Video Card Review

Radeon X1900 Series @ Anandtech

2006-01-24T14:12:00.000-08:00

Anandtech has published their review of the Radeon X1900 Series:

"Take all the clich's used to describe a long overdue event or the unexpected
fulfillment of a promise (hot places freezing, heavy animals soaring through the
air, etc...) and you still couldn't say enough to fully proclaim the news that
ATI has finally properly hard launched a product. That's right, looking around
the internet this morning has provided us with the joyous realization that the
Radeon X1900XT, XTX, and CrossFire parts are available for purchase. We've tried
to keep an eye on the situation and it's been quite easy to see that ATI would
be able to pull it off this time. Some sites started taking preorders earlier in
the week saying their X1900 parts would ship in one to two days, putting the
timeframe right on the mark. There were no missing dongles, no problems with
customs, and ATI told us last week that thousands of parts had already been
delivered to manufacturers.

And if that isn't enough to dance about, ATI
has delivered a hugely powerful part with this launch. The Radeon X1900 series
is no joke, and every card featuring the name is a behemoth. With triple the
pixel shader units of the X1800 XT, and a general increase in supporting
hardware through out the pixel processing engine, ATI's hugely clocked 384
Million transistor GPU is capable of crunching enormous volumes of data very
quickly. Fill rate isn't increased very much because the X1900 series still only
allows 16 pixels to be drawn to the screen per clock cycle, but power is
delivered where it is needed most. With longer and more complex shader programs,
pixels need to stay in the shader engine longer which further shifts the
performance burden from the theoretical maximum fill rate.

NVIDIA would
like us to compare the X1900's increase in ALU (arithmetic logic unit) power to
what they did with the FX 5900 after NV30 tanked. Certainly, increasing the math
power (and increasing memory bandwidth) helped NVIDIA, but fortunately for ATI
the X1900 is not derived from a fundamentally flawed GPU design. The X1800
series are certainly not bad parts, even if they are being completely replaced
by the X1900 in ATI's lineup.
I'll spoil the results and make it clear that
the X1900XT and XTX are hands down the best cards out there right now. But all
positives aside, ATI needed this card to hard launch with good availability,
perform better than anything else, and look good doing it. There have been too
many speed bumps in ATI's way for there to be any room for a slip up on this
launch, and it looks like they've pulled it off. The launch of the X1900 series
not only puts ATI back on top, but (much more importantly) it puts them back in
the game. Let's hope that both ATI and NVIDIA can keep up the good fight. But
let's not forget why we're here. The first thing we are going to do is talk
about what makes the R580 GPU that powers the X1900 series so incredibly good at
what it does"

Whoa. Just as I was beginning to think that ATI was going to slip further and further behind nVidia they come out slugging with this monster. If you've got the bucks, the top of the line ATI card beats out the 7800GTX (yes, even the 512MB flavor) from nVidia on just about every benchmark performed and according to most sources, has better image quality while doing it. I can only think of one word to say: SWEET!

NVIDIA GeForce 7300 Preview @ Anandtech

2006-01-19T17:40:00.000-08:00

Anandtech has a good article about the upcoming NVIDIA GeForce 7300 GS video card:

"Fast, feature rich, and cheap are the three ingredients necessary for ATI and NVIDIA to help get game developers excited about pushing the limits of their craft. After all, no one wants to spend time pouring their heart and soul into something if the majority of people who buy it won't get the full experience. And here's to cards like the 7300 GS continuing the trend of raising the bar for budget parts. Now all we really need is for Intel to care about putting performance and quality into their graphics hardware.

We are quite interested in getting our hands on the GeForce 7300 GS in order to put it through its paces and see how NVIDIA's newest sub $100 part fairs. We are expecting some pretty good things as the new part combines the features of the 7 series parts at a nice low price point. The major upgrade from the 6200 series is that this part supports floating point framebuffer blends (the 6200 series was the only line of 6 series parts not to support this feature). FP16 framebuffer blends are becoming increasingly attractive to game developers who want to implement HDR lighting, and the 128 to 256 MB of RAM the 7300 GS will carry on board is plenty.

Let's take a look at what else the new 7 series part will have to offer. "

nVidia is taking another shot at the lower end of the spectrum. Hopefully, with the inexpensive nVidia and ATi offerings to be available, the big manufacturers will abandon the onboard graphics in their less expensive offerings in favor of the more feature rich PCI Express cards. Of course, Intel could surprise us by introducing onboard graphics that don't suck. Ha ha. Yeah, that could happen.

