Round Up and Comparison of X800 XL graphics cards
PCI Express x16 graphics cardsChipset X800 XL 256 MB, 256 bit
In general, there are three reasons why people buy more powerful graphics cards: higher frame rates, higher image quality with anti aliasing and anisotropic filtering, and higher resolution support. These three reasons are actually very closely related to each other. The faster the card is at processing polygon and textures, the more power it has to give playable frame rates with AA and AF at higher resolutions. Even if they price is higher, they're still worth the money - the more power a graphics card has, the higher frame rates you can enjoy at very demanding games, both the games that are coming out now or in the future.
Out of the available offerings from ATI, the X800XL is the most feasible choice. The faster XT and XT PE are still hard to find (even to this day), and not to mention very expensive. The main difference between each line in the X800 (and X850) series is core and memory clock, since they pretty much share the same architecture and design. ATI is also very likely will introduce new products (the X1800) to replace their aging high end offerings very soon, so no sense of putting money on the X800XT and XT PE (or even X850XT and XT PE). So then why still consider the X800XL? Price / performance - you can buy these cards for slightly more than half of the prices their asking for the X800XT, X850XT and the estimated price of next generation high end cards. Even compared to the X1600 series (if the rumored specifications are true), the X800XL has the bandwidth advantage to provide you with slightly higher fps, especially with AA and AF in higher resolutions.
Today, we're looking at four graphics cards based on the X800XL. They are (alphabetically) the ABIT RX800XL 256EDVIO, ASUS EAX800XL 2DTV256, GeCube X800XL 256 MB Uniwise and Gigabyte X800XL Silent Pipe (GV-RX80L256V).. While they're all based on reference boards, there are differences to ATI's own offerings (which we will get into later). Let's take a closer look at each of them.
Overview
ABIT RX800XL 256EDVIO
400/490 MHz
ATI Radeon X800 XL, 256 MB GDDR3Core Clock : 398 MHz
Memory Clock : 492 MHz (984 MHz GDDR3)
Overall Score: 92.5 points
Just by looking at the card, you'll easily notice that it ditches the reference cooling solution for a custom made one. The RX800XL is the only graphics card in this round up to have separate heatsinks for the RAM and the chip. One advantage of this approach is that the heat from the core doesn't spread to the memory chips. Unlike the core, the memory chips produces less heat, so passive cooling is enough. Another plus point to this design is that it can use air from the core's fan exhaust to cool the memory ram sinks (at least for the memory on the front). You'd still have to buy an extra fan to cool the memory on the back, but since they don't get hot enough, it's not necessary. To stick the ram sinks on the memory chips, ABIT used thermal adhesive, a necessity since they use a separate cooling solution. For the core, the heatsink is smaller than the other X800XLs, but that's not necessarily a bad thing - the copper heatsink used thicker stripes for a compromise between heat dissipation and noise (you can see them through the grates). Even with a smaller fan, the noise level is quite low, but more importantly the noise is not high pitched. There is a drawback to using a 'smaller' heatsink. Since it has slightly lower heat dissipation area, this card is hotter than the others.
The inclusion of two DVI output can be both a blessing and a curse. If you're using monitors with DVI input, it's a blessing but if you're using the two old analog monitors, you can only use one monitor since ABIT only bundle one DVI to analog dongle. You'd have to buy an extra one if you want dual monitor setup with analog monitors. For TV output, there's support for both RCA, composite and HDTV courtesy of the Rage Theater chip (on the back of the card). This means you also get video input capabilities with this card and ABIT has thoughtfully bundle some applications to make use of it. The cable / dongle is quite long, so you probably don't have to buy another cable (approximately 1,6 meters or 5 feet)- nice touch.
There's no game bundle for this card, although there's the before mentioned Cyberlink's PowerDirector and PowerDVD for playing DVDs and capturing videos. While the card has the ATI Overdrive feature, ABIT's own VGuru utility will not work with this card. You'll have to use to third party software for true, functional hardware monitoring, a shame really since the hardware is already available.
ASUS EAX800XL 2DTV256
400/490 MHz
ATI Radeon X800 XL, 256 MB GDDR3Core Clock : 392 MHz
Memory Clock : 498 MHz (984 MHz GDDR3)
Overall Score: 85 points
Easily the one with the biggest box, but not necessarily one with the most bundle. ASUS also used a custom heatsink for their EAX800XL for both chip and memory. This allows it to have a much larger heat dissipation area and a larger fan, made much more efficient with the presence of lots of thin stripes. However, there are some things we wish ASUS did different with this card, particularly their lack of cooling for memory chips. There are no cooling whatsoever for the memory chips on the back of the card. Even the memory chips in from are not directly in contact with the heatsink - a slight padding was used between the heatsink and the memory chip. We'd prefer a more direct contact, since it allows better heat transfer. Interestingly enough, the noise level is about the same as the ABIT RX800XL.
The ASUS EAX800XL 2DTV256 comes with two DVI outputs and for analog monitor users, there's the most needed DVI to analog dongle. Since the card also features the ATI Rage Theater chip, it also offers both video / TV out and input. Unfortunately, no HDTV output, but it is available as a bundle with a different card. The cable / dongle is quite long (approximately 1,6 meters or 5 feet), so you don't have to buy another cable or reach to the back of your PC to hook your TV up.
There's only one bundle game (Novalogic's Joint Operations) and no applications - a practice that is carried over from the EAX700 Pro. Another gripe we have with this card is compatibility with ASUS own SmartDoctor utility. In case you don't know, the SmartDoctor utility features hardware monitoring functions that monitors your card's temperature, fan speeds and voltages. However, the version that came with this card won't work at all. Even worse, it would crash the whole system every time it's run/ This happens both with the bundled drivers on the CD and ATI's Catalyst reference drivers.
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