ATI Radeon X850 XT Platinum Edition Reference Board Examination
The reference board looks pretty much identical to the PCI Express version of the same SKU that I previewed back in November last year. The obvious changes are the AGP interface and the Molex connector for power (the PEG version uses the PEG-standard 6-pin plug). Under the hood, R481 powers this version, a native AGP version of the PCI Express-based R480 chip.
Strangely, my digital scales think the AGP version weighs some 12 grams less than the PCI Express board, at 448g. The metal mass for the cooler assembly is the main reason for pretty much the heaviest AGP graphics card you can buy.
A side-on view of the cooler shows you the basic mechanics behind how it works. A blower-style fan shifts the heat that the core produces, carried away by the copper core of the cooler, out of your chassis via the vents on the backplane.
You can see the Rage Theater 200 on the rear of the PCB, along with the cooler's retention bracket, which also covers the 625MHz-rated Samsung GC16 6DRAM devices on the rear of the PCB, keeping them away from mucky digits. Look back at my review of the PCI Express board for more talk on the cooler. Its 44 skived fins and blower add up to a nicely designed and very much considered dual-slot cooler design from ATI's thermal engineers.
Connectivity wise there's an S-Video port to feed the Theater with video signals, along with a single digital DVI-I port (a version of the standard that also carries analogue signals) and basic analogue VGA to finish. My heart sinks when I unwrap a high-end consumer board and I see that it doesn't come equipped with dual DVI ports. It's a personal bugbear of mine, that I'll never tire of venting about. It shoves a board that'd otherwise probably be top of my shopping list should I want the fastest AGP board on the market, out of my thoughts. However, dual DVI ports are an AIB option for AGP X850 XT Platinum Edition. Going on previous history, though, doesn't fill me with confidence that any of them will do so.
My comments about noise and heat (and the giant production of which!), that I made for the PCI Express version, apply here, too. It's quiet enough under all but the largest of 3D loads. As a tradeoff for those tuned fan speeds, you get a massive amount of heat produced, a large majority of which doesn't get removed from your chassis by the blower. Expect your CPU temperatures to jump a bit, if you pack your PC with X850 XT Platinum Edition on AGP.
There you have it: ATI's fastest AGP SKU. Club3D's X800 XL provides the RIALTO-based comparison, so let's have a good look at that board, too.
