3DMark05's benchmarks are known to
crimple even the most powerful computer so one should
not feel bad if the numbers you receive are small it is
just par for the course. Using the graph feature for the
Return to Proxycon benchmark we can see the minimum,
maximum and average FPS we achieved during the two
passes we ran with the X800 GTO.
The PowerColor X800 GTO for a
mid-price video card should make many a gamer happy,
priced currently at $178.00 at Newegg this falls
slightly above a some other cards in this price range
but I feel for the money your getting your monies worth.
I must say I was slightly disappointed in the software
bundle that came with the card, included with is a copy
of Ubisoft's Pacific Fighter which all in all is a
decent flight simulator game even though the release
date on it 2004, plus you will also immediately have to
go download a 128 meg update to get it do work correctly
with certain configurations. The other disk
included with the card is a bit better, it is referred
to as the "Cyberlink Solution " primarily because it is
packed full of Cyberlink software.
Power Director - Video
Editing
Media Show - Photo Slideshow
Music Matchbox - MP3 ripping
and playback
PowerBackup (Trial) - Back-up
your data
Power DVD - DVD Player
Power Producer - DVD
authoring and burning
Power2Go - Data/Music Burning
PowerDVDCopy - One-Step DVD
Copy
When it came time to overclock
the the X800 GTO we first wanted to see how warm the
unit was going to get during our testing so we fired
up ATI Tools and used it to monitor our temps as we
ran it looking for the high core and memory
frequencies, at idle the we saw a relatively cool 43
degrees C and as expected under load it did climb to
a respectable 71 degrees.
Overclocking the best we were
able to do was core
at 430 and memory at 545
before we began to experience artifacts. These
are the up from the default speeds of 399 core 489
memory, a little bit of short change there.
So there you have it, the X800
GTO in our minds is the ideal video card for anyone
wanting to enjoy the current round of video games
(albeit some at reduced settings) and not break the
bank when they do it. The card is also a
perfect match for anyone looking for a nice addition
to a HTPC which is exactly where we will be putting
this one. With its native 16 pipelines and
dual DVI outputs you have the ability to plug your
card directly into your HDTV and enjoy gaming,
surfing music or whatever interests the Internet
holds for you.
Do we recommend this video card?
Hands down - Yes PowerColor has a winner with the
X800 GTO 16 and we can't image anyone that purchases
one not enjoying it as much as we did.
A special thanks to
PowerColor
who graciously provided us with this item to review.
