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Radeon X800XL 512Mb RoundupAuthor: Anna TimofeevaDate: 21/07/2005
Lately, ATI seems to have "gone underground" - the announcement of the new-generation chip codenamed R520 is still being delayed, nor things with CrossFire are going smoothly- CrossFire Edition video cards have not arrived at test labs - they promise to supply them on earlier than next week, let alone the retail sales. With that going on, NVIDIA's success is seen better with the recent announcement of its G70. The company has also been able to provide sufficient quantities of chips to start sales of cards on the very day of the announcement. Moreover, NVIDIA hasn't thrown all the efforts to conquering the top-end sector of the market but also hasn't ignored the huge percentage of mainstream card owners who have long been looking forward to building a mainstream SLI system made up of two GeForce 6600 cards, which you will read in one of our forthcoming materials. In a word, ATI for now is in a difficult situation. On the one hand - they should speed up with the announcement. On the other hand, the "on-paper" announcement made as an answer to NVIDIA's promptness would be a serious minus if not a failure, which the company now can't afford. On the whole, all has been allegedly put off till September to be seen what comes out of it. Until we receive CrossFire Edition video cards, nothing fundamentally new or interesting from ATI's camp can be expected. There is one exception though, we are reviewing today. Early in 2005, ATI presented a substantial complement to the PCI-Express sector. In the top-end sector, that was a board on the base of R480 - a bit optimized R423 chip (RX800XT (PE) PCI-E). In the less expensive segments, there were presented solutions based on the 0.11 mk R430 chip - RX800XL and RX800. Therefore, with the release of latest video cards based on RV410 the RX700 (PRO) should automatically move to cheaper sectors. As regards the R430, by its architecture it is a direct heir to R423 (RX800XT PCI-E), with a minor but an important reservation related to the finer 0.11 mk process technology. Thus, the card does not prove insatiable in terms of power consumption, especially that the chip's standard operating frequency is not at all over the top. Therefore, the card does not require either additional power supply (the available 75W fed to the card via the PCI-Express is quite enough) or a monstrous cooling system for trouble-free operation. Coupled with the then "coolest" specifications - 16 pixel pipelines, 6 vertex units, 256MB of video memory with a 256-bit bus, the card looked very promising indeed. Let me remind you that at that time RX800XL was the most powerful card equipped with a GPU made following the 0.11-mk process technology. NVIDIA's finer process technology was originally introduced to the mainstream sector (GeForce 6600GT). Later, there also appeared 12-pipelined NV42 which came as a replacement of NV41 and produced following the 0.13-mk process technology (in fact, that is about the only difference between the chips, and that is the reason why NVIDIA did not change the card names - GeForce 6800 PCI-E - when migrating from NV41 to NV42, which proved a really honest move by the company). But, let's come back to R430. On the date of its release, the situation on the market was difficult enough for ATI because it had nothing to oppose to GeForce 6800GT. That especially applied to the AGP sector where RX800 PRO was quite a disputable alternative to GeForce 6800GT, which sometimes proved even more expensive. In a word, there was noting to fill the gap. It is advisable to fill it with something less expensive but with no less powerful. That is why RX800XL was found to be the way out. Reminding it that the recommended price for RX800XL was $299, whereas GeForce 6800GT (that time!) sold starting at $400. At the same time, the cards were on par in terms of performance. To be more precise, each card showed better results at those applications which made intense use of the strong sides of the architecture of their graphic cores. But as usual pitfalls turned out. In this regard, it is a weak overclocking capability of the R430. That issue was especially acute in view of the fact that practically any GeForce 6800GT can be easily overclocked to 400/1100MHz (frequencies of the GeForce 6800Ultra) and many even managed to overcome that value. As to the R430, its best overclock was no more than 30-50MHz. However, progress does not stand still - the products' specifications are being improved, and the performance goes up. Still before the announcement of G70, NVIDIA demonstrated its GeForce 6800Ultra equipped with 512Mb of video memory at CeBIT'2005. That board still remained a mere "image-making" specimen, which is no wonder because it is hard to imagine somebody who would buy that now when the card's price is over all the thinkable limits with the advantages of use disputable. Nevertheless, that idea did appeal to the manufacturers. Things even came to a point of absurdity - what about 512Mb of video memory on a low-end board? If the idea is accepted, boards like that can be met in the product lines of some NVIDIA's partners. Well, it's surprising what sometimes sophisticated minds of manufacturers may invent. Fortunately, ATI's partners (for now?) haven't stood out with such resourcefulness. However, the Canadian company couldn't help avoiding the trend of fitting 512 MB on its solutions. But this time it is made in a more adequate version and by the official consent from ATI (we saw the reference ATI RX800XL 512Mb still a couple of months before, so the readers are unlikely to be amazed by the pure reference, although it is even more curious to look at batch-produced solutions offered by the partners). So we are reviewing a few of such products built on the above described R430 offered by ATI's leading partners - Sapphire, GeCube, and Tul (PowerColor).
