Radeon™ X800 Reviews

ExtremeTech
" Doom 3 can actually benefit from a 512MB frame buffer, since its Ultra High mode loads all of its 3D resources into graphics memory completely uncompressed. If you don't have a 512MB frame-buffer, you'll experience severe cache-thrashing, since the needed resources have to be constantly paged in from system memory over the PCI Express interface. We were able to run the X800 XL at 1600x1200 with 4xAA, 8xAF, and Ultra settings enabled."

"As you can see, there is a significant pickup by having the 512MB frame buffer, with that card running about 54% faster, and getting you quite a bit closer to the target frame rate of 60fps for shooters."

"Again, we're seeing some impressive scaling [in Half-Life 2], where the 512MB board pulls ahead by about 45% on average between the two timedemos. Note the larger differential between the different-sized frame buffers on the Canals test, likely due to the intensive water shader that's in many of this timedemo's scenes. We dialed up the settings to 1600x1200 with 6xAA and 16xAF on the Canals timedemo and found about the same relative performance: The 512MB card was running about 62% faster at 40fps, whereas the 256MB card was down around 25fps."

The Tech Report
"Half-Life 2 is loaded with massive textures, making it a perfect environment to test the benefits of 512MB of graphics memory. We tested performance with two custom demos that show off different parts of the game. In-game detail levels were set to their highest setting. The X800 XL 512MB stretches its legs in Half-Life 2, offering better performance than the 256MB card, particularly at higher resolutions."

"512MB of graphics memory is an important milestone, and Half-Life 2 certainly indicates that the jump from 256MB can have a significant impact on performance. "

“…gameplay with DOOM 3's Ultra quality setting is smoother on the Radeon X800 XL 512MB than with the 256MB card. 256MB graphics cards tend to stutter a little with DOOM 3's Ultra quality mode, but the Radeon X800 XL doesn't exhibit this behavior."

PC Perspective
"Overall, I was impressed with the performance of the X800 XL 512 MB card."

Andrey Khonich, Senior R&D programmer, Crytek
“ATI is allowing us to raise the visual quality bar and deliver a new level of realism never seen before in real-time video games,”

Jørgen Tharaldsen, Product Director, Funcom
“The new 512 MB cards from ATI will allow us to increase the visual quality of our games and take graphics in forthcoming games to an unprecedented level,”

Chris Taylor, CEO/Creative Director, Gas Powered Games
“When we received the new 512 MB video card from ATI, we got final, absolute confirmation that the future of PC gaming was not only bright, it is undoubtedly going to lead the way to next-generation gaming experiences. ATI totally gets it and is leading the charge!”

Bo Anderson, CEO, Grin
"ATI gave us the head start we needed to develop for the new generation of 512 MB platforms. Developing on the absolute edge of what a PC can do, 512 MB hardware has really allowed us to increase both visual quality and speed. Gamers should be really excited by what a doubling of memory can do,”

Ian Moran, Lead Programmer, Juice Games
"No matter what the shader model, having the space to store the best high definition textures local to the VPU is critical. This is particularly important in true next generation development, with complex materials requiring concurrent access to multiple high definition source maps. That, along with techniques using multiple render targets for deferred rendering components and demand for high definition, anti-aliased back buffers mean that the new 512MB development platform from ATI offers us important new degrees of freedom," said

Tim Rance, Chief Technical Officer, Lionhead Studios
“The 512MB of memory on ATI’s card makes our games run at high frame rates even on scenes with very high amounts of textures,”

“Our games run more smoothly in these cases because everything can be stored in video memory with no thrashing of the texture cache.”

Markus Maki, Director of development, Remedy
“We developers always like getting more of everything to play with and 512 MB of memory allows us to push visuals much further. With such an immense amount of memory at our disposal, we can get closer to realizing Remedy's vision of cinematic gaming,”.

Gary McTaggart, Graphics Architect, Valve
"The Radeon X800 XL 512MB has both immediate and long-term advantages,"

"Texture thrashing during a frame render is drastically reduced or eliminated. This is even more beneficial in the case of High Dynamic Range rendering (HDR), which we are in the process of releasing for the Source engine, where environment and light maps are eight times as large. Further down the road, memory hungry technologies like 3D textures, used in things like procedural noise for detail textures, some fog algorithms, and color correction, will benefit as well from the capabilities of this new card."

CNET.com
“ATI's new Radeon™ X800 XL is a high-end card with a midrange price. Designed to provide excellent 3D performance at a reasonable price, the X800 XL doesn't disappoint. Based on our 3D gaming tests, the $299 X800 XL delivers stellar graphics performance, rivaling that of Nvidia-based competitor cards such as eVGA's $399 e-GeForce 6800 GT. The X800 XL 3D is not only fast, it's also quiet while it goes about its business. It's currently the best bargain for a high-performance graphics card, and it earned our Editors' Choice award.”

