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GeCube Radeon X1800 GTO 256MB PCI-E Review |
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Written by Mavke
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Wednesday, 05 April 2006 |
Hardware Zone shares a review on the GeCube Radeon X1800 GTO 256MB PCIe graphics card. The GeForce 7600 GT announced at CeBIT in early March was a shot in the arm for NVIDIA's ageing mid-range products using the older GeForce 6 architecture. Subsequently, we have all seen the budget version in the form of the GeForce 7600 GS. Against existing ATI mid-range cards like the Radeon X1600 series, these new NVIDIA cards would probably replicate the same blockbuster success that the GeForce 6600 GT enjoyed to the detriment of its ATI rivals. But even before the GeForce 7600 GT came into the picture, ATI has been working on a new upper mid-range contender. This was the Radeon X1800 GTO.
 GeCube Radeon X1800 GTO 256MB PCI-E Review
The original line of GTO cards from ATI has done quite well in the market. Featuring a ragtag mixture of older cores, these cards were decent mid-range performers that provided good value provided you had no need for fancy Shader Model 3.0 class effects. The Radeon X800 GTO˛ also delighted tweakers as they soon unlocked its pipelines and overclocked it to its full potential, one that matched the much more costly Radeon X850 XT Platinum Edition. Therefore, what ATI did was to reproduce this winning formula, this time using the R520 cores of its somewhat successful Radeon X1800 series.
First, let us say that ATI has more than satisfied its original goal of developing a new mid-range alternative that can compete with the GeForce 6800 GS. The performance of the Radeon X1800 GTO was quite competitive with the newer GeForce 7600 GT, a card that soundly beats the GeForce 6800 GS in all departments. The benchmarks showed the Radeon X1800 GTO winning and losing its fair share, with the edge going to ATI when more graphically intensive resolutions and settings were enabled. This was the bandwidth advantage of the 256-bit wide memory bus on the Radeon X1800 GTO.
In terms of technology, we believe that ATI has the upper hand on paper. From the wider memory bus to the other highlights of the Radeon X1K series architecture that we have mentioned before, the Radeon X1800 GTO is a true scion of the Radeon X1800 series. Even if you ignore all the fanciful architectural acronyms, since they are woefully underutilized so far by game developers, and concentrate on the tangibles, the Radeon X1800 GTO still seems to have the better hardware compared to its closest competitor from NVIDIA, the GeForce 7600 GT.
But both ATI and NVIDIA are in the business of making graphics cards. The market decides who will prevail. However, in the mid-range segment, performance will always have to be tempered with price. Here is where we think that ATI' latest card may falter. Its recommended retail price of $249 is already more than the $199 of the GeForce 7600 GT. Of more immediate concern is whether ATI is able to cut the costs of producing the expensive R520 cores. The sheer number of the 321 million transistors of the R520 will keep the Radeon X1800 GTO at a certain price level above that of the GeForce 7600 GT.
So we are not expecting ATI to be competing against the GeForce 7600 GT on price alone. It will probably focus its efforts on marketing its superior technology, leading to better anti-aliasing and HDR performance for example and even the extra dual-link DVI-I connector. Even the Rage Theatre chip onboard enabling video capturing functions plays a pivotal role in justifying the cost of the Radeon X1800 GTO. Going solely by price to frame rates ratio, the cheaper GeForce 7600 GT is a giant stumbling block for the Radeon X1800 GTO, despite the fact the latter has an amazingly low noise output.
As you can see, the Radeon X1800 GTO has a very interesting proposition, but it's not without the steeper price and a tough competitor to handle. In the end, it all boils down to what kind of factors you hold in high regards to buying a new mid-range graphics card. Returning to the GeCube Radeon X1800 GTO, it is understandably a reference card so don't expect to find GeCube's own hybrid cooler or overclocked cores. Instead, GeCube's average bundle is probably the only input added by the vendor, as there is not even a GeCube decal on the cooler.
It probably also means that the GeCube will be competitively priced among the other Radeon X1800 GTO cards in the market. Overclocking was quite decent so enthusiasts could probably push the GeCube further with some success. Of course, things would be very different if someone manages to unlock the disabled pipelines on the Radeon X1800 GTO. If that's ever possible, then all bets are off and we could well see a repeat of the Radeon X800 GTO˛.
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