Radeon X1600 XT and X1300 Pro

2006-01-17T20:41:00.000-08:00

Beyond3D has posted a new review of ATi's Radeon X1600 XT and X1300 Pro Video Cards.:

"Back in October '05 ATI introduced the initial, much belated, X1000 series product line, comprising X1800 (R520), X1600 (RV530) and X1300 (RV515). Although these were all introduced at the same time their releases were staggered a little, and even when they did finally start rolling off the production lines their further releases hardly appeared to go too smoothly.
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Both X1300 and X1600, although around in various locations roughly when they were supposed to be, hardly appeared plentiful, which may partially have been to do with their pricing. ATI set fairly high MSRPs on both the X1300 and X1600 product lines, likely set for some high margins and to be competitive to where they were when they were introduced. However, when shipping is set to occur nearly two months after announcement, as was the case for X1600, a lot can happen in that time span, as indeed it did with NVIDIA's release of the 6800 GS. Now, though, following a reduction in MSRPs by ATI both products are becoming plentiful, vendors are coming out with numerous SKUs of both product lines, and street prices are more inline with where we would expect for their die sizes.
In this article we are going to take a more detailed look at both ATI's Radeon X1600 XT and X1300 PRO."

Interesting to see how this shakes out now that prices have come down. I would like to get hold of a 6800 GS and an X1600 and see how they fare against each other in my universe.

Sapphire Radeon X1300 256MB Video Card Review

2006-01-01T19:50:00.000-08:00

Bona Fide Reviews has posted a review of the Sapphire Radeon X1300 256MB PCI Express Video Card and had these fine comments: "After last week's review of the BFG 7800GTX OC we visit the opposite end of the video card spectrum with Sapphire's X1300 Pro. Sapphire seems to have really focused on making their offering of the X1300 extremely affordable by being cheapest X1300 available. At the time of writing this card can be found online for $95. In other words, this video card costs less than 20% of what the 7800GTX is currently selling for. That's quite a statement. However, a graphic card has to perform to provide any real value to someone. A cheap video card that doesn't run the games they want play doesn't do much good either. So is this card worth its $95 price tag or is it a very effective paper weight? That's what we will determine in our review of Sapphire's X1300 Pro video card."

Check it out for a good dose of reality.

ATI Radeon X800 GTO cards from Sapphire, Connect3D, and PowerColor

2006-01-01T19:46:00.000-08:00

Anandtech has a multiple card review of ATI Radeon X800 GTO cards from Sapphire, Connect3D, and PowerColor:

"We aren't exactly sure why there has been such a volley of mid-range cards between NVIDIA and ATI lately, but it could be an attempt by ATI to at least gain some kind of foothold on the mid-range graphics front (given their struggle to keep up on the high-end this past year) to assure decent sales for the holidays.

But all speculation aside, quality graphics cards at value prices are a good thing, no matter how you look at it, and luckily, the X800 GTO looks to offer good performance and prices. ATI fans won't be disappointed with this card at all, and gamers in general will want to consider this when looking to upgrade.

For this review, we'll take a look at four different variations of the X800 GTO, two of which are by Sapphire, and all interestingly different from each other. The first is the Sapphire X800 GTO Ultimate, which is a silent version of the GTO; the second, the Sapphire X800 GTO2 (pronounced GTO 'squared'), a limited edition part that has received a lot of attention due to its alleged overclocking abilities. The third and fourth cards that we'll look at are the Connect3D X800 GTO and the PowerColor X800 GTO 16. All of these cards are excellent graphics solutions, but most of them have features that set them distinctly apart from the eachother.

The GTO has been out a little while now and we've been interested in taking a look at some of them. We can assure you that they are pretty decent, but we'll let you know just how good these cards really are considering the performance and cost. Value is what it's about and we will be looking at how each of these four GTOs stack up against each other and some other graphics cards as well. As usual, we will be doing extensive performance tests, as well as overclocking and "

Follow the link above to read more about these excellent mid-range cards and see if one of them is in your future.

Radeon X1800 CrossFire Edition @ HotHardware

2005-12-26T10:45:00.000-08:00

Hothardware.com has published their review of the Radeon X1800XT Crossfire edition video card and had this to say:

"Performance Summary: Both CrossFire configurations performed very well in the
majority of games / benchmarks we tested. Half Life 2, FarCry, Splinter Cell and
3DMark05 all scaled dramatically on CrossFire, and ATI's and NVIDIA's respective
flagship configurations traded victories in these benchmarks. 256MB and 512MB
GeForce 7800 GTX SLI configurations had big performance advantages in OpenGL
games, like Doom 3 and Quake 4, but overall ATI had a good showing. Clearly
though, a 512MB GeForce 7800 GTX SLI configuration remains the most powerful
gaming setup available today.

