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Overclocker's are facing
some of the toughest decisions that we've had to make in quite a long time.
Since the introduction of the AGP slot in fact. But these decisions are much
harder because when the AGP slot came into being, leaving behind the PCI bus was
almost a no-brainer. To leave behind AGP today, you'll also be saying hello
to new memory and a new processor if you stay on the Road of Intel. To make
matters worse, High-end PCI-Express video cards are still not readily available
and those that are could finance a trip to Mars. Souring the dough, DDR2 may be
faster but its increased latencies make for a questionable upgrade when you
consider the new processors are still only running on a 200MHz front side bus.
So what then do we do?
For some
the decision to charge into the new technology offered is as easy as waking up
to an alarm clock. However, there are also a whole lot of people in this world
that like to hit the snooze button. I fall into the latter category, and as such
when an AGP version of the X800XT came along, it was with glee that I accepted
the challenge of evaluating the card and putting it through its paces. The card
is from VisionTek from the XTASY line of 3D Graphics Accelerators.
The X800XT
represents the second rung of the ladder in top performance video cards. The
Coveted X800XT Platinum Edition is, for all intensive purposes, the same card
with the only differences being the clock speeds of the Graphics Processing Unit
(GPU) and DD3 video memory which has the obvious effect on overall performance.
While its true that Overclocking these top rung cards can produce amazing
results, the fact of the matter is that typically they don't have very much
headroom which puts a very large spotlight on the X800XT. Using any of
the widely available tools for adjusting the GPU and memory clock speeds, it is
very possible to achieve Platinum Edition speeds, and beyond.
So, just
what does an Overclocker get for $479.99
suggested retail price ?
• AGP Bus
• 500 MHz VPU Core
• 256MB Graphics DDR-3 Memory
• 256-bit Quad Channel Memory
Architecture
• Memory Clock: 500MHz
(1000MHz GDDR-3)
• Dual 400MHz DACs
• API Support: FULL DirectX® 9.0,
OpenGL® 2.0
• Connectors: VGA, DVI-I, VIVO
• 16 Super Charged Shader Pixel Pipelines
• 6 Geometry Engines
• Improved Z-caching
• Full HLSL and GLSlang support
• 3D Floating Point Textures
• Multiple Rendering Targets
• TRUFORM II High Order Surfaces
• HYDRAVISION™ III
• Video Capture (VIVO)
• HDTV Support
• Advanced pixel shader engine with 16 pixel
pipelines and 6 programmable vertex shader pipelines that deliver beautifully
rendered High-Definition 3D graphics.
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