PowerColor GameFX Radeon X800 GT 256MB PCIe

Final thoughts

We were impressed when rumours sufaced of a limited edition 256MB-equipped Radeon X800 part retailing for around £110. The X800 GT 256MB card is the physical manifestation of that rumour, and ATI's board partners have been understandably keen to release retail versions of this excellent midrange performer.

The usual case for a new SKU is for AIBs to simply slap a sticker on top, throw in a software bundle that's present on all their cards, and be done with it. It's refreshing to see that two major partners, SAPPHIRE and PowerColor, have gone about designing an X800 GT package in their own way. PowerColor's effort, the GameFX X800 GT 256MB, is more in keeping with the high-end ATI theme of dual-DVI-I outputs, off-centre cooling, and, tellingly, the use of stockpiled R480-based cores that didn't quite make it to X850 Pro/XT/XT PE standard. PowerColor's bundle, too, doesn't skimp on extras and includes a full retail game and a glut of useful software from the folks at CyberLink.

Much like NVIDIA's GeForce 7800 GT/GTX, you simply cannot buy a bad X800 GT 256MB card. The question then becomes one of which partner to buy from?. We haven't seen a retail Radeon X800 GT card run at higher clock speeds than the reference version, so default performance will always be similar. Price, too, will be similar for partners' cards. The differentiating factor come down to features. PowerColor, with its Game FX X800 GT 256MB carrying dual-DVI-I outputs and using only R480 cores, is in the ascendency here. Our advice after 14 pages is actually quite simple; go buy it. £110 won't buy you better overall 3D performance or a better feature-set.

CrossFire compatibility, or the lack of it, may be a concern for a few, and we doubt that we'll be seeing an AGP incarnation in the near future, so not everything is rosy in the X800 GT garden. However, the majority of users simply want the fastest/best-featured single card that they can buy at any given pricepoint. If it's a PCI-Express card you're after and £100-£110 is your budget, the PowerColor GameFX Radeon X800 GT 256MB is currently it.

HEXUS Right2Reply

Neil Spicer, Sales and & Marketing Director for PowerColor in Northern Europe says:

Forged from the heart of a champion product, the X800GT represents stunning value for money. Around the £100 mark, there is nothing to touch it. Please be aware that this is a limited edition product so - if you are genuinely interested - grab it while you can.

Regards,
Neil