My X800GT Review + first post!!! includes pics

[Nephilim]

Hey Guys,

Here's my review of this card, cut down for forum ppl

Review of the PowerColor X800GT 256MB Bravo Graphics Card

I want to see just how far this card can go both at stock settings, and overclocked.

The stock core & memory speed conform to ATI's specifications for the 256MB variant. Keep in mind the core and memory on the 128MB card will be clocked lower.

Mem
Core
Memory

256MB
475MHz
490MHz

128MB
392MHz
350MHz

Testing Methodology
CPU AMD Athlon 64 3000+ @ 1.8GHz
Mainboard DFI NF4 Ultra-D
RAM OCZ BH5 UTT 2x512MB
All hardware will use latest drivers.

The Contenders

Leadtek 6600GT Extreme

Powercolor X800GT 256MB

Powercolor X850XT VIVO


The specifications are broken down in the table below:



Testing will be conducted as follows:

3DMark01 Second Edition
X800GT Stock settings
X800GT Maximum overclock
6600GT Stock Settings
6600GT Extreme Settings
X850XT Stock Settings

3DMark03
X800GT Stock settings
X800GT Maximum overclock
6600GT Stock Settings
6600GT Extreme Settings
X850XT Stock Settings


3DMark05
X800GT Stock settings
X800GT Maximum overclock
6600GT Stock Settings
6600GT Extreme Settings
X850XT Stock Settings


Half-Life 2
X800GT Stock settings
X800GT Maximum overclock
6600GT Stock Settings
6600GT Extreme Settings
X850XT Stock Settings

Doom 3
X800GT Stock settings
X800GT Maximum overclock
6600GT Stock Settings
6600GT Extreme Settings
X850XT Stock Settings

All tests, where possible are run at 1024x768 and 1280x1024 both with and without high image quality (4xAA 16xAnisotrophic filtering) enabled.

An issue with 3DMark05, most likely due to drivers or 3DMark05 itself, limited our 1280x1024 and 1024x768 high IQ tests. 3DMark would routinely throw an out of memory exception message every time the “ Firefly Forest � test began on the 6600GT. This wasn't the case at 1024x768 with low IQ, however pending a fix for this issue the results will be incomplete for this test.

A Closer Look at the Card






Testing
We immediately got to work overclocking, the card overclocked to a stable 624MHz core and 537MHz memory on an open test bench. No watercooling, no phase-chage, this is pure stock cooling. I consider stable to mean no artifacts for at least 5 mins straight in ati tool under consistent load. This seems to ensure none in games/tests.


3DMark 01 bases it's score on the result of all system components, as a result the difference due to VGA adapter is more minimal in this test.



Here we see the overall strength the extra 3 vertex shader pipelines add to the X800GT. It's primary advantage will be in games and benchmarks that make use of vertex shaders, which is most current and upcoming games.









Valve Software's Magnum Opus after a 5-year development cycle won many industry and game-of-the-year awards. It offers fantastic visuals and interaction at great frame rates across the board.

Half-Life2 Variability represents the degree to which the frame rate varied. The 6600GT was very strong in this regard. However it's overall frame rate still dipped below the minimum of the X800GT which would be more noticeable.

These results were great, given that the X850XT aside from operating at 520MHz core and 1080MHz DDR3 memory, has double the pixel rendering pipelines.

The results of the benchmarks speak for themselves. The X800GT pulls ahead of a stock 6600GT almost all the time, and has a majority lead over the higher clocked 6600GT Extreme. The card overclocks like a beast and once running at the phenomenal speeds of 624/537 it basically mops the floor with both stock and Extreme variants.

Since they share the same core, I decided to make a little comparison between the two ATI Cards in terms of physical characteristics.





Examining these two cards closely reveals that aside from the missing auxiliary power connector and vivo composite header, there have been minor changes to the power circuitry. Also when I examined the core packages very closely, there is copper visible on the X850XT in a small dot in the corner, and silver on the X800GT. This is evident of ATI's current locking procedure which as of yet has not been broken.

For those of you looking to unlock the extra two quads, at the moment I don't see a way without very drastic hardware modifications.

Coming within frames of the performance of ATI's current second-top card at a price point less than half is excellent news for the bang-for-buck crowd. I have averaged the 3dmark 05, Doom3 and HL2 AVG FPS for 1024x768 and 1280x1024 for the following graph. The Extreme 6600GT scores represent what I consider to be the limitation of clock speed on the 6600GT, I experienced lots of artifacting in benchmarking with this card, and this seems to be a common issue after searching the web an explanation.

At time of writing the cheapest prices in AU (using http://www.staticice.com.au) are as follows:

Non-extreme Leadtek 6600GT: $245
Powercolor X800GT 256MB $259
Powercolor X850XT $680



This clearly shows that the price to performance ratio is far better for the mid-range cards (as we could have assumed). The next graph only features the X800GT and the 6600GT Extreme. Average frame rate divided by price in dollars. The higher the better.



Obviously this difference is nothing to write home about. It is worth noting however that the Extreme 6600GT comes with GDDR3 that runs at 1.6ns and is theoretically capable of 1200MHz, whereas the standard 6600GT's come with 2.0ns GDDR3 that has a theoretical maximum 1000MHz. Making the X800GT seem even more worthwhile as a 6600GT Extreme will set you back $277 at time of writing.



Here we see the value-for-money of the X800GT stand out from the 6600GT. Since most people use fast LCD's for gaming these days, 1280x1024 is the sweet spot, and this card really shines at the higher resolution.

Please make note of the scale on the left of each graph when making your own judgments, I tried to show all the information in the most fair and visible way.

Overall, the performance of this card is phenomenal and for the overclocking crowd it offers a lot of excitement. Check back soon when I will see how it goes with more extreme cooling measures. I have also acquired the new bios thanks to AIT and Tul Corp.

I'd like to thanks Australia IT for making this review possible, and Powercolor for producing such a kickass product.

I welcome any feedback and/or criticisms from you guys

-Nephilim