Radeon X1800 XT CrossFire Edition Master
cards should be available from a handful on-line retailers over the next few
days, at an MSRP of $599. We have already received word that HIS has begun
shipping cards, and ATI was only waiting on shipments of the custom dongle
before getting product out to retailers, so there is a chance consumers will be
able to get their hands on an X1800 XT master card in time for Christmas. But is
X1800 XT CrossFire worth the expense? Well, that all depends on your
perspective, and your wallet's girth of course. If we strictly look at price, a
pair of X1800 XTs - if master cards actually end up being available at or below
MSRP - will end up being up to $300 'cheaper' than a pair of 512MB GeForce 7800
GTX cards. Although NVIDIA launched these cards with an MSRP of $649, you can't
find them for less than $750, and that's if you can find them at all. Plus,
ATI's Catalyst 5.13 drivers give the X1K series a cards an advantage in video
playback quality by exposing more of Avivo's capabilities. So, with very good
gaming performance, better video performance, and an overall lower price, X1800
XT CrossFire is clearly a solid alternative to a pair of 512MB GeForce 7800
GTXs. "

Today, December 26th, the Crossfire edition cards are available at approximately $569 from www.newegg.com which is considerably less expensive than the 512MB 7800 GTX, which is listed at $749 and is currently unavailable. Now there's an interesting turnabout, given that only a short while ago ATi was the one with the availability problem. It just keeps getting more amusing by the day!

Radeon X1800 CrossFire Edition @ Beyond3D

2005-12-26T10:30:00.001-08:00

Beyond3D.com has published their Review of the X1800 Crossfire Edition Video Card and had this to say:

"On the positive side the Crossfire solution once again proves that the performance can scale sufficiently well. ATI have implemented a fairly robust number of rendering methods, giving them options for performance increases with Crossfire over a variety of different rendering scenarios - from the testing here, the only time this stumbled, not as a result of CPU limitation, to any great extent was with F.E.A.R.; given its relatively recent introduction ATI may still need more time to tweak it, but this could be an argument for allowing the end user greater control over the rendering methods used.
Finally, probably the biggest beacon for this platform is the performance of SuperAA - the tests here demonstrated that the higher quality modes of FSAA could be accessed for very close to the same performance as a single board rendering half the AA level, which could be of benefit should a title be very CPU bound on an end users system, or the other modes not provide anything in the way of performance scaling.
It's somewhat curious to consider that customers within the workstation market could quite possibly be ideal end users for Crossfire - probably most willing to look over the physical connections, the least concerned about the price and configuration issues, probably likely to be very interested in the FSAA capabilities, yet ATI do not appear to be considering it this time, probably due to the complexity of the drivers on the workstation side.
The X1800 XT is a very high performance board in the first place and coupling it with the X1800 Crossfire Edition further increases the rendering potential, and gives the end user more room to play with the new image quality functions of the X1000 series."

I'm not sure, but I think I see a battle looming over QUALITY of graphics. I'm not entirely sure who is ahead or behind in this arena right now, but it will be interesting to see how things play out. We here at videocardreview have been curious for some time about how to go about including subjective things like video quality in reviews, as opposed to simply the speed of processing. Keep your eyes open. Interesting things to come, I think.

Radeon X1800 CrossFire Edition @ Anandtech

2005-12-26T10:30:00.000-08:00

Anandtech has released their review of the Radeon X1800 CrossFire Edition video card and had these things to say about it: "

Performance is one of the high points of CrossFire in general. In many cases, the X1800 XT in CrossFire performs between the 7800 GTX SLI and 7800 GTX 512 SLI setups. Things may heat up even more when ATI brings out its R500 series refresh part to compete more directly with NVIDIA's top of the line king of the hill GeForce 7800 GTX 512.

But price is still an issue for ATI at the high end. With the 7800 GTX selling for between $450 and $500, finding two that fall somewhere between $900 and $1000 isn't a difficult task. With the X1800 CrossFire Edition at about $600 and the price of standard X1800 XT running between $500 and $550, shelling out $1100 or more dollars for CrossFire isn't a stretch. Unless the system is just made to eat money, one or two hundred dollars is a good savings for a comparable solution that is much more mature. And for those who want the best of the best (and really can afford to burn money), that's still going to be the $1400 dual 7800 GTX 512 setup.