Sapphire RX800XL 512Mb
 The board is made of dark blue textolyte which is these days normally used by Sapphire. In terms of the PCB design, there is nothing that makes the board much different from the reference RX800XL 256Mb, but for the twofold number of memory chips.   The cooling system is familiar still from the times of RX850XT.  The graphic processor is cooled by a copper radiator. The fan takes air from the CPU housing, runs it through beneath the cover and blows it outside through holes in the cap. All that is fastened with two screws and a plate on the board's reverse side. The manufacturer used the "jewel steel" for GPU as the thermal interface and thermal spacers for the video memory chips.    On the reverse side, there is a separate aluminum plate. Actually, it plays the decorative part because it does not cover the memory chips completely (in fact, that can be also said about the radiator on the front side of the board, unlike the reference cooling on RX850XT). The plate is fastened with three screws.  The decision to use the cooling system from RX850XT is anyway quite disputable. First, it takes up two slots, which may be of convenience issue to the users. Secondly, the cooling system of such type noticed still during the review of RX850XT is the rather high noise during operation. Note that the reference board ATI RX800XL 512Mb used a single-slot cooling system, so this move by Sapphire does not look clear from this viewpoint. The card is equipped with 512Mb of GDDR3 memory with a 256-bit data transmission bus assembled of eight Samsung BGA memory chips of 2 ns access time, which is equivalent to 500 MHz (1000 MHz DDR) operating frequency. The standard operating frequency on RX800XL fully meets that as it should be as per the specifications. The effective memory frequency is 988MHz DDR. The memory chips are positioned in eight along each side of the PCB.   Let's look at the R430 graphic processor. As we can see, it is marked as X800 PRO. The GPU operating frequency is 400MHz. The chips uses 16 pixel pipelines, and 6 vertex units.  The board also supports VIVO features implemented on the ATI Rage Theater chip.  It is equipped with a connector for additional power supply, unlike its 256MB analog.  It is also equipped with two digital outputs and a S-Video output 
GeCube RX800XL 512Mb
 By the PCB design, GeCube's RX800XL does not make any difference from the above reviewed board, so we'd better move straight to the cooling system - it does offer something worth looking at. The cooling system on this card is single-slotted, unlike that installed on Sapphire's previous board.   The base of the cooling system is an integral copper plate covering the GPU and all the four video memory chips positioned on the board's front panel.  We have already come across a cooling system like that in the review of GeCube RX850XT PE. IN the left-hand part, there is a big radiator, with the heat-spreading fins and a heat pipe in the right. The lid here is solely a decorative element since it doesn't cover the whole structure completely. As usual, there is a GeCube logo and the card model name on it. The radiator on the front side of the board is fastened with a pair of screws.  To cool the eight memory chips positioned on the reverse side of the board, there is a separate copper-styled aluminum plate. The plate is fastened with three screws.   The manufacturer used the "jewel steel" for GPU as the thermal interface and thermal spacers for the video memory chips.
The card is equipped with 512 Mb of GDDR3 video memory with a 256-bit data transmission bus of the BGA form factor, in the form of 16 Infineon memory chips of 2 ns access time. This is equivalent to 500 MHz (1000 MHz DDR) of operating frequency. The effective memory frequency is 990MHz DDR. The memory chips are positioned in eight along each side of the PCB.   Let's look at the R430 graphic processor (here there chip is marked simply as X800). The GPU operating frequency is also 400MHz. The chips uses 16 pixel pipelines, and 6 vertex units.  The board also supports VIVO features implemented on the ATI Rage Theater chip.  It is equipped with a connector for additional power supply,  and with two digital outputs. 
PowerColor RX800XL 512MbPackage bundle:
 It is nice to see there is not merely another replica of the reference cooling system on each of the boards in question but also the ideas and developments of each company. At that, we were pleased by PowerColor who fitted their own cooling system on the RX800XL 512Mb. A similar cooling system can be met on the earlier PowerColor RX700XT models. This concept is often used by Gigabyte as well (e.g., a version with a very similar cooling system which we reviewed in this material).    This board offers an even more interesting version of the cooling system. It uses two aluminum radiators interconnected with two heat pipes.    Among the interesting distinctive features is the fan installed at the radiator on the reverse side of the board. Future owners will also be pleased by the blue LED backlight. Since the fan should be positioned on the reverse of the board, the backlight will be distinctly seen if the card is fitted inside the housing in its normal way.  The manufacturer used the "jewel steel" for GPU as the thermal interface and thermal spacers for the video memory chips. There are also protective spacers on top of the radiators, which is used to prevent the board from damage upon contacting the radiator.
