Sapphire's New Generation: Sapphire Hybrid RX800XL /RX800, Sapphire Toxic RX700PRO/RX800PRO AGP
Sapphire Hybrid Radeon X800XL and Õ800 Video Cards
Let's first look at the package bundle which is absolutely the same in both cards:
- Video card;
- DVI/15-pin D-Sub and S-Video/RCA + extension cords;
- Driver & utilities CDs + Redline proprietary utility;
- User's manual;
- PowerDVD5;
- Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time;
- Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow.
Like all Sapphire's solutions released lately, these cards are made on blue textolyte. The PCB design is different from that in video cards on the base of R423 in that it lacks a connector for additional power supply. As you see, both solutions use the same PCB - only the different stickers on the cooler and reverse side of the board let one tell these cards apart.
What also catches the eye is the quite scanty cooling system. It is made at good enough quality - the copper foot and the heat-spreading radiator fins on the GPU plus neat aluminum radiators on top of memory chips on the reverse side of the board. Note that no radiators to cool the memory chips are not provided on X800. To prevent the fine components on the board from damage, there are three foam-rubber "spacers" on the GPU radiator. The cooling systems are fastened on two spring-loaded screws passing through the board.
 
The cards offer 256 Mb of GDDR-3 memory with a 256-bit data transmission bus, assembled from eight Samsung BGA chips (marked K4J55323QF-GC20) of 2 ns access time, which is equivalent to 500 MHz (1000 MHz DDR) operating frequency. As we have already mentioned, the nominal memory operating frequency is 492MHz (984MHz DDR), which is fully equivalent to the access time of the installed memory, whereas on Õ800 it is reduced and amounts to 700MHz DDR, which in theory promises good overclocking margin.
Let's look at R430 graphic processors. According to the announced specifications, they are to operate at 400MHz (in our case, 392 MHz in Õ800, 400 MHz in Õ800XL). The chips are equipped with a protective frame and were made on the 51st and 40th weeks of year 2004. Let's look at the marking of the chips - they are both marked like Õ800 PRO (!).
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