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Sapphire Radeon X800 XT AGP Review |
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Written by Mavke
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Monday, 27 September 2004 |
It seems this Monday is a good day cause also FiringSquad has published a new review. With the Radeon X800 XT Platinum Edition cards still practically impossible to find, ATI has turned to a new VPU to kill nVidia's GeForce 6800 GT: Radeon X800 XT AGP! Up for review today is Sapphire's Radeon X800 XT, this AGP card ships with a 500MHz core and high-speed 1GHz GDDR3 memory, but costs less and will be easier to find at retail. See how this card performs in comparison to the Radeon X800 XT PE and X800 PRO, as well as the GeForce 6800 GT and Ultra...
 Sapphire RADEON X800 XT AGP Review
Sapphire's Radeon X800 XT is a strong performer thanks to its
Radeon X800 XT VPU. This chip is clocked at 500MHz core/500MHz memory, coming
close to the X800 XT Platinum Edition's clock speeds of 520/560MHz and has all
16 pipelines enabled, just like the X800 XT PE. This allows the Sapphire Radeon
X800 XT to perform similarly to the more expensive Radeon X800 XT Platinum
Edition, in much the same way nVidia's GeForce 6800 GT performs similarly to the GeForce
6800 Ultra.
This presents an interesting match up, as the GeForce 6800 GT
and Radeon X800 XT square off naturally against one another. In this contest
it's a draw: ATI X800 XT wins in the titles you'd expect them to win in, while
the GeForce 6800 GT wins in the titles it has traditionally performed well in.
Despite this, the introduction of the X800 XT AGP is good news for ATI, as the X800 PRO was having a
tough time competing for dominance with the GeForce 6800 GT, and even if the
X800 XT Platinum Edition were available in sufficient quantities, it's probably
priced too far out of reach to compete with GeForce 6800 GT for most consumers;
the X800 XT PE's natural competitor is the GeForce 6800 Ultra.
With its
$450 price tag, the X800 XT is priced close enough to the 6800 GT to make
consumers who were previously locked in on the GT think twice about that
purchase, while the X800 XT Platinum Edition will continue to hold the high-end
of the market. Contrary to rumors, the PE won't be going anywhere anytime soon.
In fact, ATI expects availability
to pick up in the coming weeks.
Until that occurs, Radeon X800 XT cards
like the Sapphire Radeon X800 XT should be more than capable of keeping
gamers and hardware enthusiasts happy. You've been pleading with ATI to release a less expensive,
fully-featured version of the X800 XT Platinum Edition for months and ATI has finally listened.
In
closing, Sapphire's X800 XT
is an excellent performer with a game bundle consisting of two very good games
and all the hardware accessories you'll ever need and then some. Based on all
this, we see no reason why this card won't be another huge success for Sapphire. Enthusiasts have
sought after Sapphire
cards in the past due to their use of high quality components, and as the memory
modules on our board shows, this hasn't changed!
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Last Updated ( Monday, 27 September 2004 )
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