Well well well... it's that time, finally! The new ATi graphics cards family is hitting re- and e-tail for sure. That means manufacturer reviews are just around the corner. It's always good fun to compare the manufacturer models against the ATi reference models. Today we will be reviewing the spanking new ATi Radeon x800 XT from HiS. HiS, my friends means Hightech Information System, a Hong Kong company that has been growing rapidly in Europe. They offer products with a reputation, products that set themselves aside from the competition.

HiS manufacturing plant.

Another product we reviewed from this company was their magnificent 9800 Pro IceQ model. We really liked that card as HiS managed to do something different compared to the competition, they opted for a cooling solution that was just brilliant. Properly equipped would be my choice of wording there.

This time around they are doing exactly the same thing, yet it's the x800 XT equipped with IceQ-II cooling solution from their Excalibur series. We've explained that naming in detail already on the previous HiS reviews, Excalibur... does it ring a bell? King Arthur's sword people, medieval times!

The model we received for this review is the best of the best in its series, it's the expensive ~575 USD limited edition with extra software title, Video In and Out (VIVO) and of course that lovely IceQ II cooling solution. That extra software title is EZpicture Digital photo software, on top of an already interesting software bundle. It doesn't end quite there though. The clock frequency for this product is slightly faster than reference design at 533 MHz for its core. There are only 1000 units of this limited edition available right now !

It's full name: HiS Excalibur x800 XT IceQ II VIVO 256 MB GDDR3 (Limited Edition). It's the new rocket fuel powered graphics card launched at a rocket facility in Honk Kong, so let's take a look at it, from a Dutch point of view, as it just flew into our lab.

Jeebus! Look at it go! The thing is on FIRE ! Gotta love Photoshop :)