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ATI Radeon X800SE 256MB AGP Review |
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Written by Mavke
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Friday, 29 October 2004 |
It seems Digit-Life gotten their hands on an ATI Radeon X800SE, as they have published a review about it. We have been looking forward to the third element in the R420 (X800) series for a long time. The fact is that from the very beginning nVidia announced three video cards based on NV40 (GeForce 6800): 6800 Ultra, 6800 GT, and just 6800 to occupy the main price niches in high-end sector ($499, $399 and $299 respectively). But canadian ATI contented itself with two items: Radeon X800 XT PE and X800 PRO with the recommended prices at $499 and $399.
 ATI Radeon X800SE 256MB AGP Review
Having appeared later, Radeon X800 XT did not push down X800 PRO from $399 to $299. It nicely settled down in the sector belonging to X800 XT PE, because the latter video card had been rarely seen on the shelves by common consumers.
Taking into account GeForce 6800LE appearing on sale after GeForce 6800, the american manufacturer has covered a larger market with its new products than the canadian one. ATI would not agree to launch a cheaper modification of X800 PRO, in order to fight back the increasingly popular GeForce 6800.
That's why it was crystal clear that X800SE would appear sooner or later, but what would it look like? Interestingly, there appeared no video card named Radeon X800 without any suffixes, and all ATI and nVidia suffixes do not match in any card.
Thus, we can see that in some up-to-date complex games Radeon X800SE is outscored by GeForce 6800, which has an average price of $320-330 in late October. That's why the retail price for X800SE must not exceed this figure, otherwise there would be no point in buying this product.
Our tests once again demonstrated that Radeon 9800XT and GeForce FX5950 Ultra are written off and conceptually dead without any chances to revive.
For those $380 (the price of Radeon X800SE) there is a point in buying Asus V9999GT, which is obviously stronger than X800SE. X800SE will become more attractive only when its prices drop to the acceptable level of $300.
But will it be profitable for ATI to sell these cards? Though if GeForce 6600GT with the same 2.0ns GDDR3 costs $200, then why not sell X800SE for $300, considering that the 128MB difference is well compensated by those $100. Plus – they are recycling the chips that do not qualify for X800 PRO. So, time will show. And now we can only watch how the canadian company rages about the leakage of X800SE and that regular customer must not have seen such cards at all. But the reality is against the dreamers from North America again. X800SE has entered the retail market. I suppose it's just a beginning.
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