And above all of this looms the shadow of availability. After an early morning look around, it doesn't look good. Some vendors have X1800 CrossFire Edition cards listed on their site, but they are all showing out of stock, back ordered, or early January ETAs on parts. With previous NVIDIA launches, we have seen product available for purchase before we published. With the 7800 GT launch, we even had parts listed for sale in our RTPE the weekend before we could talk about it. Without seeing anywhere to physically buy the hardware just hours before it is supposed to be publicly available does not give us a warm and fuzzy feeling about ATI's promises. But we are good sports, so we will keep checking throughout the day for any sign of an online vendor actually selling parts. AT"

The cards are currently available on several sites that I looked at this morning and while it is now a little late for Christmas, if you're considering a new multi-GPU setup, the ATI is a serious contender for your hard earned dollars or even the ones your granny gave you.

XFX 6600 DDR2 & MSI X1300 Pro

2005-12-11T09:00:00.000-08:00

bit-tech.net has a nice review of XFX 6600 DDR2 and MSI X1300 Pro two new players in the budget card market:

"It has been a long time since we had a look at some mainstream video cards - not everyone can afford a Radeon X1800XT or GeForce 7800 GTX. Over the last couple of months, both ATI and NVIDIA have launched new products. Namely, Radeon X1300 Pro and GeForce 6600 DDR2.

Today, we are evaluating the performance of two video cards from MSI and XFX based on ATI's Radeon X1300 Pro 256MB and NVIDIA's GeForce 6600 DDR2 256MB chipsets. We are also going to evaluate the performance of GeForce 6600 DDR2 in SLI, as we have not had a look at NVIDIA's mainstream SLI implementation until now. If you've only got $xx available for your upgrade to PCI-Express, we suggest you continue reading."
Yeah, what they said.

ATi Radeon X1600 XT @ ExtremeTech

2005-12-11T08:53:00.000-08:00

Review of Radeon X1600 XT at extremetech.com:

"Back on Oct 5, ATI announced an entire family of products, including the aforementioned X1800 and X1300 cards, plus a pair of midrange cards, the Radeon X1600 XT and X1600 Pro. Priced from $150 to $250 (depending on model and memory configuration), these cards represent the most interesting part of the market. This is the price sweet spot, where affordability best converges with performance and where most users spend their money. Unfortunately, the X1600 cards weren't scheduled to ship until the end of November, so we decided to hold our review, knowing that upcoming drivers would surely alter performance.
Today, we finally dig into the Radeon X1600 XT with 256MB of graphics memory: a $250 card that one would hope delivers some really fantastic bang for the buck. Let's find out how ATI's new architecture performs in a midrange graphics configuration."
The X1600XT puts ATi square in the thick of the battle for your mid-range graphics card dollars.

6800GS Video Card Review @ Beyond3D

2005-12-11T08:51:00.000-08:00

Beyond3D has a review of nVidia 6800GS video card:

"The NV42 chip has a slightly different configuration from the NV40 chip that the rest of the 6800s use, in that NV40's designed configuration contains 16 pixel processing pipelines and 6 vertex shaders, whereas this contains 12 pipelines and 5 vertex shaders. The configuration of the chip does actually match the configuration of the 6800 (standard) graphics card configuration, which shipped with disabled pipelines, using otherwise redundant chips. NV42 also uses TSMC's 110nm process, where NV40 made use of IBM's 130nm process - the smaller geometry size of the NV42 chip reduces its size, this the cost of the silicon per chip, as more chips can fit on a single wafer, which enables this 6800 GS configuration to come in at the mainstream price point."
nVidia's new card looks like a winner in the mainstream PCI-Express space.

X1300, X1600, X800 GTO AGP video cards

2005-12-08T04:02:00.000-08:00

As we opined only a couple of days ago that more new AGP cards would be forthcoming from both ATi and nVidia, we feel very prescient today. Why? Because it now appears that not only will we have the nVidia 6800 GS as we announced, but also AGP versions of ATi's X800 GTO, X1300, and X1600 video cards. The X800GTO AGP is expected to be available in stores as soon as next week. The X1300 and X1600 AGP cards will probably be in January sometime. ATi currently says they have not plans to make AGP versions of their X1800 series cards. Yeah, we've heard that before.

I also have heard a very flimsy rumor (meaning, I can neither confirm nor deny any part of it, and only pass it on here because it would be a great story if it were true) that nVidia is considering an AGP version of the GeForce 7800 video card. Will just have to wait and see on this one. I find it difficult to imagine that the video card manufacturers would abandon a market that has clearly not dried up so I will not be surprised to continue to see AGP cards appear for quite awhile.

ASUS EAX1800XL 256MB & HIS Excalibur X1800 XL 256MB PCIe graphics cards @ Hexus.net

2005-12-06T19:01:00.000-08:00

Hexus.net has released their dual review of ASUS and HIS X1800XL video cards:

"What to wish for in the Christmas stocking this year? For those of you looking to play the latest games on your PC, asking for a shiny, new graphics card may just be the ticket. Let's assume you've all been good boys and girls and Santa is willing to deliver a high-end PCI-Express-based graphics card. What would you choose? In the sub-300 pound sector would it be a GeForce 7800 GT 256MB or an ATI Radeon X1800 XL?

