Conclusion

Conclusion
Well sorry... but I just can't help it, it's the X-Factor. I just really like HiS products and this again demonstrates a really good product. Let's sum it up a little. This product is of course targeted at the enthusiast gamer with the high-end rig, and when I say high-end I really mean high-end rig! We already demonstrated in this article that the x800 XT has an extraordinary hunger for powerful CPU's. You really need a 3 GHz P4 or Athlon equivalent or faster system to benefit the most from this card, keep that in mind if you are below 3 GHz and do not plan to upgrade anytime soon.

As you know we just tested the Limited Edition of the HIS Excalibur X800XT IceQ II VIVO, I'd like to rename it though... it really needs a name with "rocket fuel powered beast" in it. Games in the upcoming 12 months will run at a performance level that is downright breathtaking. When ATi converted their technology from 8 towards 16 pixel pipelines, together with NVIDIA they made the biggest performance jump in the history of graphics cards. Nothing much has changed besides performance and additionally temporal AA and 3Dc though.

Another big plus is of course innovative IceQ-II cooling. By itself it did not do any wonders in terms of overclocking but that's as always a little board dependant, we did not receive an engineering sample. This was the real deal, a production line board. What we can say is that it cools down the graphics core very sufficiently and also very important, it's just downright silent. More importantly, heat is exhausted outside the PC case making this one of the best solutions to have in your gaming-rig rendering my comments I had on the reference design preview obsolete.

Lift-off people, we have lift-off !

This version of course was the Limited Edition and had all bells and whistles, which makes it really expensive, it's the only thing not to like about it. Then again if you are willing to pay ~500 USD for a graphics card I'd say chip in an extra 15% and you have this unique cooling + additional extra's for not a lot of extra money. We really like the software package and VIVO functions. A little free bonus is PictureEZ Premium Digital Photo Suite. Yes I know it's title sounds dull, but have a look at the link okay? Installation was as easy as a breeze, no problems at all. Stability then, it never crashed even once. All in all a job extremely well done from HiS!

Last line and then I'll shut my trap, the card is simply fantastic to play any of today's and future games with. Yet to get the best bang out of your bucks I do recommend that you have a really decent system, match the card towards your system as the XT might be a bit overkill as it really is CPU dependant.

As we expected HiS managed to once again stay above the competition, and they did just that. The IceQ-II solution on the x800 series simply is a must have for the high-end gamer with silence in its mind. I'm absolutely breathless, as this is an astonishing package.

A special thanks to HiS for granting us the opportunity to review their products, you guys are becoming a very strong brand here in Europe, it's very nice to see that. You really can't go wrong with a HiS product can you ?

To be continued as we still have ther Pro model to review ;)

The cheapest on-line price for the x800 Pro 
The cheapest on-line price for the x800 XT Platinum Edition 

Product type: Graphics card
Manufacturer: HIS
Website: www.HISdigital.com

HiS x800 XT IceQ II VIVO Limited Editon