“The ATI Radeon™ X800 XL is unmatched when it comes to providing top-notch 3D speed at a low price. It's our current favorite standalone card."

Hothardware.com
“For many of you, the really exciting part of today's announcement is the Radeon X800 XL. A 16-pipeline video card for less than $350 that uses a single-slot cooler and doesn't require supplemental power sounds quite appealing.”

Techreport.com
“The more interesting developments in the Radeon lineup, for a cheapskate like me, are the lower-priced, R430-based options like the Radeon X800 XL.”

HardOCP.com
“What is probably the most exciting about this announcement are the products that we didn’t have to preview for you today, and those are the X800XL and X800. These video cards are going to offer a lot gaming goodness to a lot of people. To make it simple, we are basically talking about a 110nm (.11um process) X800 core with 16 or 12 pixel pipelines at 400MHz dropping into the US$250 to US$350 range. This will surely give NVIDIA’s 6600 GT 256MB series a run for their money and we can’t wait to see how these cards stack up against a “vanilla” 6800 that is currently selling for around US$300.”

Extremetech.com
“With an MSRP of $299, the X800 XL fits very nicely into ATI's lineup of X800 GPUs, and delivers solid performance for its target price point. “

HARDocp.com
“Directly comparing the ATI Radeon X800XL to the similarly priced GeForce 6800OC, you can see that in FarCry that the X800XL offers a much better quality of gameplay.”

Comparing performance directly to the GeForce 6800OC we found the Radeon X800XL simply offered a better gaming experience. The BFGTech GeForce 6800OC can be found for a price around $298 online. What we have here are two cards that are similarly priced but one, the Radeon X800XL, is offering much better gaming performance and allowing higher quality settings.

The fact that the Radeon X800XL does not require any external power connector, and does seem to be running cooler than X800XTs, will be a boon for OEM system builders as well as small form factor owners. You don’t have to worry so much about a beefy power supply and heat build up.

The best bang for the buck currently is the Radeon X800XL, which at a MSRP of $299, is $100 cheaper than any PCI-E GeForce 6800GTs we can currently find for sale. For the price, the ATI Radeon X800XL is offering a lot of performance in current games. “

firingsquad.com
“Its raw specs are unmatched, with the highlight of course being the 16-pixel pipeline architecture running at 400MHz, 50MHz higher than the GeForce 6800 GT.”

“By pairing the Radeon X800 XL with the same 500MHz memory used on the now discontinued Radeon X800 XT, ATI ensured its potential for success.”

“But the real kicker going for the Radeon X800 XL is price. At $300, nothing else from NVIDIA comes close to offering the kind of performance ATI is delivering at that price point. The GeForce 6800 is now in dire need of a replacement or price cut, as the Radeon X800 XL clearly delivers more bang for the buck.”

“In any case, ATI’s Radeon X800 XL is poised to retake the mainstream segment by storm, and all indications are that ATI has a real winner on their hands here: NVIDIA’s GeForce 6800 and 6800 GT have just been outclassed by the Radeon X800 XL. It will be interesting to see how NVIDIA responds…”

CNET.com
Unequivocally the most powerful graphics card on the market, ATI's Radeon X800 XT Platinum Edition hands Nvidia's new card a stunning defeat.

Tomshardware.com
ATI's X800 Pulls Off Another Coup in the Graphics Performance War.

In our opinion, the most impressive thing about this card is how little effort ATI needed to reach the performance we saw here. The power consumption of the Radeon X800 XT is about the same as that of its predecessors in 3D applications. Additionally, the cards require only one auxiliary power connector and don't need an especially potent power supply like the GeForce 6800 Ultra does.

Hardocp.com
The Radeon X800 XT Platinum Edition goes even further and burns through these games like a hot knife through butter, besting NVIDIA’s 6800Ultra by an easily noticeable real-world margin. If the flagship is what you want, be assured the ATI Radeon X800 XT Platinum Edition was the top performer allowing us to play today’s demanding games at higher resolution and quality settings than any 3D graphics accelerator we have ever experienced.

CNET.com
ATI's new 3D cards demonstrate marked superiority over Nvidia's new high-end chip, proving themselves faster overall in a smarter design… The 256MB ATI Radeon X800 XT Platinum Edition trounced Nvidia's new GeForce 6800 Ultra so soundly in our tests that there is no longer any question: ATI's new graphics card is the best product of its kind.

XbitLabs.com
This is FarCry with the highest settings possible. This is 1600x1200 resolution with 4x full-scene antialiasing and 16x anisotropic filtering activated. This is the Radeon X800. And this is absolutely playable. No comments are required for 85% performance improvement over the competing GeForce 6800 Ultra.