To make Santa's job that little easier, we're taking a look at two retail ATI Radeon X1800 XL cards from ASUS and HIS, respectively. Both retail at just under the 300 pound mark and are available immediately. How good are they? Are they better than NVIDIA's GeForce 7800 GT, and which should you buy, if any? Let's see if we can answer these questions in this dual-card review."

Some interesting comparisons to look at amongst the various competitors at the higher end of the performance spectrum. I like that Hexus includes 3DMark05 results.

Nvidia 6800GS AGP to arrive next week

2005-12-03T05:38:00.000-08:00

theinquirer.net is reporting that Nvidia 6800GS AGP cards will arrive next week:

"NVIDIA is fulfilling its promises and will start shipping its Geforce 6800 GS AGP cards next week. We already reported that Nvidia has a massive shortage of AGP chips and that it can not print enough 6600 based chips and bridge it back with HSI bridge chip. Its time for the new old card.
Unlike the 6800 GS PCIe, the AGP version will be based on good old NV40 chip and it will be native AGP card without any bridges. We still don�t know about the clock speeds but we heavily suspect that it will have the same clocks as its PCIe brother.
The card will start at a similar price - we expect $249 - and you should see some Etailers listing these cards in the next few days.
ATI is happily shipping its X800 and X700 based AGP chips and it's expected that X1600 based AGP cards won't take to long after its PCIe brother. Nvidia still hopes to cash in the Yule AGP shopping madness. "

Great news all around for those who have not upgraded to PCI-E yet. Looks like AGP is STILL not dead yet. I think there's just too large an installed base for the manufacturers to ignore at this point, especially since all those AMD 939 pin AGP boards that so many people have are still able to sport the newest processors. Until there are not boards out there that will do that and still have AGP slots on them, I think we'll continue to see some limited AGP video card releases to keep those dollars coming in.

Sapphire ATI Radeon X800 GTO² @ EliteBastards

2005-12-01T19:25:00.000-08:00

The fine folks over at elitebastards.com have posted a review of Sapphire ATI Radeon X800 GTO² and made these, as well as other observations:

"At first glance, there isn't anything all that exciting about the X800 GTO² , it looks like pretty much any other X800 GT or GTO board, with the usual cooler covering the core and RAM chips on the front side of the board, complete with requisite Sapphire-based sticker atop it.

However, take another look at the top right-hand corner of the board, and what do we see? That's right, the six-pin connector for external power used by PCI Express video cards - Something you won't see on any other Radeon X800 GTO parts.

The rear of the board utilises a heat spreader, covering the RAM chips on the back of the board to help draw heat away from them.

Given the default clock speeds of the board in question, you would probably expect RAM rated to around 500MHz (as indeed most X800 GTO boards make use of). But not in the case of Sapphire's X800 GTO² - Take away the heat spreader, and you find that this part makes use of 256MB of Samung's K4J55323QF GDDR 3 RAM, rated to a maximum clock of 600MHz! By now, you should be starting to see just how and why this board is aimed at enthusiasts in this price range...

The board's back plate gives us only one VGA and one DVI output, as well as the usual video out functionality - Despite being aimed at the enthusiast in other ways, no dual DVI outputs here I'm afraid, which is rather a shame.

A PCI Express power connector, 600MHz rated memory, unlockable pipelines - Do you think the X800 GTO² is a card for overclockers perchance?"

I've been telling people since this card came out that if they are on a tight budget and want to go PCI Express on the cheap, but desire a good graphics card that this one is an excellent choice. Not because it is so great right out of the box, but because it is a monster overclocker and as such often offers the performance of a much more expensive card.

X850 XT PE

2005-11-29T22:20:00.000-08:00

A new review of the X850XT PE video card at beyond3d.com:

"The Radeon X850 XT Platinum Edition is powered by the R481 chip which is the AGP variant of the R480, which is in turn, the Autumn refresh for the R420/3 i.e. Radeon X800 XT series. Like the R480 and R420 before it, this AGP version is still built on 130nm low-k process, continuing ATI's tradition of ramping clock speeds as production matures.
Although ATI's next generation X1000 series of graphics cards have been announced and released, it still looks as though there will be no high end AGP versions coming to market, even though the Rialto bridge could be employed, which currently still leaves the X850 XT Platinum Edition as ATI highest performance offering. With so many AGP systems still available we thought it would be useful to ascertain whether upgrading to ATI's flagship AGP board introduced in late February, or something of a similar performance, is a good decision as opposed to changing to a PCI-Express system. This is especially relevant considering Intel AGP systems are pretty much at a dead-end in terms of CPU upgrade path. "
These are really starting to come down in price now that the push for PCI-Express and the new X1000 series cards is on. So those of you still out there plugging away happily with your trusty AGP systems, keep this in mind when you're ready to upgrade to the best there is in AGP and look for some good bargains!

