My X800GT Review + first post!!! includes pics

[Nephilim]

Hey Guys,

Here's my review of this card, cut down for forum ppl :)

Review of the PowerColor X800GT 256MB Bravo Graphics Card

I want to see just how far this card can go both at stock settings, and overclocked.

The stock core & memory speed conform to ATI's specifications for the 256MB variant. Keep in mind the core and memory on the 128MB card will be clocked lower.

Mem
Core
Memory

256MB
475MHz
490MHz

128MB
392MHz
350MHz

Testing Methodology
CPU AMD Athlon 64 3000+ @ 1.8GHz
Mainboard DFI NF4 Ultra-D
RAM OCZ BH5 UTT 2x512MB
All hardware will use latest drivers.

The Contenders

Leadtek 6600GT Extreme
http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a96/Nephilim666/winfast_px6600gt_extreme_2s.jpg
Powercolor X800GT 256MB
http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a96/Nephilim666/PowercolorX800GT.jpg
Powercolor X850XT VIVO
http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a96/Nephilim666/PowercolorX850XTs.jpg

The specifications are broken down in the table below:

http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a96/Nephilim666/cardcomparetable.jpg

Testing will be conducted as follows:

3DMark01 Second Edition
X800GT Stock settings
X800GT Maximum overclock
6600GT Stock Settings
6600GT Extreme Settings
X850XT Stock Settings

3DMark03
X800GT Stock settings
X800GT Maximum overclock
6600GT Stock Settings
6600GT Extreme Settings
X850XT Stock Settings


3DMark05
X800GT Stock settings
X800GT Maximum overclock
6600GT Stock Settings
6600GT Extreme Settings
X850XT Stock Settings


Half-Life 2
X800GT Stock settings
X800GT Maximum overclock
6600GT Stock Settings
6600GT Extreme Settings
X850XT Stock Settings

Doom 3
X800GT Stock settings
X800GT Maximum overclock
6600GT Stock Settings
6600GT Extreme Settings
X850XT Stock Settings

All tests, where possible are run at 1024x768 and 1280x1024 both with and without high image quality (4xAA 16xAnisotrophic filtering) enabled.

An issue with 3DMark05, most likely due to drivers or 3DMark05 itself, limited our 1280x1024 and 1024x768 high IQ tests. 3DMark would routinely throw an out of memory exception message every time the “ Firefly Forest ” test began on the 6600GT. This wasn't the case at 1024x768 with low IQ, however pending a fix for this issue the results will be incomplete for this test.

A Closer Look at the Card
http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a96/Nephilim666/X800GTreview_clip_image006_0000.jpg

http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a96/Nephilim666/X800GTreview_clip_image004_0000.jpg

http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a96/Nephilim666/X800GTreview_clip_image008_0000.jpg

Testing
We immediately got to work overclocking, the card overclocked to a stable 624MHz core and 537MHz memory on an open test bench. No watercooling, no phase-chage, this is pure stock cooling. I consider stable to mean no artifacts for at least 5 mins straight in ati tool under consistent load. This seems to ensure none in games/tests.
http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a96/Nephilim666/3DM01.png

3DMark 01 bases it's score on the result of all system components, as a result the difference due to VGA adapter is more minimal in this test.

http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a96/Nephilim666/3DM03.png

Here we see the overall strength the extra 3 vertex shader pipelines add to the X800GT. It's primary advantage will be in games and benchmarks that make use of vertex shaders, which is most current and upcoming games.

http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a96/Nephilim666/3DM05.png

http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a96/Nephilim666/3DM051024.png

http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a96/Nephilim666/3DM051280.png

http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a96/Nephilim666/Half-Life2.png

Valve Software's Magnum Opus after a 5-year development cycle won many industry and game-of-the-year awards. It offers fantastic visuals and interaction at great frame rates across the board.
http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a96/Nephilim666/Half-Life2Variability.png
Half-Life2 Variability represents the degree to which the frame rate varied. The 6600GT was very strong in this regard. However it's overall frame rate still dipped below the minimum of the X800GT which would be more noticeable.
http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a96/Nephilim666/doom3.png
These results were great, given that the X850XT aside from operating at 520MHz core and 1080MHz DDR3 memory, has double the pixel rendering pipelines.

