.

     At first, we wondered why ATi had not taken advantage of the extra 35MHz that we had found, but the benchmarks helped us to understand why. As with other ATi based video cards we have tested in the past, sometimes the performance will actually drop when you max out the GPU. Although the video card seems to be performing solid as a rock, there must be some hidden errors taking place that cause the GPU performance to drop off. Take a look at the final benchmarks and the graph comparing default tests to overclocking tests and you'll see just what I'm talking about.

     Overclocking the GPU made almost no difference in the gaming benchmarks. This pretty much tells me that the GPU clock speed is best left alone.

     3DMark told us a completely different story. While gaming benchmarks said leave the GPU alone, 3DMark was screaming at us to overclock the GPU! Every test we conducted in 3DMark showed a nice increase with the GPU overclocked.

Conclusion

     Looking back at our tests on the X800XT, X800 Pro, 9800XT and so on, it's easy for me to say that the X850XT Platinum Edition is the best and the fastest video card we have ever seen. The card has everything any computer enthusiast could ever want, but like most things it's not completely perfect. I hate to be nitpicky, but I feel that the cooling system could be a little better by using a larger copper heatsink. With the amount of heat this card produces, better cooling couldn't hurt. As far as overclocking goes, we have found that this particular video card is best left alone. There really is no performance to be gained in the real world of gaming and in some cases you can actually hurt your performance more than you help. When it comes to price, this card is also the most expensive video card offered by ATi right now. It's really hard to believe that ATi could sell any at this price, but there are some people who will sacrifice anything to have the best video card money can buy, even if it's this month's rent...

     Bottom line, it's the best video card ATi has to offer at this point in time. No tweaking needed, just install it and game away!

The Good:
 - Ultimate performance!
 - No tweaking needed.
 - Exceptional quality.
 - Quick and simple upgrade.

The Bad:
 - Expensive and hard to find.
 - Cooling system could be better.