Original URL: https://www.theregister.com/2004/12/01/review_ati_x850_xt_pe/

ATI Radeon X850 XT Platinum Edition

Just as ATI's X800 XT PE ships, along comes the next board

By Trusted Reviews

Posted in Personal Tech, 1st December 2004 14:05 GMT

TrustedReviews.comReview Way back in May I looked at the ATI Radeon X800 XT Platinum Edition graphics card. This was ATI's next generation graphics solution, and it took graphics performance to the next level. However, even though the X800 XT PE was a great card, it soon became apparent that no one could buy one. As the days, weeks and months ticked by, finding a retail X800 XT PE didn't become any easier and many potential buyers settled for X800 Pro cards instead, writes Riyad Emeran.

However, as we roll into December, stock of X800 XT Platinum Edition cards is finally starting to arrive. So this seems like a strange time for ATI to be superseding its high-end graphics solution. Yep, that's right, even though it's only just becoming available in the retail channel, the X800 XT PE has been usurped by ATI's latest and greatest graphics solution, the Radeon X850 XT Platinum Edition.

ATI Radeon X850 XT PE

The Radeon X850 XT PE - or R480 as it was codenamed before today - is the fastest graphics card ever created by ATI. To be fair, there aren't many differences between the X850 XT PE and the X800 XT PE, but the clock speeds have been given a boost. Despite the fact that we're only just seeing X800 XT PE cards hitting the shelves, it doesn't come as much of a surprise to see ATI rolling out a new, super-fast card. After all the exposure that Nvidia has been getting with its SLI dual-graphics card solution, ATI needed to hit back with something of its own, and the X850 does a pretty good job.

Just like the X800, the X850 comes in three different flavours. Top of the tree is the X850 XT PE that I'm looking at here, but there will also be an X850 XT and an X850 Pro.

Starting with the X850 XT PE, you get a VPU with 16 pixel pipelines, six vertex pipelines and support for 256MB of GDDR 3 memory. The core is running at a blisteringly fast 540MHz, while the memory is speeding along at 590MHz - that's 1.18GHz effective.

The X850 XT shares the same 16 pixel pipelines, six vertex pipelines and 256MB of GDDR 3 RAM, but the core and memory speeds are slightly less extreme. The XT core runs at 520MHz (exactly the same frequency that the X800 XT PE ran at), while the memory ticks along at 540MHz - 1.08GHz effective.

Finally, there's the X850 Pro which has to make do with only 12 pixel pipelines, but shares the rest of the specifications of the X850 XT. ATI is quoting estimated US pricing of $549 for the X850 XT PE, $499 for the X850 XT and $399 for the X850 Pro, but how these prices will equate to the UK market remains to be seen.

As with the X800 chipset, there is no Shader Model 3.0 support, but as yet this hasn't proved to be a major issue. There will no doubt be more games appearing that support Shader Model 3.0, but we could be onto the next generation of graphics hardware by then.

Getting back to the X850 XT PE, the board that ATI sent over couldn't look more different to the old X800 XT PE. When ATI launched the X800 XT PE it made a huge issue of the fact that its board was a single slot solution while Nvidia's was a dual -slot board. To be fair to ATI, producing a high-performance, next-generation graphics card that maintained a single slot form factor, and kept the power draw the same as the outgoing model was quite an achievement. And when you consider the increased uptake of small form factor systems, the X800 XT PE gave gamers the option of building their high-end machine in a small box; something that wasn't possible with the Nvidia GeForce 6800 Ultra.

So, it comes with a distinct sense of irony that the X850 XT Platinum Edition is a two-slot solution. Of course it's obvious that by significantly increasing the clock speeds, ATI needed to also improve the cooling and this is why the X850 XT PE is a larger beast than its predecessor. The VPU and memory is topped with a copper and aluminium heatsink, while a large fan draws the hot air away from the card and out of the PC, pumping the air through the grille in the second backing plate.

Being a PCI Express board, there's a six-pin power socket that provides the card with juice straight from the power supply. Of more interest are the dual DVI ports, so you can run two TFT monitors with crisp, clear digital signals. Being a reference board, ATI has also thrown in ViVo functionality, but there was no cable supplied with the card.

Before getting bogged down with the benchmark numbers, I decided to spend a bit of time playing some games on the X850 XT PE to get a subjective opinion. Subjectively, this is one very fast graphics card - I can't say that it feels significantly faster than the X800 XT PE that I use every day, but it definitely feels smooth as silk at pretty much any resolution. Firing up Half-Life 2 shows you what Valve's masterpiece is supposed to look like, with sky high frame rates and image quality that leaves you drooling.

We slapped the X850 XT PE into our graphics card test rig which sports an Intel Pentium 4 Extreme Edition CPU running at 3.46GHz, an Intel 925XE motherboard running a 1066MHz FSB and 1GB of Crucial Ballistix DDR2 memory. Despite the lightning fast processor, it still appears that the X850 XT PE is CPU limited in some games.

ATI Radeon X850 XT PE - 3DMark03

Comparing the X850 XT PE to an X800 XT showed significant improvement when running both 3DMark03 and 3DMark05. Looking at opposite ends of the spectrum in 3DMark03 the new card definitely outperforms the old one - at 1,024 x 768 with no image quality settings the X850 turned in a score of 13,231 compared with 12,178 on the X800. Pushing the resolution up to 1,600 x 1,200 with 4x FSAA and 4x AF the X850 managed 5143 while the X800 could only muster 4392.

ATI Radeon X850 XT PE - 3DMark05

The gap was pretty wide running 3DMark05 - at 1,024 x 768 with no FSAA or AF the X850 produced a score of 6024 compared with 5172 on the X800. The gap wasn't quite so wide at 1600 x 1200 where the X850 scored 3452, while the X800 managed 2939.

ATI Radeon X850 XT PE - Doom 3

Of course a card like this is all about playing games, and firing up Doom3 showed that the X850 offers a welcome jump in frame rate. Taking a resolution of 1280 x 1024 with 4x FSAA and 8x AF as the sweet spot, the X850 produced a very respectable 54.5fps compared with 45.7fps on the X800. In fact, across the board there's a noticeable performance increase with the X850 XT, with the exception of Far Cry, but the X800 XT card was tested using an older patch version.

ATI Radeon X850 XT PE - Half-Life 2

But everyone knows that Half-Life 2 is the big game of the moment, and the game that everyone wants to play. If ever there was a game that deserved a hardware upgrade, it's Half-Life 2, but thankfully Valve has produced an engine that looks great even on a modest PC configuration. The beauty of this design is that when you do let Half-Life 2 loose on some serious hardware, the results are stunning. If you've got a card like this, your only limitation for playing Half-Life 2 will be your monitor - even running at 1600 x 1200 with 4x AF and 4x FSAA you're still getting 66fps!

So, is the Radeon X850 XT PE the fastest graphics card we've seen? Well, in the most case yes. In some of the tests the Gainward PowerPack! CoolFX Ultra/2600 TV-DVI-DVI edges ahead, but this is a highly tuned and overclocked card, complete with its own water cooling system. But as far as standard, air cooled 'slap it in a slot and go' graphics solutions go, the Radeon X850 XT Platinum Edition is the fastest graphics solution that (a lot of) money can buy. Let's just hope that ATI can get enough units into the channel this time around.

Verdict

The Radeon X850 XT PE does exactly what ATI wants it to - it raises the bar on 3D graphics performance once more, without the need to resort to dual cards or custom motherboards. OK, so there aren't any new features on offer and the design takes a small step backwards with the dual slot form factor, but if you want the fastest graphics card around, without overclocking, this is it.

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