The results of the benchmarks speak for themselves. The X800GT pulls ahead of a stock 6600GT almost all the time, and has a majority lead over the higher clocked 6600GT Extreme. The card overclocks like a beast and once running at the phenomenal speeds of 624/537 it basically mops the floor with both stock and Extreme variants.

Since they share the same core, I decided to make a little comparison between the two ATI Cards in terms of physical characteristics.

http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a96/Nephilim666/r480compare2.jpg

http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a96/Nephilim666/r480compare1.jpg

Examining these two cards closely reveals that aside from the missing auxiliary power connector and vivo composite header, there have been minor changes to the power circuitry. Also when I examined the core packages very closely, there is copper visible on the X850XT in a small dot in the corner, and silver on the X800GT. This is evident of ATI's current locking procedure which as of yet has not been broken.

For those of you looking to unlock the extra two quads, at the moment I don't see a way without very drastic hardware modifications.

Coming within frames of the performance of ATI's current second-top card at a price point less than half is excellent news for the bang-for-buck crowd. I have averaged the 3dmark 05, Doom3 and HL2 AVG FPS for 1024x768 and 1280x1024 for the following graph. The Extreme 6600GT scores represent what I consider to be the limitation of clock speed on the 6600GT, I experienced lots of artifacting in benchmarking with this card, and this seems to be a common issue after searching the web an explanation.

At time of writing the cheapest prices in AU (using http://www.staticice.com.au) are as follows:

Non-extreme Leadtek 6600GT: $245
Powercolor X800GT 256MB $259
Powercolor X850XT $680

http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a96/Nephilim666/Bang4BuckAll.png

This clearly shows that the price to performance ratio is far better for the mid-range cards (as we could have assumed). The next graph only features the X800GT and the 6600GT Extreme. Average frame rate divided by price in dollars. The higher the better.

http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a96/Nephilim666/Bang4Buck1024.png

Obviously this difference is nothing to write home about. It is worth noting however that the Extreme 6600GT comes with GDDR3 that runs at 1.6ns and is theoretically capable of 1200MHz, whereas the standard 6600GT's come with 2.0ns GDDR3 that has a theoretical maximum 1000MHz. Making the X800GT seem even more worthwhile as a 6600GT Extreme will set you back $277 at time of writing.

http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a96/Nephilim666/Bang4Buck1280.png

Here we see the value-for-money of the X800GT stand out from the 6600GT. Since most people use fast LCD's for gaming these days, 1280x1024 is the sweet spot, and this card really shines at the higher resolution.

Please make note of the scale on the left of each graph when making your own judgments, I tried to show all the information in the most fair and visible way.

Overall, the performance of this card is phenomenal and for the overclocking crowd it offers a lot of excitement. Check back soon when I will see how it goes with more extreme cooling measures. I have also acquired the new bios thanks to AIT and Tul Corp.

I'd like to thanks Australia IT for making this review possible, and Powercolor for producing such a kickass product.

I welcome any feedback and/or criticisms from you guys :slapass:

-Nephilim

:toast:

[DrJay]

Great review!

One question. What does the copper / silver dot have to do with pipeline locking? Are those dots bridging material between resistors?

[cantankerous]

nice review thanks!

I take it a slightly overclocked X800XL would still be better than the X800GT would it not?

[Nephilim]

Great review!

One question. What does the copper / silver dot have to do with pipeline locking? Are those dots bridging material between resistors?

Not exactly sure, if you refer to the closer core pic, in the top right hand corner there is a silver dot, that dot is copper colored on the x850xt core... that's the only visible difference between the packages. I assume it's a complex bridging process where you have to unbridge it in order to unlock it... but the power circuitry is different so you may have to get VERY tricky with the soldering iron in order to get it to work.

As for the cores themselves they look identical except the older r480 (x850) has a matte finish whereas the newer r480 is mirror finished :stick:

I take it a slightly overclocked X800XL would still be better than the X800GT would it not?

The additional quad would definitely help, however the R423 can't clock as high as an R480 so it would make for an interesting comparison. For the most part the R423 with 3 quads (12 pipelines) would have the advantage I'd say.