ATI All-In-Wonder Radeon X1800 XL at HotHardware

2005-11-24T08:13:00.000-08:00

HotHardware.com also has a review of ATI's All-In-Wonder Radeon X1800 XL:

"It has only been about six weeks since ATI officially unveiled their new Radeon X1K family of products, but the Canadian based graphics giant is already introducing a new addition to the line-up today. It probably comes as no surprise to many of you that, in parrallel with their X1K family of products launch, engineers at ATI were also hard at work on a brand new 'All-In-Wonder' featuring one of the company's new GPUs.
The culmination of their efforts is the new All-In-Wonder X1800 XL, pictured below. This card has all of the same features as the 'standard' Radeon X1800 XL, including a 16-pipeline, SM 3.0 class GPU clocked at 500MHz and 256MB of high-speed GDDR3 frame buffer memory. But in addition to the features offered by ATI's relatively new GPU, the All-In-Wonder X1800 XL also sports all of the multimedia functionality that the All-In-Wonder line of products is known for. We were recently given the opportunity to evaluate the All-In-Wonder X1800 XL and will present our findings on the following pages. Read on and feast your eyes on arguably the most feature-rich video card created to date"

Not much more to say about this than the last one. If you're building a media center PC and want it to last awhile before upgrades, this is your video card.

ATi X1800 XL All In Wonder

2005-11-23T10:22:00.000-08:00

Anandtech has produced their review of ATI's X1800 XL All-In-Wonder and had these comments:

"Many are familiar with ATI's All-In-Wonder series of graphics cards, which offer not only gaming power, but also various multimedia features such as TV playback and recording on your PC. ATI has released a few different versions of the All-In-Wonder, and for the most part, the multimedia aspects of them are similar. Recently though, we got a chance to look at the newest edition of the A-I-W, the X1800 XL A-I-W, and we are impressed with what we saw.

Obviously, the main difference between the X1800 XL A-I-W and past versions is the level of gaming power, which is highest here with the X1800 XL. The multimedia features have also been upgraded, and we'll look at that in the next section. The main features that the All-In-Wonder variation of this card provides are centered around video I/O, and the capabilities of this card make it quite useful to those who want an easy way to get video on to their PC. Due to the upgraded graphics performance, the X1800 XL A-I-W should look even more desirable to those gamers who want to be able to play the latest games and have some extra video options as well.

We'll be looking at all the different features of this card to give an idea of what it is capable of media-wise. We'll also take a look at how it performs in a few games relative to the competition, as well as what kind of power consumption we see for the card. As always, price plays an important part of the overall value of the part, and because we only know the suggested retail at the time of this writing ($429), there will be a fair amount of subjectivity here. That notwithstanding, there is no denying the X1800 XL A-I-W's potential, so without further delay, lets take a look at it. "

If you're building a serious media center machine and want TiVo like functionality, this is the best there is.

ASUS RADEON X1800 XT TOP

2005-11-23T10:15:00.000-08:00

xbitlabs has posted some news about theASUS RADEON X1800 XT TOP and had this to say about it:

"Chinese subsidiary of ASUSTeK Computer this week unveiled the EAX1800 XT TOP graphics card that is based on the ATI RADEON X1800 XT graphics processor and features increased clock-speeds, something which was expected to be made by ATI's add-in-board partners in an attempt to catch up with the performance of the GeForce 7800 GTX 512.
ASUS EAX1800XT TOP clocks RADEON X1800 XT graphics processor at 650MHz and 512MB of GDDR3 memory at 1550MHz, up from default speeds of 625MHz for the visual processing unit (VPU) and 1500MHz for the memory. The board from ASUSTeK is equipped with reworked cooling system that resembles those made by Arctic Cooling company. Furthermore, to guarantee stable operation, ASUS will equip its ASUS EAX1800XT TOP with external power supply.

ASUS EAX1800XT TOP
The manufacturer calls its development unique and claims that the part is going to become the world�s highest-performance RADEON X1800 XT-based solution. However, the company reveals no information about pricing and availability of the product. Earlier this week it was reported that some makers of Powered by ATI graphics cards consider overclocking the RADEON X1800 XT part from stock speeds.
RADEON X1800 XT is currently the highest-end product by ATI Technologies. The graphics processing unit features 16 pixel processors, 8 vertex processor, a brand-new architecture that supports Shader Model 3.0, high dynamic range (HDR) lighting and other innovations. Graphics cards based on the RADEON X1800 XT clock the chip at 625MHz and the memory on 1500MHz.

