Final thoughts
There's not a whole lot to separate the ATI Radeon X1800 XL 256MB packages from ASUS and HIS. Both use reference cards without any company-specific tinkering, both perform in identical fashion, and both are available immediately.ASUS' EAX1800XL 256MB package is priced at around £299, so about £20 more than HIS' effort. The extra money goes towards a better software/gaming bundle, making it a true deluxe version. It's a case of ASUS buying power coming to the fore, as we've seen very similar bundles on other high-end ASUS cards of late, be they based on ATI or NVIDIA GPUs. Benchmark performance is strong in DirectX apps. and reasonable in OpenGL titles. The use of a reference design means that the heatsink's fan produces shifts pitch continuously when the card is under 3D load, and we had hoped that ASUS would bundle in its excellent SmartDoctor ASIC and software for better fan-speed regulation. Pre-overclocked core/memory speeds would have been nice, too, but ATI probably has tighter grip on partners' clock speeds than NVIDIA, whose partners have better leeway in setting GeForce 7800-series' clocks.
HIS also specifies the reference design for its retail card and everything that applies to the ASUS model also applies for HIS. With a lesser bundle and lower street price, HIS attempts to win over support by undercutting ASUS' price, offering its package for £279. When we compare both cards to the slightly cheaper NVIDIA's GeForce 7800 GT 256MB, ATI and NVIDIA are finely balanced. The Avivo display engine and the ability to run HDR with AA make Radeon X1800 XL cards attractive, whilst immediately multi-GPU support, available through NVIDIA's SLI technology, helps keep it in the picture.
ATI's Radeon X1800 XL GPU has enough going for it to be worthy of recommendation in the <£300 pricing bracket. ASUS and HIS take reference cards and dress them up in retail packages in their own way, with ASUS preferring a larger bundle and higher asking price, whilst HIS opts for a basic software selection and lower outlay. You pays your money and makes your choice. Here, though, there isn't a bad one to be made. Go for either Radeon-based cards or for an NVIDIA GeForce 7800 GT 256MB; all will make for decent stocking fillers for the readers that wants to enjoy games with maximum detail switched on.
ASUS EAX1800XL 256MB
HIS Excalibur Radeon X1800 XL 256MB