[stingush]

somthing is really strange in here,i got the sapphire X800GT 256MB
in the stock clocks and stock cpu with venice 3000+ and MSI K8N Neo4 Platinum and samsung TCCC 256x2 512MB PC3200 8-4-4-2.5 the card gave me 3993 in 3dmark05.. when in overclocking to CPU, 2550MHZ to the cpu and memory on 510MHZ 8-4-4-3 gave me 4124...., so how do you with the same card got 3800 points?!, something is not good at your card...
my sapphire flashed to the Sapphire X800XL Bios with 385MHZ core and 1050MHZ memory(core isnt stable at 400MHZ 16p\6vp, but it is stable at 385MHZ as you can guess)
i can get 4940 points without OC the cpu and 5157 with OC the to cpu...
first @ world that did it(on friends comp :( )
didnt try to overclock the memory for more, need to raise the core voltage somehow...

[Nephilim]

somthing is really strange in here,i got the sapphire X800GT 256MB
in the stock clocks and stock cpu with venice 3000+ and MSI K8N Neo4 Platinum and samsung TCCC 256x2 512MB PC3200 8-4-4-2.5 the card gave me 3993 in 3dmark05.. when in overclocking to CPU, 2550MHZ to the cpu and memory on 510MHZ 8-4-4-3 gave me 4124...., so how do you with the same card got 3800 points?!, something is not good at your card...
my sapphire flashed to the Sapphire X800XL Bios with 385MHZ core and 1050MHZ memory(core isnt stable at 400MHZ 16p\6vp, but it is stable at 385MHZ as you can guess)
i can get 4940 points without OC the cpu and 5157 with OC the to cpu...
first @ world that did it(on friends comp :( )
didnt try to overclock the memory for more, need to raise the core voltage somehow...

Motherboard nuances. My K8NMF-9 with TCCD gets a different score (slightly higher?) than my DFI with BH5 using the same graphics card.

Is your Sapphire R480? I seem to recall Sapphire X800GT's were usually R423, that could definitely influence the score due to architectural differences.

[babyelf]

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/2005/09/02/x800gt_roundup/4.html

they are R423.. could be the reason as well

[Kasparz]

Doe's someone know how to unlock pipelines of x800GT?
IMO i'll buy x800RX aka x800GT from club3D.

[Nephilim]

Doe's someone know how to unlock pipelines of x800GT?
IMO i'll buy x800RX aka x800GT from club3D.

As of yet no one has unlocked one successfully. Look closely at my pics, the power circuitry is different, let me see if I have a more detailed pic of both cores.

http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a96/Nephilim666/R480XTCore2.gif
http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a96/Nephilim666/R480GTCore3.gif

.. ok found em here you can see the difference, the X800GT has a silver dot, and the XT has a copper dot. It's not that clear, but it's more visible without the flash.

Maybe you just need to rub the silver off carefully with acetone and flash the bios, but I won't be the first to try.

Other than that even the resistors are identical.

[Allen]

As of yet no one has unlocked one successfully.

(...)

.. ok found em here you can see the difference, the X800GT has a silver dot, and the XT has a copper dot. It's not that clear, but it's more visible without the flash.

Maybe you just need to rub the silver off carefully with acetone and flash the bios, but I won't be the first to try.
Unlocking extra 4 pipelines in X800GT is easy if You know what are you doing.

Almost every X800GT 128/256MB (based on R423) does 8->12 pipes.
Just look here -> X800GT 8->12 and 8->16 (http://forum.overclockers.pl/viewtopic.php?t=8846). (it's Polish, but basically You have to connect the LASER CUT pin - seen in the attached picture - with something that condacts current). This Mod has been done by User named 'PITer' from another forums, but this linked post describes You simple 'How-TO: X800GT 8->12pipes', his 3DM scores are online on the ORB (3DM03/05).

Unfortunately there's nothin good about the R480 core. So far I haven't seen anybody that made 8->12 with X800GT on R480. :(

Good news is that the 16pipes is also achieveable, but as for now only one guy, as far as I know, made that - yea, PITer :D . Unfortunately he got 1 gpu working with 16p out of 10 he modded & flashed. But it CAN be done, after all there's ORB 3DM03 online result with that!!

[Snowman89]

my x800gt powercolor does 595/570, where is the bios i can use to try to unlock it?
it has 2ns samsung menoryies and r480, or how do i do to try to unlock it?