ASUS EAX1800XT TOP
ATI Technologies RADEON X1800 XT 512MB graphics card earlier this year beat nearly all performance records in currently shipping games leaving behind NVIDIA�s flagship GeForce 7800 GTX product."

This is an interesting looking product, but we'll have to wait to find out more about availability, pricing, and most importantly, performance. The overclock isn't very much only about 25MHz for the processor and 50Mhz for the memory clock, so I'm not sure this will be anything but a minor improvement. Unless there's more hidden under that cooling shroud than meets the eye.

7800 GTX 512 @ bit-tech.net

2005-11-22T04:27:00.000-08:00

bit-tech.net has unveiled their review of the nVidia GeForce 7800 GTX 512:

"Today we are looking at NVIDIA's response to the Radeon X1800XT 512MB, which goes by the name of GeForce 7800 GTX 512MB. It's questionable whether this is a direct competitor to the Radeon X1800XT 512MB based on MSRP, or whether it is just a case of keeping the performance leadership until ATI makes the next move.

There are some significant clock speed differences between the two GeForce 7800 GTX's. The 512MB version is clocked at an impressive 550/1700MHz, which compares to the conservative 430/1200MHz clock speeds on the reference 7800 GTX 256MB. Of course, most of NVIDIA's partners have been shipping GeForce 7800 GTX's clocked significantly higher than the reference clocks, and the likes of XFX's Extreme Gamer Edition at 490/1300MHz is a reasonably good match for the Radeon X1800XT. The GeForce 7800 GTX 512MB takes those clock speeds to the next level, with the help of the new cooling solution.

We have seen the heatsink design before on Leadtek's PX7800 GTX TDH Extreme. It's a dual slot heatpipe cooling solution with a copper base. The fins on the heatsink cover most of the video card and has a 92mm fan located above the core, blowing air across the fins in both directions. As with the Leadtek Extreme Edition, there is still the black heatsink covering the power regulation circuitry underneath the end of the cooler.

The fan is pretty quiet; however, we did notice some strange humming coming from the video card. We have asked several other publications about this and there was a varied response - some have experienced it in some situations, but some haven't experienced it at all. We feel that it might be a sample specific problem related to power regulation, as we didn't hear anything of the sort when we reviewed the Leadtek.

Another review of the baddest card in the land. The noise thing sounds rather concerning.

Geforce 6800GS to be available in AGP version

2005-11-18T08:11:00.000-08:00

theinquirer.com: has posted some interesting news.

"NVIDIA IS racing against time to introduce its new AGP cards. The Santa Clara based company is planning to enrich its AGP offering and to introduce Geforce 6800GS AGP cards. This card will solve its AGP shortage problem, or at least alleviate it a bit.
Nvidia is hoping to ship the cards in next two to three weeks, it's tight but with some luck Nvidia might hit the stores before its too late for the Yule madness shopping. We reported about Nvidia's lack of 6800 standard chip for AGP here but learned that it will replace it with new, old cards"

I think we're likely to continue to see announcements of some new and different AGP cards for quite awhile, given that the install base of AGP slot machines still FAR outweighs PCI-Express. Good news for those who aren't ready to upgrade the whole motherboard and video card just yet.

nVidia GeForce 7800 GTX 512 @ Video Card Review

2005-11-15T15:12:00.000-08:00

Based on our reading of the various reviews and comparisons between nVidia's 7800 GTX 512 and ATi's X1800 XT 512MB video cards, it seems clear that in most games and on most platforms, the nVidia card holds a slight performance advantage. I say slight, but it varies depending on the actual game being measured and what settings are used. There are some games where the difference is appreciable. The Doom 3 based games come to mind as obvious examples of this.

So the question is, should you spend $700+ on this video card? We don't think so. We're sure that it's a great video card. Really, we are. But currently it is selling at a $250 premium to the 256MB version of the card and $150 vs. the X1800XT at the various online retailers that we've checked. Is the quality of this card so much better? Sure, you can point to the numbers and say that it is faster in most games against the 256MB version of itself and most games vs the ATi card. But in the real world, what is the difference? Can you tell the difference while facing down the striders in HL2 between 135 and 116 FPS? While you're being hunted by evil spawn from hell in Doom 3, is the difference between 60 and 80 FPS at 1600 x 1200 resolution worth $7.50 per frame? We don't think so. Not if you're honest with yourself. Now, we're not saying that you should forget all the performance improvements and be happy with your old Geforce 2 or anything. There is a point where the difference is noticeable. I just don't think that it actually exists in a strong enough fashion in the case of this card vs. either the less expensive 7800 GTX or the ATi X1800Xt 512 to justify spending 25% more on it.

