL Review (page 22)

Category: Video

by Alexey Stepin

[ 03/21/2005 | 09:14 AM ]

Conclusion

Having benchmarked the RADEON X800 XL, we have to acknowledge that ATI has managed to make a graphics card that offers you the performance of the GeForce 6800 GT, but is smaller, quieter and cooler, requires no additional power, and costs $100 less!

If we compared the ATI RADEON X800 XL to the NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GT, it would be like with the RADEON X800 XT vs. GeForce 6800 Ultra. In other words, the RADEON X800 XL shows its best when processing complex pixel shaders and doing full-screen antialiasing and aniso-filtering whereas the GeForce 6800 GT shows an excellent speed in games that use the OpenGL API and stencil shadows. So, it seems like the choice depends only on your personal taste and needs, but the price factor here is not to be underestimated.

The recommended price of the RADEON X800 XL is $299, which is exactly $100 less than the recommended price of the GeForce 6800 GT – but the performance of the two is overall similar! Moreover, the cheaper product from ATI has a higher speed across a number of applications, which adds it even more appeal. This should ensure a high demand on the RADEON X800 XL – we recommend it to any user who’s going to spend about $300-350 to get a highest performance in modern computer games.

The RADEON X800 XL is also available for the AGP bus where it will also compete with the GeForce 6800 and 6800 GT. Remember, though, that the recommended price of the RADEON X800 XL AGP 8x is $349.

The RADEON X800 in its turn is going to become a hideous foe to the GeForce 6600 GT AGP. At the same price of $199, the ATI card boasts much better characteristics. As you know from our news article, the release of ATI’s new products for the AGP platform is going to increase the company’s sales in this sector due to their excellent performance and competitive pricing.

Overclockers, on the other hand, are unlikely to be seriously excited about the new cards as the use of the 0.11-micron process without low-k negatively affected the overclockability of the R430 chip. In all probability, RADEON X800 XL and X800 GPUs won’t generally overclock above 440-450MHz. Even the special RADEON X800 XL from PowerColor – with a more efficient cooler and an additional power connector – was only stable at 435MHz at best (a kind of announcement – we promise to review this very curious device in one of our upcoming reports).

Highs:

• High performance in modern games
• High performance with enabled full-screen antialiasing
• Small size
• Noiselessness
• Low level of heat dissipation
• Doesn’t require additional power;
• Relatively low price

Lows:

• Low overclockability