Gigabyte Radeon X800 Pro Review
Overclocking and heat emission
Despite the complication of R420 (increase in the number of transistors), developers succeeded in maintaining power consumption within reasonable limits. At that, it is the achievement of 0.13 mk process technology with the use of copper connections and low-k dielectrics. As a result, the power consumption of the X800 Pro card is 50-60W, and 70-75W for X800 XT.
Clearly, the need for external power source in Radeon X800 still remains. That is why there is a 4-pin molex connector to which a power cable from the PSU is plugged in.
Once I received the video card, I ran a series of overclocking experiments. As a result, we get the following maximum frequencies: the chip clock speed = 545 MHz, memory frequency = 600(1200) MHz. At first glance, the results are excellent, but we haven't yet tested the cards of other manufacturers.
It is worth noting that the overclocking results is a purely subjective thing, and for each specific card the maximum frequencies may be varied. Anyway, the scatter of readings is rarely too large. This holds true not only for video cards of a single manufacturer, but for the vast majority of cards built on the same chip (in this case, it is ATI Radeon X800 Pro).
At these frequencies, the nominal cooling system hardly copes with the heat load. The copper radiator is too hot to touch without the risk of getting burnt. This implies the need for additional cooling during overclocking especially if such expensive card is fitted inside the poorly ventilated PC housing.
Without additional ventilation during overclocking, the following may happen - the paint on the cooler casing may crack. Clearly, this spoils the good look of the product, which may entail problems in upgrade or getting your money back.
On the whole, the cooling system hasn't changed at all compared to Radeon 9800XT. It is a large copper plate with fins covered with a plastic casing. On the edge, there is a large 70 mm fan that runs air through the fins. This is done to eliminate the "dead spot" and maximize the efficiency of using the air flow.
The cooler is not heavy and is fastened with two pins and one screw.
On the reverse side of the cooler, there are special pad for memory chips. The pads are not meant for heat transfer and more likely for smooth installation of the cooler without warps.
The thing is that GDDR3 chips emit relatively little heat, which allowed the developers not to install radiators on the chips at the reverse side of the board.
The fan offers a nice blue highlight that varies in intensity depending on the rotational speed.
To make it possible for the cooler to change the speed, it is plugged in via a 3-pin connector.
And the rotational speed varies depending on the chip temperature. By the way, the R420 chip has a thermal sensor through which data can be read with various utilities.
In practice, the cooler proved to be very quiet in operation. It is significant that it has compact dimensions which let the nearest PCI slot leave free. But that entails a rise of the core temperature as a tradeoff.
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