 The card is equipped with 512 Mb of GDDR3 video memory with a 256-bit data transmission bus of the BGA form factor, in the form of 16 Samsung memory chips of 1.6 ns access time. This is equivalent to 625 MHz (1250 MHz DDR) of operating frequency. The effective memory frequency is 990MHz DDR. Assuming that this card uses memory faster than that on analogs, we can expect a good overclocking. We's verify during the tests whether that is true or not. The memory chips are positioned in eight along each side of the PCB.   Let's look at the R430 graphic processor (here the chip is marked simply as X800PRO). The GPU operating frequency is 400 MHz as per the specifications. The chips uses 16 pixel pipelines, and 6 vertex units.  PowerColor RX800XL, like above reviewed boards supports VIVO features implemented on the ATI Rage Theater chip.  It is equipped with a connector for additional power supply,  and with two digital outputs.  Now on to the benchmarking.
Test configuration
To test the ATI video cards, we used the latest Catalyst 5.7 WHQL-drivers, and latest ForceWare 77.72 WHQL drivers - for NVIDIA cards.        OverclockingWe found issues with overclocking in R430, which we mentioned in the beginning of this material, and we also saw them during overclocking of these three cards. We found out the best overclocking capability for the GeCube RX800XL core (440MHz), whereas other boards showed less impressive results - 425MHz for the Sapphire board and about the same in the PowerColor's solution. This is a serious enough shortcoming for RX800XL as compared to GeForce 6800GT, since the overclocking of the core in the latter is rarely lower than 400MHz - normally it is even higher. As regards the video memory, Sapphire's and GeCube's boards were able to overclock the memory by 70MHz and 80MHz, respectively. Despite the faster memory, the PowerColor board of 1.6 ns access time showed approximately similar results - 1090MHz. While overclocking like that is acceptable for the former two solutions (the nominal frequency for 2 ns memory is 1000MHz DDR), but we definitely expected much more from the 1.6ns memory (the nominal frequency is 1250MHz DDR). Finishing the talk about the overclocking capability, we note that not its was not only ourselves who came up against the issue of poor overclocking of boards based on the R430. The same issue was also found by other testers and many users, of course. 
Performance analysis and conclusionsAs regards the expedience of buying 512 MB boards for now, their major task is to target the future demands when such a high onboard memory capacity is in demand by games. Currently, only DOOM3 in the Ultrahigh mode can boast that. On the other hand, the 4 FPS difference (at 1600õ1200) between doesn't seem to be worth the price difference which we see between the 256Mb and 512Mb modifications. Moreover, fitting RX800XL with 512Mb onboard almost levels one of the major advantages of the latter versus GeForce 6800GT - i.e. the price difference, because these days GeForce 6800GT costs about $400 (on the average, depending on the sales outlets). To date, RX800XL equipped with 256Mb of video memory costs $300 and higher (but it's impossible to make it available at such a price, because more realistic offerings start with $340). The 512Mb version will cost you about $425. It goes without saying, such a price difference is a surprise since the 512 Mb version uses twice as much memory, which costs a lot. Nevertheless, the need for such spending for cards like these nowadays is questionable. Those who are all for buying the 512Mb solution as a "margin for the future" should better wait a bit because as applications where this capacity may be advantageous emerge, more advanced and powerful cards equipped with 512Mb memory may appear. As regards ATI's plans on releasing other solutions equipped with 512Mb memory, nothing is known for certainty yet. Hopefully, manufacturers will not bring the idea to the point of absurdity and equip low-end and middle-end cards with too much memory capacity. As to the High-end solutions, it is highly probable that 512Mb and their modifications will emerge - those similar to GeForce 6800Ultra 512Mb. But since the announcement of the new R520 chips is just around the corner, it would be sensible to assume that experiments with increasing the memory capacity will be done just in the top-end solutions of the future product line. Now we move on the pros and cons for each of the cards tested today. The only shortcoming of Sapphire RX800XL 512Mb is the cooling system taken from RX850XT which does not stand out with either attractive look or operating convenience. The plus is that the card is already on sale - today in the Moscow price lists only RX800XL 512Mb by Sapphire are presented (actually, this is not a rare situation). The overclocking of the specimen amounted to 425/1070MHz. The major advantage of GeCube RX800XL 512Mb is the cooling system, quiet and effective enough. Also, the board showed the best overclocking of the core among all of the cards tested - 440 MHz. PowerColor RX800XL 512Mb also stood out with the cooling system. Its smart structure using heat pipes is effective enough,plus the noise level low enough. Therefore, we decided to award our PowerColor RX800XL 512Mb with our "Innovation Design" medal.  Among the shortcomings which will most likely affect the price is the installation of 1.6ns memory. That didn't bring any overclocking advantages to our board specimen at all (1090MHz was the maximum we were able to achieve, whereas the nominal for 1.6ns memory is 1250MHz DDR).
In one of our forthcoming materials, we'll again try a solution based on R430, that time equipped with 256Mb memory and offering a few competitive features which do make difference from competitor solutions.
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