[Geforce4ti4200]

good review but it is heavily cpu limited, especially in 3dmark 2001. However the x800gt looks like a really good bang for the buck, especially with a cpu bottleneck. Unlocking pipes is tricky business and rarely works since those are leftover cores and have bad pipes. Id just get an x800pro or x800xl if I needed alot of pipes :)

[Nephilim]

good review but it is heavily cpu limited, especially in 3dmark 2001. However the x800gt looks like a really good bang for the buck, especially with a cpu bottleneck. Unlocking pipes is tricky business and rarely works since those are leftover cores and have bad pipes. Id just get an x800pro or x800xl if I needed alot of pipes :)

Agreed ;)

The benchmarks are heavily cpu limited, I will see how it scales with cpu speed soon enough... I have to wait for slightly better cooling but it seems that will be a little further off than I thought.

On water it overclocks really high (660+ on core) so a voltmod and some subzero cooling would be very nice.

Strange that I seem to have such a high clocking card, yet it was standard retail boxed product, perhaps replacing stock TIM helps a lot :confused:

If I could unlock this card to 16 pipes it'd probably beat my x850 despite the diff in memory speeds. :slobber: But I'm not counting on it.

[Nephilim]

my x800gt powercolor does 595/570, where is the bios i can use to try to unlock it?
it has 2ns samsung menoryies and r480, or how do i do to try to unlock it?

Don't know how to unlock these myself... I can send you the bios on Monday, just pm me your e-mail :banana:

EDIT: Sorry I thought you meant my x800GT bios :p I think you want the bios for 16 pipes... which I have no idea where to get :confused: Unless you want to try my x850XT one.

[Snowman89]

Don't know how to unlock these myself... I can send you the bios on Monday, just pm me your e-mail :banana:

EDIT: Sorry I thought you meant my x800GT bios :p I think you want the bios for 16 pipes... which I have no idea where to get :confused: Unless you want to try my x850XT one.
yeah i want the x800gt bios that utilizes the r480 core, i read that powercolor released that and that it makes the card perform 7% better, if you have it please send it to emil_wade@hotmail.com

[zakelwe]

Great review for us benchers :toast:

The X800GT looks like my favourite card of the moment in the midrange, coming from an nvidia man, that is high praise indeed !

Regards

Andy

[Snowman89]

Great review for us benchers :toast:

The X800GT looks like my favourite card of the moment in the midrange, coming from an nvidia man, that is high praise indeed !

Regards

Andy
yeah, this card is great in 01, got 26k with stock cooler on gpu and only 2650mhz on cpu and running dividers, think that 27k can be possibly at the sam clocks with a fresh install

[Shyska]

http://img400.imageshack.us/img400/8995/3dmark058iu.th.jpg (http://img400.imageshack.us/my.php?image=3dmark058iu.jpg)

Thats Sapphire's x800gt 256MB (core 423)

[Nephilim]

Thats Sapphire's x800gt 256MB (core 423)

Very nice! Congrats on unlocking the extra quad :toast:

[Sentential]

Thanks for the review. I think ATi has a winner on its hands with the whole "GT/GTO" series. The fact that yours pushes over 600 is very promising to say the least.

[Snowman89]

Very nice! Congrats on unlocking the extra quad :toast:
did you have the r480 bios on your powercolor card?

[ArcTan]

would be interesting to see a 12 pipe R423 core x800gt go against a R480 core x800gt

[hwgeek]

:banana:

[Nephilim]

did you have the r480 bios on your powercolor card?

Still using stock bios. Not even the "performance enhancing" one. Going to have a littl play with the card in my main rig again, since the HTPC has to be pulled apart :stick:

[Supertim0r]

what about a X800 GTO to X850 XT Mod (http://www.techpowerup.com/articles/overclocking/vidcard/127) :p: :banana:

[Nephilim]

what about a X800 GTO to X850 XT Mod (http://www.techpowerup.com/articles/overclocking/vidcard/127) :p: :banana:

I will see if I can get my hands on one of these :)

In the meantime I have this (credit to techpowerup).
http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a96/Nephilim666/rev-x850xt-chipLGcircle.jpg

It's an early R480... same week as my Powercolor X850XT but look at the area circled.

I believe ATI laser cut them, then cover with a square of solder (notice the square looks different to the other solder points in my R480 pics above).

