High End and Future Ultra High End Performance

On the high end, the X1800 XL is a solid competitor to the 7800 GT. In some cases, the X1800 XL is able to compete with the 7800 GTX, but not enough to warrant pricing on the same level. The X1800 XT will not be out for at least a month, and while it does offer good competition to the 7800 GTX, we do want to caution everyone to wait until the part is shipping before embracing it.

Once again, Doom 3 shows NVIDIA to lead the way in performance, this time even with 4xAA and 8xAF enabled. Even the 6800 GT is able to best ATI's new flagship, the X1800 XT.

High-End Card Comparison - Doom 3


The X1800 XT falls just short of the NVIDIA 7800 GTX at 1600x1200 4xAA/8xAF with a score of 59.5 fps. The X1800 XL and XT are good competitors to the 7800 GTX and 7800 GT parts at this resolution under Day of Defeat. We run with all the quality options on the highest setting (including reflect all).

High-End Card Comparison - Day of Defeat


The X1000 line tend to do very well in Far Cry, and the high end parts are no exception. This time around, the defeat isn't that staggering, as the 7800 series seems to keep up well.

High-End Card Comparison - Far Cry


With Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory, the X1800 XT dominates. The X1800 XL is competive with the 7800 GTX in this benchmark, which is appropriate based on expected pricing.

High-End Card Comparison - Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory


Looking at the ultra high end, Doom 3 once again favors the NVIDIA line of parts.

High-End Card Comparison - Doom 3


High-End Card Comparison - Day of Defeat


High-End Card Comparison - Far Cry


High-End Card Comparison - Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory


High-End Card Comparison - Everquest II


Mid-Range Performance Final Words
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  • Wellsoul2 - Wednesday, October 5, 2005 - link

    I really prefer ATI so this is a disappointment.

    The 1300 and 1600 are pretty weak.

    Might as well keep my 9600XT versus the 1300 - Can still play HL2 with noAA/AF.

    The only good thing is maybe the price will drop on the x800/850 line.

    The X1800 seems like a good card but why pay that money.

    Why bother with the shared memory cards? It's dumb.
  • Cookie Crusher - Wednesday, October 5, 2005 - link

    grammar is actually spelled with an "a" ;)
  • OvErHeAtInG - Wednesday, October 5, 2005 - link

    Yes, I have a feeling it'll be one of those cases where they make some editions and fixes to the article. Not that horrible, come on - I do agree the graphs are confusing. More important than graphs of benches, though, for me is the examination of the new AA, the architecture, features etc. Which they did a fair job of

    One remark: the bulleted lists are missing the bullets ... e.g. on page 2 the list of new features.
  • bldckstark - Wednesday, October 5, 2005 - link

    Yes, this is the worst article I have ever seen posted on Anandtech. Will Anandtech continue to be my first stop on my daily hardware fix? Yes. Will I ever make Toms Hardware my first stop again? No. JEEEEZ toms sucks now. If you want to complain about a site as a whole take a look at them. They actually posted articles about how to pick up chicks while gaming! Multiple articles! Good Lord.
  • Houdani - Wednesday, October 5, 2005 - link

    Agreed! They did do a nice analysis of the new architecture.
    Agreed! Where are the bullets? (page 2 feature list, page 7 games list).
  • tfranzese - Wednesday, October 5, 2005 - link

    Everyone's always surpised by this. Why? They've done this countless times now as if it's acceptable. Seriously, don't post an article until it's done and have it proofread carefully before posting it. I honestly doubt your (Anandtech) editors are doing more than just skimming articles sometimes with the number of typos and gramatical errors I come across.

    I hope the quality goes back up, because it will eventually hurt your reputation.
  • tfranzese - Wednesday, October 5, 2005 - link

    I'll add, Anandtech is almost always my first stop to read a breaking review. Unfortunately, truths such as that below could someday change that. Today, Tech Report had the better article.

    quote:

    We will have tables of all the data with all the numbers we ran across all the resolutions with 4xAA and 8xAF up shortly.

    Quite a bit of data was collected and it has taken some time to organize. You are absolutely right to want more, and we are working on getting it out the door as soon as possible.

    Thanks,
    Derek Wilson


    Not their worst article, but things should be improving - not getting worse.
  • AnandThenMan - Wednesday, October 5, 2005 - link

    I agree. VERY WEAK REVIEW! Terrible. Honestly, what happened? Anandtech is usually much, much more with it. Disappointed.

    As for the R520, I think I'm like most people and just feel, meh.
  • misterspoot - Wednesday, October 5, 2005 - link

    Since the X1800 SKUs will not have the AGP bridge available (PCI-E) only, that leaves the X1600XT to attempt to give us AGP users a performance boost.

    Sadly, the X1600XT performs barely on par with a GeForce 6600GT -- which can be had for $150. Then, looking at the performance of the X1600XT, and comparing it to the X850 XT-PE -- surprise surprise, the year-plus old X850 XT is considerably superior.

    So if you're like me and built your box nearly 2 years ago, and have no choice but to buy an AGP part, it looks like the X850 XT-PE is going to be the highest performance part you can buy. Looks like I'll be grabbing one this weekend, so my performance in raids on Molten Core is drastically improved (runs a 6600GT at 1600x900 with minimum detail settings -- suffers from mid 20fps all the time while trying to tank).
  • DRavisher - Wednesday, October 5, 2005 - link

    The review states: "With its 512MB of onboard RAM, the X1800 XT scales especially well at high resolutions,". From what I see it scales very poorly at high resolutions compared to the 7800GTX 256MB card. Just look at what happens in SC:CT and FarCry. The XT goes from having a substantial lead in 1600x1200 to being about equal with the 7800GTX at 2048x1536.

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