Type	Radeon X700 Pro	Radeon X700 XT	Radeon X800 Pro	Radeon X800 XL	Radeon X800 XT	Radeon X800 XT	Radeon X800 XT Platinum Edition	Radeon X850 XT	Radeon X850 XT Platinum Edition
codename	RV410	RV410	R420	R430	R420	R423	R423	R480	R480
Interface	PCI-Express x16	PCI-Express x16	AGP	PCI-Express x16	AGP	PCI-Express x16	AGP/PCI-Express x16	PCI-Express x16	PCI-Express x16
Frame Buffer	256 MB	256 MB	256 MB	256 MB	256 MB	256 MB	256 MB	256 MB	256 MB
Core Freq	425 MHz	475 MHz	475 MHz	400 MHz	500 MHz	500 MHz	520 MHz	520 MHz	540 MHz
Memory Freq	433 MHz	525 MHz	450 MHz	500 MHz	500 MHz	500 MHz	560 MHz	540 MHz	590 MHz
Memory Controller	128 bit	128 bit	256 bit	256 bit	256 bit	256 bit	256 bit	256 bit	256 bit
Memory type	GDDR3	GDDR3	GDDR3	GDDR3	GDDR3	GDDR3	GDDR3	GDDR3	GDDR3
DirectX	9.0	9.0	9.0	9.0	9.0	9.0	9.0	9.0	9.0
Vertex Shaders	2.0	2.0	2.0	2.0	2.0	2.0	2.0	2.0	2.0
Pixel Shaders	2.0b	2.0b	2.0b	2.0b	2.0b	2.0b	2.0b	2.0b	2.0b
Vertex Shader Pipes	6	6	6	6	6	6	6	6	6
Pixel Shader Pipes	8	8	12	16	16	16	16	16	16
Extra Power-connector	-	-	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Chip - Transistors	120 mln	120 mln	160 mln	160 mln	160 mln	160 mln	160 mln	160 mln	160 mln
Chip - Fab Process	110 nm	110 nm	130 nm	110 nm	130 nm	130 nm	130 nm	130 nm	130 nm

Right then, the Radeon x800 XL sits in-between the mid-range x700 series and the high-end x800XT/850XT range, therefore initially I expected it would have 12 pixel pipelines to compete directly with NVIDIA's 12-pipe GeForce 6800, I was wrong, it's actually a 16 pipeline product at the same price level. There will be a 12 pipe solution for sure, it's called x800.

So why is this 16 pixel pipelined puppy performance wise somewhat slower then the top of the line then? That can be found in two central factors. First off, the cheaper 0.11 micron build does not allow a significantly high core speed at this time. We are looking at 400 MHz where the 0.13 micron 850 XT PE manages 540 MHz. Secondly, somewhat cheaper memory was used. The XL is using 2x500 MHz and that XT PE uses 2x590 MHz. Looking a bit closer at that memory we notice that it's manufactured by Samsung and is rated 2ns. 1000:2ns is a 500 MHz nominal clockspeed.

Other then that there really is not much differentiation, feature wise, between the Radon lineup. So you see, this is a somewhat caged VPU (graphics core) that would like to do more then it is allowed to. Keep this in mind when we will show you the overclocking results. 3D Feature wise this new R430 part does not differ from the x800 series or x850, except from what we heard some Power Management features and Thermal Throttling capabilities. Nothing noteable though.

The board
Flashback. Yes it looks 100% similar to the "older" x800 Pro and XT doesn't it? Well, that's because it is the same, the PCB is similar to the x800 XT (PCX), yet you of course recognize it immediately by the similar active fan. What more does the eye catch? That's right, did you spot it already? No external PSU connector is needed. Apparently the chip does feeds itself from the mainboard and does not need additional power from the power supply.

Radeon x800 XL - 256Mb gDDR3 memory

Back to the fan, board partners of course can use they own cooling solutions. In that matter I'm looking forwards to the HIS review.