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GeCube Radeon X800 PRO Review |
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Written by Phyro
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Wednesday, 06 October 2004 |
The GeCube Radeon X800 PRO has been reviewed by Hexus. The generational leap in performance from the old guard, Radeon 9800XT and GeForce FX5950 Ultra, to the new range of Radeon X800 and GeForce 6800 challengers, is massive. You might not notice it that much at 1024x768 with little or no AA and AF applied, but as soon as you crank up the resolution and AA and AF levels, the new boards come live, trouncing the outgoing performance champions by a long long way.
 GeCube Radeon X800 PRO Review
So it's no surprise to see every AIB partner that NVIDIA and ATI have come out of the woodwork with their partner boards, eager to claim a piece of the upgrade and new system build pie, putting the new boards into the hands of eager gamers looking to play the current generation of games and upcoming new titles (Doom 3 in less than a month, come on!) at new levels of speed and good-looking IQ.
GeCube are one such AIB partner. Formed in 1990 as a spin-off from Gigabyte, Info-Tek Corporation created the consumer brand GeCube to sell consumer graphics cards in Asia. Currently selling only ATI designs, they now trade their wares all over the globe.
Radeon X800 PRO pricing sits around the £280 mark in the U.K. at the time of writing and GeCube promise us that if you find the Radeon X800 PRO Counter-Strike: Condition Zero Limited Edition in the U.K. or indeed elsewhere, it'll be competitive with any and all Radeon X800 PRO pricing from other manufacturers.
Given that, and the derivative PRO performance (no bad thing!), it's hard not to recommend the card to anyone who asks. If you're desperate for Radeon X800 PRO, if NVIDIA's hardware isn't your thing or you're annoyed with GT availability at the moment, GeCube's board is as good as any to spend your money on.
However, the shadow of GeForce 6800 GT looms large over any potential Radeon X800 PRO purchase. It's simply a bit faster overall. Of course there are size and heat considerations that make a PRO the perfect companion to a small form factor box, should that be your target system.
If the conclusion smacks of swings and roundabouts, that's because it is when choosing a graphics card at £300 these days. Both Radeon X800 PRO and GeForce 6800 GT offer awesome performance for the money, way ahead of what you can get with Radeon GeForce FX5950 Ultra and Radeon 9800 XT. It all boils down to pricing and to some extent features (SM3.0 support, VIVO, to name just two).
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