What do you all think? Would you spend the money? Will you wait for it to come down before purchasing?

nVidia 512MB 7800GTX at HotHardware.com

2005-11-15T14:59:00.000-08:00

HotHardware.com has contributed their review of nVidia 7800 GTX 512 video cardand had these words of wisdom to share:

"The launch of ATI's Radeon X1K family of graphics cards last month served multiple purposes. First, it allowed ATI to showcase their next-generation graphics hardware, well before the start of the holiday buying season. Something ATI needed to do after suffering from multiple delays. But it also served another purpose, one that wasn't quite so beneficial to ATI. The launch of ATI's Radeon X1K family of products also seems to have served as motivation to the folks at NVIDIA. Since the introduction of the Radeon X1K family of products, NVIDIA has released a series of new products, fleshing out various price points.
Over the last couple of weeks, NVIDIA introduced the new, budget-priced GeForce 6600 DDR2 256MB to combat the Radeon X1300 at the low-end. They have also released the GeForce 6800 GS to compete directly with the Radeon X1600 in the mainstream market segment, and Call of Duty 2 has been bundled with the GeForce 7800 GT to further entice prospective buyers. But today, NVIDIA is bringing out the big gun and releasing a new flagship product targeted squarely at ATI's Radeon X1800 XT.
In this article we'll be evaluating the new GeForce 7800 GTX 512MB. As its name implies, the GeForce 7800 GTX 512MB is a new version of the GeForce 7800 GTX with more frame buffer memory, but the new 512MB GTX differs from the 256MB version in a number of other ways as well. Read on to see was NVIDIA's got in store this holiday season..."

nVidia's GeForce 7800 GTX 512 at Tom's Hardware

2005-11-14T17:53:00.000-08:00

Tom's Hardware has released their first review of NVIDIA's GeForce 7800 GTX 512 and had this to say about it:

"The graphics race has never before been as ferocious as it is now. NVIDIA was crowned the dual graphics solution leader when it launched SLI, but it hadn't been able to claim the elusive single card 1st place spot until recently. On June 22 of this year, NVIDIA unleashed the 7800 GTX thatcame out of its cage with claws and teeth ravaging everything in its path.
Many moons passed before we even heard anything in the way of a response from the graphics camp in the Great White North. There was ATI's announcement of CrossFire dual graphics, but we never saw products hit the street. Even after a second 'hey we are here' launch of CrossFire, the consumer could still not buy CrossFire master cards nor motherboards.
Later, ATI announced the launch of the X1000 series of graphics cards and stole the single card crown back. Sort of. You couldn't even buy the launched cards until several days later.
Even now, we await the promised flagship card, the X1800XL. You can see SKUs for the card at E-Tailers such as NewEgg.com but the 'Out of Stock' label means that you still cannot get one yet. On the other hand, you can get the newly launched 6800GS or any of the other cards.
That doesn't seem to matter quite as much today, however, because NVIDIA is taking the crown back - in both single and dual configurations - with the 7800 GTX 512. And keeping with the precedent it created, it continues to deliver new products in volume to the system builders and retail shelves - today."

Despite my general impression that Tom's Hardware seems to be staffed largely by nVidia fan boys, it's a good review and contains a lot of useful information.

nVidia GeForce 7800 GTX 512 @ AnandTech

2005-11-14T17:52:00.000-08:00

Anandtech has posted their first look review of nVidia's GeForce 7800 GTX 512 and had this to say:

"This card should have gotten a different name. With hugely increased clock speeds, more memory, a beefy heatsink (the one used on the Quadro FX 4500), and a new board layout, the GeForce 7800 GTX 512 is one very powerful card. Oh yeah, and it's got more RAM too.

Earlier this month we started seeing ATI's new Radeon X1800 XT show up for sale. Today, ATI's high end part gets some revamped competition from NVIDIA's new offering. And even though we don't like the name, the 7800 GTX 512 is an excellent performer. Will the increased core and memory clock speed be enough for NVIDIA to topple ATI's high end monster? Will the additional memory make a tangible difference? The answers may not be as straight forward as they could be, but we were certainly excited to get our testing done and find out. "

Looks like nVidia is taking the bull by the horns. Very sweet that it is not simply a graft of a few more RAM chips onto the board, and is in fact a full upgrade part. Too bad about the cost being so high, though. However, it will come down after the initial buzz wears off so stay tuned.