Anyone wanna cover me if kill this card taking off that solder? Please sign here :fact:

hehe :banana:

[Nephilim]

http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a96/Nephilim666/X800GTToX850XTFailed.jpg

:mad:

Did take a bit of the solder off but stopped as soon as the copper square was exposed... wonder what else can be done :confused:

[Nephilim]

Anyone silly enough to try this themselves, here are pics. The card still works 100% as it should :) so scraping off the solder doesn't kill it, at least we know that.

http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a96/Nephilim666/IMG_1529.jpg
http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a96/Nephilim666/IMG_1531.jpg
http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a96/Nephilim666/IMG_1532.jpg
http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a96/Nephilim666/IMG_1533.jpg
http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a96/Nephilim666/IMG_1537.jpg

I just used a razor sharp pocket knife... ghetto.

Anyone have any suggestions for trying to unlock this card? or is it truly impossible?

[Nephilim]

http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a96/Nephilim666/Difference.jpg

Here we can see the difference between the GT and XT vivo... all the bright colorful bits show the differences. the extra power circuitry and overall differences are all there.

I referred to Dolf@techpowerup's article on unlocking hardware locked X800 cards, unfortunately the little resistor panel on the back is identical between my x800gt & x850Xt so it is hardware locked through power circuitry it seems.

[Snowman89]

that sucks, will try to sell my x800gt that is 1week old and get a GTO with 1.6ns ;p

[haft]

I'm totally confused. Is this an x850xt from gamepc.com? Here is the core of my Club3D X800RX, it looks the same, but i couldn't take a more detailed photo to see what it is indeed in the "red square" area.

http://static.flickr.com/30/44109262_2b2805bf1d.jpg

[Nephilim]

I'm totally confused. Is this an x850xt from gamepc.com? Here is the core of my Club3D X800RX, it looks the same, but i couldn't take a more detailed photo to see what it is indeed in the "red square" area.



It depends on whether you have the additional power circuitry. If you hold the card with the core facing down and the PCI-e slot facing towards you, there should be some voltage regulators on the top right, if you have 8, try flashing it!

My GT has 6, and my X850XT has 8. So far no X800GT's have the Aux PCI-e power connector right? I remember powercolor did on their XL's...

[-=DeaTH=-]

What about a couple of rezistors (it seems to me...)? Such elements we have from the back of our card too. What are they mean? :rolleyes:
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=37285

[Nephilim]

What about a couple of rezistors (it seems to me...)? Such elements we have from the back of our card too. What are they mean? :rolleyes:
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=37285

Notice that the coloration does not change in my overlaid image? Thus it is identical on both cards. Also the resistor panel on the back is identical. The potential part this plays in modding the card was brought up and debunked on the techpowerup forums. :rolleyes:

[Supertim0r]

bios flash X800GTO to X850XT possible ?

[babyelf]

bios flash X800GTO to X850XT possible ?

For the present only Sapphire X800GTO cards like the Ultimate and Fireblade editions using the X800 GTO² (R480) core can be successfully unlocked(we have the modification article here (http://www.techpowerup.com/articles/overclocking/vidcard/127))

:cool:

[Nephilim]

The Powercolor X800GTO is R430 and as such most likely won't be unlockable. :stick:

EDIT: on second thought perhaps an X800XL bios will unlock the remaining quad, I will see if I can get my hands on one of these... :banana:

[x3ro]

Nice review you made there.. The x800GT is quite a nice card.. But it cant out-perform my oc'ed GF6800LE... Thats 4.5K in 05 and 11k in 03 ^^

Regards

[Snowman89]

Nice review you made there.. The x800GT is quite a nice card.. But it cant out-perform my oc'ed GF6800LE... Thats 4.5K in 05 and 11k in 03 ^^

Regards
give me a week and i will pass your 03 score, im already at 4,4k 05 so ust a fresh install will get my pass 4.5k

[Nephilim]

Nice review you made there.. The x800GT is quite a nice card.. But it cant out-perform my oc'ed GF6800LE... Thats 4.5K in 05 and 11k in 03 ^^

Regards


Nice scores, but it beats your 05 score oc'd (see graphs in first post) with cpu & ram @ stock (4667points) and if I wacked it in my DFI with my cpu & ram overclocked I'd say your 03 would be toast too :)