X-bit labs

Thursday, May 5, 2005

ATI’s RADEON X800 XL Acquires 512MB Local Buffer. Web-Sites Test Whether Additional Graphics Memory Counts for Advantage Today

ATI’s RADEON X800 XL has proved to be a wise choice among today’s high-end graphics cards since it offers relatively high performance being priced as low as $299 in retail outlets. After rejecting plans to make RADEON X850 XT 512MB graphics card earlier this year ATI decided to add 512MB local buffer to its successful RADEON X800 XL product claiming that the graphics card is now more future proof as before. But is it a statement gamers should consider when buying new hardware today? A number of web-sites have an answer.

“Performance across the majority of the games that we tested remained unchanged, even at their highest detail settings.  We were a bit surprised that there was such a tangible benefit to the 512MB card running Half Life 2, but in the end, we attained better performance out of a similarly priced X850 XT with only 256MB of memory, even under Half Life 2… ATI’s desire to make their first 512MB part based on the X800 XL doesn't appear to make much sense either.  The large amount of on-board memory would seem best fit for a GPU that was capable of running at resolutions and detail settings that would see some performance benefit from the additional memory,” AnandTech web-site reports.

“With the evidence of today’s game performances and the apparent price differential between the 256MB and 512MB boards the move has yet to make a compelling case for itself right now - how prices move and what games developers do are matters for the future. However, both the two main IHVs have clearly signaled their intent and 512MB boards are certain to become more prevalent in time,” Beyond3D web-site believes.

“On a high end board like the X800 XL, the increased memory size will more often than not give you a smoother gameplay experience if you’re running at high resolutions and with high levels of anti-aliasing applied, compared to what you'll get with the 256MB board. You therefore have to decide whether the cost for that bigger board is better spent there, rather than on something like an X850 XT PE. When you do so, consider how long you'll keep the board. If it’s going to be a significant length of time, the choice makes more sense,” Hexus.net web-site recommends.

“Does the RADEON X800 XL 512MB suit people who want to play next-generation games? It depends on what games belong here. This year is to bring us such titles as Half-Life 2: Lost Coast, Quake 4, F.E.A.R. and others that use engines oriented towards the current-day hardware. As the developers employ ever more complex textures, normal maps and environment maps, a 512MB local buffer may become needed in some cases. As for games of a more distant future, like those scheduled for 2006 and later, we expect them to require a lot of graphics memory. But when they do arrive, the performance of the RADEON X800 XL processor proper may prove too low, and this performance rather than the memory amount may become the bottlenecking factor. Yet it’s too early to make any predictions,” X-bit labs web-site claims.

• AnandTech: ATI’s RADEON X800 XL 512MB – A Toe in the 512MB Pool.
• Beyond3D: Sapphire Hybrid Radeon X800 XL 512MB Review.
• ExtremeTech: Is More Video Memory Worth the Money? ATI RADEON X800 XL 512MB.
• Guru of 3D: ATI RADEON X800 XL – 512 MB.
• Hexus.net: The Introduction of 512MB Consumer Graphics Hardware.
• Neoseeker: ATI RADEON X800 XL 512MB.
• PC Perspective: ATI Radeon X800 XL 512 MB GPU Preview.
• TechReport: ATI’s RADEON X800 XL 512MB Graphics Card. How Much is Enough?
• X-bit labs: ATI RADEON X800 XL 512MB Graphics Card Review. 512MB: Today’s Need or Reserve for the Future?

Can Longhorn Improve Laptops? Mobile PC Orientated Operating System

Mobile computer market is one of the fastest growing markets in the IT industry, but although all notebook manufacturers report of steady increases of the mobile PC sales, the overall number of sold products is still relatively small. Mostly, this is due to fairly high cost of notebooks, short battery time as well as lack of certain features consumers would like to see. These and other issues are going to be addressed by Microsoft’s next-generation Longhorn operating system, the company says. Microsoft hopes that with the release of the upcoming OS the mobile PCs will be as indispensable as cell phones today are.

“Unfortunately there are good reasons 700 million cell phones were sold last year, compared with about 50 million laptops. Portable computers are too bulky, too slow and too quick to run out of juice. Customers are not really getting the value out of mobile PCs that they find in mobile phones,” said Bill Mitchell, head of the Microsoft’s mobile PC efforts,

“Microsoft plans to address some of these shortcomings in Longhorn, the new version of Windows that’s scheduled for release next year. To address the power issue, Microsoft is pushing laptop makers to add features such as flash memory-equipped drives, reducing the number of times a computer must spin a power-hungry hard drive. Other planned changes include the addition of a “mobility center” that will serve as a single control panel for all manner of laptop-related settings. The concept is similar to the Security Center Microsoft added to Windows XP with Service Pack 2,” writes CNET News.com.

• CNET News.com: Can Longhorn Improve Laptops?