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ATI X800 XL Shootout
[Abstract]
High End Value for the DollarWhen ATI upgraded their RADEON X800 series of graphics card last December with the introduction of the RADEON X850 series, most of the attention was focused on the ...
[Content] PCDigitalMobileGame
GeCube RADEON X800 XL
Why can't you have the best of both worlds? That is the question GeCube poses with its RADEON X800 XL. Most of the X800 XL cards in this shootout stuck to the tried and tested heatsink with fan design while Gigabyte was the lone ranger using a custom design heat pipe solution for their X800 XL. The major advantage of the heat pipe approach is that the cooling fan is no longer a necessity, reducing a significant source of noise output. However, the drawback is that temperatures tend to be higher for cards using the heat pipe method plus it is more expensive, which may explain why it is not that popular with vendors. Generally, the reverse occurs for the typical heatsink and fan method. Instead of choosing between the two different cooling approaches, GeCube has chosen to merge them. What we get is a hybrid cooler combining the best of both ways. There is still a fan attached to the cooler, with the heat pipe integrated into its copper heatsink. The presence of the heat pipe allows GeCube to attach a slower and quieter cooling fan, which means that although the GeCube RADEON X800 XL may not be completely silent, it is a good compromise between heat and noise output. GeCube has claimed that its cooler generates less than 20 decibels of noise and from our use, we couldn?t tell whether the fan was spinning or not, which means it lived up to its claims. From what we have seen in our tests, GeCube deserves high marks for the cooler as their RADEON X800 XL recorded lower temperatures than most of the other cards.
The GeCube RADEON X800 XL. |
Another look at the GeCube RADEON X800 XL card, featuring its unique blend of heat pipe and conventional cooling solution. |
Flipping over the card, we find a large retention bracket for the cooler. |
GeCube has also continued with the practice of 'overclocking' its graphics cards in the factory. The memory chips on the GeCube RADEON X800 XL is clocked a trifle higher than the default at 1000MHz rather than 980MHz and they are all actively cooled by GeCube's hybrid cooler. Despite the cooler's good operating performance, we were limited in our attempts to overclock the GeCube RADEON X800 XL. The maximum we managed was a disappointing 430MHz for the VPU and 1080MHz for the memory.
A closer look at the cooler reveals the heat pipe running through it. |
Peek-a-boo! Here's a glimpse of the VPU beneath the cooler. |
Another minor grouch is the bundled software and cables/accessories in the package. We have reviewed previous offerings from GeCube so we had some inkling of the kind of package included. Sadly, we were not far off the mark as GeCube provided the basic necessities, though most glaringly there was a lack of software titles. However, we have no complaints with the variety of cables and given our past experience with GeCube, this is their usual, no-frills bundle. This is a list of what you will find in the box:
DVI-to-VGA adaptor
7-pin mini-DIN to Composite/S-Video dongle
7-pin mini-DIN to HDTV (component cable dongle)
CyberLink PowerDVD 5.0
Driver CD
ATI RADEON X800 series User Manual
A last look at the GeCube RADEON X800 XL |
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