ATI Radeon X800 GTO Mini Roundup: Sapphire, Connect3D, and PowerColor
by Josh Venning on December 26, 2005 12:05 AM EST- Posted in
- GPUs
Overclocking/Load Power
No doubt that many have heard the rumors of the GTO2's overclocking abilities, but you can be assured that they aren't completely unfounded. There has been much talk of how this card is capable of being modded from its standard 12 pixel pipelines up to 16 pipelines, which, when combined with clock speed boosts, make it capable of performing the same as an X850 Pro for a ridiculously lower price. While, in all honesty, this is technically possible, changing the pipes requires meddling with the BIOS, which is a good way to ruin your card. So, we've decided to focus solely on overclocking the engine and memory clock speeds. We would also like to add that you should only overclock your card at your own risk, as there is always a possibility for damage to occur if not done with care.
Note that we weren't able to overclock the X800 GTO Ultimate because the fan-less heat sink means that there is a much greater risk of damage to the card due to heat. We found that this card has so far taken the lead as being the most screamingly hot card to touch after running a few tests on it. This is unfortunately the price of silent operation, and those in very hot climates or with computer cases that have poor ventilation may run into cooling problems with this card.
We also weren't able to get much of an overclock on the PowerColor X800 GTO 16, which isn't very surprising given that it comes with 16 pixel pipelines enabled. The fact that these extra pipelines are enabled for this card seems to greatly reduce its overclocking headroom below other X800 GTOs. We were still able to overclock the card a little more, for an engine clock of 440MHz and memory clock of 500MHz. This wasn't enough to help the PowerColor X800 GTO 16 match either the Connect3D or the Sapphire GTO2 in performance when overclocked, however.
When we came around to seeing the kind of overclocking that the X800 GTO2 could do, we were indeed impressed. It turns out that the card has the ability to overclock, and we managed to get it to run stable with a core clock speed of 525MHz and a memory speed of 582MHz. This gave us some fairly impressive gains in framerates in Splinter Cell over the standard factory clock of 400Mhz and 490MHz, as you can see by the graph(s). (Note that on the graph, ATI Radeon X800 GTO represents the X800 GTO at reference clock speeds.)
Load Power
No doubt that many have heard the rumors of the GTO2's overclocking abilities, but you can be assured that they aren't completely unfounded. There has been much talk of how this card is capable of being modded from its standard 12 pixel pipelines up to 16 pipelines, which, when combined with clock speed boosts, make it capable of performing the same as an X850 Pro for a ridiculously lower price. While, in all honesty, this is technically possible, changing the pipes requires meddling with the BIOS, which is a good way to ruin your card. So, we've decided to focus solely on overclocking the engine and memory clock speeds. We would also like to add that you should only overclock your card at your own risk, as there is always a possibility for damage to occur if not done with care.
Note that we weren't able to overclock the X800 GTO Ultimate because the fan-less heat sink means that there is a much greater risk of damage to the card due to heat. We found that this card has so far taken the lead as being the most screamingly hot card to touch after running a few tests on it. This is unfortunately the price of silent operation, and those in very hot climates or with computer cases that have poor ventilation may run into cooling problems with this card.
We also weren't able to get much of an overclock on the PowerColor X800 GTO 16, which isn't very surprising given that it comes with 16 pixel pipelines enabled. The fact that these extra pipelines are enabled for this card seems to greatly reduce its overclocking headroom below other X800 GTOs. We were still able to overclock the card a little more, for an engine clock of 440MHz and memory clock of 500MHz. This wasn't enough to help the PowerColor X800 GTO 16 match either the Connect3D or the Sapphire GTO2 in performance when overclocked, however.
When we came around to seeing the kind of overclocking that the X800 GTO2 could do, we were indeed impressed. It turns out that the card has the ability to overclock, and we managed to get it to run stable with a core clock speed of 525MHz and a memory speed of 582MHz. This gave us some fairly impressive gains in framerates in Splinter Cell over the standard factory clock of 400Mhz and 490MHz, as you can see by the graph(s). (Note that on the graph, ATI Radeon X800 GTO represents the X800 GTO at reference clock speeds.)
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classy - Monday, December 26, 2005 - link
This review is really lacking.I agree with Avalon and others, without breaking down the differences and unlocking the cards that can be unlocked the review is really lacking in info. The reviews have to to get back to what made Anandtech tops, which is uncovering the true potential of the hardware.BenSkywalker - Monday, December 26, 2005 - link
I would agree the review is quite lacking. In the $200 range there are two serious competitors- unlocked 16 pipe GTOs and the 6800GS neither of which were shown in this test. Why exclude the only two configurations really worth considering?Avalon - Monday, December 26, 2005 - link
This review is useless without attempting to unlock the cards and identify the cores and memory used on them. Why even mention how these cards unlock if you aren't even going to do it?Spacecomber - Monday, December 26, 2005 - link
It would really be helpful to lay out where these cards are situated in the ATI line-up. For alot of people, including me, its getting difficult to know the differences between all these X800 cards (X800 Pro, X800 XL, X800 GT, X800 GTO), not to mention how the X850 fits in.Probably Jarred updating his cheatsheet would be the best place for this info, but Anandtech needs a place where you can go to see which cores are being used, what the basic specifications for these cores are, and a rough estimate of the price for these different models. Doing the same for Nvidia would also be good, though they seem to have a less confusing lineup, with really only the 6800 GS to be added to the 6800 lineup.
Of course, with the GPU cheatsheet being over a year old, there's no mention of the 7800s or the 1800s, either.
Space
Spoelie - Monday, December 26, 2005 - link
Never knew anandtech was so out of touch with the community, since the GTO² has been making waves in it for the past 4 months. And with that I don't mean the timing of the review, but the content of it.What you get is essentially a X850XT for a price a little higher than a standard GTO. The chip is the R480 GUARANTEED to unlock the remaining pipes (yes, that's a 100% succes rate), the cooler is the reference X850Pro cooler, the PCB is the one used for the X850 line and you get the same memory as on the XT PE, as well as the power connector necessary for all of it. I don't see much of it mentioned in the review.
Actually it's quite pointless buying it if you're not going to do any unlocking. The other GTO's can be had a bit cheaper and with quieter cooling solutions. Regardless, it's a limited edition and finding it 4 months after introduction with such a reputation will be troublesome at best. You are obliged to leave it on the shelf if you're not gonna do unlocking, as you are quite possibly taking away one of the precious remaining cards from someone who is actually wanting one, when you can get another for less money that is gonna service you just as well. Even though the 6800GS took away some of the appeal of buying a SM2.0 type card.
Cruise51 - Monday, December 26, 2005 - link
I'm not sure why they left out the Fireblade GTO, It overclocks FAR higher than any of the cards in the review.WhipperSnapper - Monday, December 26, 2005 - link
I know that the newer Connect3D x800 GTO's have been sabotaged so that they no longer unlock, but shouldn't the article have contained a mention, somewhere, about the possibility a few lucky recipients might be able to unlock them to 16 pipes in addition to their great overclocking? These cards were all the rage back in late October and early November and had an unlocking success rate of about 95% before the new batches were ruined.
skunkbuster - Monday, December 26, 2005 - link
how were the new ones sabotaged? i havent read anything about thatZoomer - Monday, December 26, 2005 - link
They are not sabotaged; they just use a core that isn't unlockable anymore.Unlocking is only possible if the right fuses aren't laser cut.
bamacre - Monday, December 26, 2005 - link
I would have liked to see the Sapphire X800 GTO Fireblade Edition reviewed and benched as well. It's louder with the huge fan, but I bet it overclocks more than the Ultimate Edition.