The Verdict.
Well, with the small amount of time we had with this card I hope you were able to get a decent impression.
Just like other XL's we have reviewed I enjoyed every minute I spent with this one. Don't forget that cards like these are not just about gaming. Excellent media playback, niche HDTV capabilities. We have a Pioneer HDTV inbound BTW so in the near future we are going to do an article on HDTV ATI versus NVIDIA, performance, quality... the whole enchilada. Stay tuned to that.
Of course we need to focus on the essence and need of the 512 MB framebuffer, you need to cough up another 125-150 bucks for it, so is it worth it ? Undeniably 512 MB can make a performance difference here and there. But here and there equals a couple of games at 1600x1200 or higher right now with the highest possible image quality settings. If you really want to see a distinctive FPS increase then you actually need to bump up the resolution even higher. Yes I'm talking something in the area of 2048x1536 here. We actually limited by the boundaries of our CRT test monitor.
But let's not 'just' focus on performance here, I mean game developpers can drop an ammount of high-quality textures in the framebuffer that'll give them a huge smile on their face. In the end that will be your face as this is such an important aspect. So don't rule that out at all.
If you are the kind of guy/girl that finds stuff like this appealing (and I actually am such a geek) then you might as well chip in a few bucks more and go for it. But if I were in store right now and had to choose between a x850 XT 256 MB or x800 Xl 512 MB I'd simply go for the Radeon x850 XT. Both are roughly in the same price range and right now the XT offers more bang for your bucks. In the future undoubtebly 512 Mb will slowly become a standard in the sense that 256 MB right now is pretty common also.
If you have an LCD screen locked at 1024x768 or 1280x1024 then at this time there is absolutely no reason to buy a 512 MB graphics card at all as framebuffer this high equals high resolution plus IQ settings and in your case that's not relevant. Bare in mind that I'm stating this from a gamers point of view. There is however one thing to consider, in the near future we will see more and more support from games that'll love that 512 MB. So as you can see, the conclusion I need to draw here is a rather delicate one. This is a product for the true hardcore high-end gamers yet a very small selection, a very tiny part of the market would actually make full use of the extra memory.
Now then, my traditional little speech about my love for the entire XL series. The Radeon x800 XL series
is one of these value for money products currently available, a reasonably low price that will kick your PC's gaming ass for real. That price for the 512 MB version might be the biggest problem though as the manufacturer suggested retail price will be $449 USD, I expect it to e-tail for 400-425 USD though. Yes, it just lost it's mojo didn't it ? No, right now for the money my choice goes to the cheaper 300 USD x800 XL with 256 MB. That standard 256 MB XL offers twice the performance over the Radeon 9800 Pro series for a fantastic price. Now understand this, it is still a large amount of money for a graphics card that you need to spend, but that product at 300 USD is in the grasp of being a realistic buy.
In addition to this conclusion, the card performed absolutely stable. When we look at tweakability then I have to give two thumbs up to Sapphire as we reached a 450 MHz core easily and that 512 MB memory hit 554(x2) instantly without any issues.
We noticed a significant boost once overclocked. With this card you can play any modern game to date in high resolutions with quality setting like AA and AF with very good framerates. Remember, what you saw today were scores at a resolution of 1600x1200x32 with Antialiasing set at 6x and anisotropic filtering at 16x. The Radeon x800 XL is a raw mean framerate crunching machine.
Last bit : The 512 MB version... hmm that price needs to come down. Future games will absolutely love that doubled framebuffer though as the game programmers can store more or higher-quality textures in it. It's a grand piece of hardware to own.
Special thanks to ATI and Sapphire for making this review possible.
+++ ATH
Radeon X800 XL - 512 MB
Product type: Graphics card
Manufacturer: ATI - Sapphire
Website: www.ati.com
MSRP: 449 USD
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