The Verdict
Right; first let me get something out of the way as the introduction of this article was quite negative. Credit where credit is due, whatever we saw in the past has changed for the better. The card is nicely built, we experienced no weird things and most of all we noticed very nice image quality which worried me the most, in that respect I have to state "good job Tul." Now then, on the other side from a hardware point of view the card offers exactly the same as any other x800 manufacturer. Everything is 100% reference design and expect nothing more, or for that matter, nothing less.
ATi managed to strike back very sufficiently towards NVIDIA's Series 6 of GPU. Compared to the 6800 GT both cards have some advantages and disadvantages. But make no mistake, considering it's equal price the GeForce 6800 GT simply has the lead performance and feature (Shader Model 3 + 16 Pixel Pipes) wise. When you are in doubt what to buy, well look at the results as they speak for themselves.
Image Quality between both companies is just fantastic and so is the support. The ATI Radeon x800 series however is a little more CPU dependant then NVIDIA's Series 6. The optimal CPU for this card would actually be a 3 GHz processor (or Athlon 3000+). So once you have a decent system then this card might be a very nice option for you to look at as it offers very impressive performance. It still is based on a 2 year old architecture though, nobody can deny that. Nothing much has changed besides performance and additionally temporal AA and 3Dc.
You do need to realize though that the performance bump that we see in this new x800 generation was one of the most spectacular that we've seen in a long time. Even the x800 Pro manages to flat out beat the Radeon 9800 XT, yet the suggested 399 USD price tag is on the high side.
So you bought a Radeon 9800 Pro or XT? Don't upgrade just yet. They honestly are fantastic cards that will have more then enough horsepower to last another year at the least. When you are planning an upgrade from the mid-end segment let's say Radeon 9600 Pro/XT and you have some money to spare, by all means run to the shop as the difference in performance will be very noticeable.
Again, please do bare in mind that you need a rather powerful rig to get the most out of these cards, the x800 series is very CPU dependent.
Tul managed to present a card that simply offers downright fantastic gameplay for today's games in almost any resolution. Next to that we find a very decent software bundle that definitely complements this piece of hardware.
So all things considered the Radeon x800 Pro from PowerColor is definitely recommended, it does not perform or is quality wise below any other respectable manufacturer and therefore recommended.
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