Gigabyte GeForce 6800 Ultra vs ASUS AX800XT: total Deathmatch
ASUS AX800XT Features
Package bundle
The fact that the video card is manufactured by ASUS traditionally means a superb package bundle aimed at the most exigent consumer. Especially, for ultra high-end cards. This time has outdone itself and presented a truly royal package bundle worth of the product itself - AX800XT. In the giant violet box we found the following contents:
1. ASUS AX800XT video card;
2. 15-pin D-Sub/DVI adapter;
3. A kit of 9-pin adapters with a S-Video/Composite VIVO splitter;
4. A splitter for additional power supply;
5. CDs containing drivers, utilities, and DirectX 9.0a
6. A few manuals and colorful brochures on ASUS products;
7. Bright orange CD-Case(!) containing the following CDs:
a) Games: Counter Strike-Condition Zero, and Deus Ex Invisible War;
b) Software: Power Director 3; Media Show; Ulead Cool 3D 2.0 + Photo Express 4.0SE (2 in 1)
â) ASUS DVD XP
9. A web cam as a gift.
Design and layout
At last we admired ASUS package bundle to the full and took the AX800XT board itself in our hands. We breathed the smell of textolyte, so precious to us, and got down to examining the cards. There was something worth to look at. This time, ASUS always following its own way and adhering to manufacturing boards on its own PCB design decided not to depart from ATI standard.
The PCB design of ÀÕ800ÕÒ is fully identical to that of the reference board Radeon Õ800ÕÒ. But the spice is that ASUS has made a board on orange textolyte familiar to us since the times of Radeon 9800XT. That is, not merely purchased a ready card from ATI, as it is normal with hi-end produce, but anyway manufactured them on its own.
At the matter of cooling system, ASUS decided not to experiment either and took on ATI's standard cooling system thus having identified belonging to its own product line with only stickers on the radiator bearing the company logo and card model. The main distinction is in that the radiator on the board's front side in this case fully covers memory chips positioned on this side. Actually, this solution is of purely cosmetic character, because the 4 remaining video memory chips positioned on the reverse side of the board are left without any heat-spreaders. This deviation from the standard is not in fact a departure but "a look back", towards Radeon 9800XT whose design of the cooling system fully coincides with what we see on the card in question.
From the technical viewpoint, the cooling system appears to be a radiator with a copper plate and heat-spreading fins, with a traditional fan having transparent blades on the left, covering the GPU and 4 video memory chips positioned on the board's front side.
With no efforts we were able to disconnect the cooling system from the board - merely three bolts. The graphic processor R420 was made on the 19th week of year 2004 as is seen from the marking. The nominal operating frequency of the GPU is 525 MHz, which fully meets the declared specifications.
There is 256 Mb GDDR3 memory with a 256-bit data transmission bus assembled with eight K4J55323QF-GC16 chips made in the BGA form factor, of 1.6 ns access time, which is equivalent to the operating frequency 625 MHz (1250 MHz DDR). Remember that the same memory type is installed also on GeForce 6800Ultra, but on AX800XT it runs at 575 MHz(1150 MHz DDR).
The memory chips are positioned as follows - 4 chips on the left side, with 4 others on the reverse side.
The connector for additional power supply on ÀÕ800ÕÒ is also of violet color - the yellow connector is of unknown purpose arousing lots of questions among the readers is also there, although ATI assured us it would be on samples only.
The card offers a standard set of outputs - analogous, digital, and TV-OUT.
And the last point to draw your attention is support for the VIVO implemented onboard via the ATI Rage Theater chip.
So, every card has been examined to the slightest detail, all the specifications announced, all the details pronounced, and it's about time we held the Deathmatch.
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