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ATI Radeon X800 XT Platinum Edition

Nvidia GeForce 6800 killer?

Ultimately though, all these figures are not really showing the true performance of each card since the CPU just can't cope with the speed of these graphics chips.

We ran both an X800 XT and an X800 Pro on the 3.2GHz Prescott system, and the results showed that the faster CPU does make a significant difference. If you look down the graphs on the following pages you can see differences in the scores that equate reasonably to the differences in specification between the XT and Pro cards.

However, if you look at the graphs for the Far Cry benchmark, you'll see that even running a 3.2GHz CPU is severely limiting the performance of the XT card. Looking at Far Cry on the X800 Pro shows a steady drop in performance as features are turned on and resolutions are raised. But looking at the performance for the XT card shows that all the tests at both 1024 x 768 and 1280 x 1024 produced almost identical results. This means that the card is completely CPU limited, and it's only when the resolution is pushed up to 1600 x 1200 that you can see any deviance in the numbers.

X800 XT vs 6800 Ultra - Far Cry

Strangely, when we first ran Far Cry, there were some severe texturing problems, where dry land transformed magically into water at random moments. However, while I was waiting for ATI to get back to me with a fix for this issue, it cured itself with no intervention necessary. I'm not sure what caused this issue, but I am assuming that it won't be rearing its head when production boards hit the street.

X800 XT vs 6800 Ultra - Unreal Tournament

It's clear to me that to fully test the ATI Radeon X800 XT and the Nvidia GeForce 6800 Ultra, you're going to need one of the fastest PCs on the planet. To this end, we're going to try and get hold of/build/steal/pray for such a machine and then get these cards back in the labs for some more tests.

One thing is for certain though, we have crossed the boundary of a new generation of graphics hardware, and this time it's not just marketing hype, it's the real deal.

The Radeon X800 is one heck of a graphics solution, and the fact that ATI has managed to squeeze this much performance out of a part that draws less power than its predecessor is a truly stunning achievement.

It's impossible to say whether ATI or Nvidia is going to win the graphics battle that's looming this summer, but for once it looks like the consumer is in a win-win situation. However, with the explosion in popularity for small form factor systems, that has to put ATI in a slightly stronger position as far as market share goes.

Verdict

Like Nvidia a few weeks earlier, ATI has managed to significantly raise the bar for graphics performance. The X800 XT is a blindingly fast card, but to be honest, there are few out there who'd be disappointed with the performance of the X800 Pro. All we have to do now is wait for production boards, and for the CPU manufacturers to produce something fast enough to get the most out of the latest graphics chips. ®

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Nvidia GeForce 6800 Ultra
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