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PowerColor Radeon X1800 GTO 256MB PCI-E Review |
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Written by Mavke
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Monday, 05 June 2006 |
Bjorn3D comes up with a review on the PowerColor Radeon X1800 GTO 256MB PCIe graphics card. This year we have the Radeon X1800 GTO going against the GeForce 7600 series and the Radeon X1900 GT later this summer. ATI's Radeon X1800 GTO came in late to the game, it's been delayed more than once and was supposed to be available at launch sometime in March. On the other side, NVIDIA's GeForce 7600 was going at full force scoring major points and gaining trust among users. Anyhow, Tul along other AIB's were first to ship GTO's for masses. Better late than never, I have the PowerColor Radeon X1800 GTO on the bench for you to check out.
 PowerColor Radeon X1800 GTO 256MB PCI-E Review
Some of you might have already heard of GTO mods, but most of the time it's impossible because of laser cuts which disables one quad. So how do they do it you ask? Well, some partners did not get much love from ATI on getting those laser locked GTO chips. Instead they've used leftover XL GPU's, flashed the cards with reworked BIOS and voila a branded GTO. Now if you have the special card you just use a PowerColor Radeon X1800 XL BIOS, flash your board and enjoy 16 pipelines! As with every new generation of GPU's the feature set becomes larger and more complex.
The Radeon X1800 GTO and XL look alike. In a sense they are the same cards just carrying a different chip. That silicon can be either a full fledged R520 or a locked up R520 with disabled quads and texture units, it all depends on the vendor and which chips they get. Some AIB's will actually sell Radeon X1800 XL's branded as GTO's, the catch is they come with custom BIOS which disables 4 pixel pipelines. If you're lucky enough to get the card you should be golden to unlock it. Anyway, the size of both cards is the same, so is the length. Obviously you won't find XL sticker, but that's a cosmetic change.
Without a doubt, the PowerColor Radeon X1800 GTO is one of the best performing cards in its class. Bringing the price point of R520 to $235 gives it a good run for the money. Obviously there are drawbacks to it such as less pixel shaders, textures and ROP's, but if you cannot shell out about $320 green for an XL it's the best money can buy. Maybe you'll be lucky enough and get the special moddable card? Let's not forget these cards can overclock damn well. The sample I've received had its memory going all the way up to 675MHz and artifact free. I'm hoping more of those GTO's can pull that on stock voltages.
If I were to recommend this card to someone it would definitely be people entering the gaming scene, something above entry level with a bit of more juice. Let us not forget about CrossFire, Avivo and HDTV support which is carried by the GTO. We are certainly hoping to see Radeon X1800 GTO16's soon on the market, this has been already done by Tul with their PowerColor Radeon X800 GTO16 so keep your eyes open.
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