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Sapphire X800 Series Roundup
[Abstract]
Sapphire's Radeon SistersIt is not too often that we get a whole posse of hot aliens of the female persuasion dropping in on our labs. Well, we don't actually remember any or at least we don't ...
[Content] PCDigitalMobileGame
The Normal One
There's a reason why we gave the Sapphire Radeon X800 GTO 256MB such a nickname. Compared to its more glamorous 'sisters' in the Sapphire Radeon X800 GTO product line, it is fairly ordinary. The shroud for the cooler may be shaped like a kidney but it is essentially a plain cooler that does its job without any fuss. The Sapphire Radeon X800 GTO follows the default reference card from ATI, with the standard 400MHz for the core and 980MHz DDR3 for the 256MB onboard. According to Sapphire, there are two variants of this model. Besides the one we are featuring today, there is a more affordable alternative that uses DDR1 memory clocked at 700MHz DDR. Be sure to check that you got the right version before buying.
The vanilla Radeon X800 GTO 256MB from Sapphire. |
A view of the other side. As you can see, the memory chips are left bare. |
The card uses Samsung memory chips rated at 2.0ns though there is no active cooling for them. The other model with DDR1 memory uses 2.8ns Samsung chips. Sapphire has used its usual blue-green PCB and the design is mostly conventional. The connectors at the rear of the card consist of the popular but ageing VGA analog output, a versatile mini-DIN output and a DVI-I connector. The bundle is similar to the other Sapphire cards in this review. Sapphire has just revamped its games bundle and is now calling it the Sapphire Select DVD. This DVD contains up to four games but the scheme is such that owners are able to try each game for up to an hour each. After that, they have to make a choice on which game to unlock for the full functionality. They can also opt to buy the unlock keys for all the other games at a discounted rate from Sapphire. The good news is that there are now more choices for the buyer now and the games selection for the Sapphire Radeon X800 GTO is quite decent, with some newer games like Tony Hawk's Underground 2 and Brothers in Arm.
A fairly standard configuration for I/O connectors. |
The other change in the Sapphire bundle is the new overclocking utility. The older RedLine utility has been replaced with an updated tool called TriXX. The user interface has undergone a complete revamp and it will only work with a Sapphire video card installed. The complete list of items in our package is as follows:
DVI-to-VGA adaptor
9-pin mini-DIN to Composite converter
9-pin mini-DIN to Component converter
Composite extension cable
S-Video extension cable
User Manual
Driver CD
Sapphire Select DVD (Choose one of the following games: Prince of Persia: Warrior Within, Brothers in Arms: Road to Hill 30, Richard Burns Rally, Tony Hawk's Underground 2)
TriXX Overclocking Utility
CyberLink Power DVD 6.0
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