Thoughts
ATI's Radeon X1800 XL 256MB GPU is decent for the most part. Gaming performance is comparable to NVIDIA's GeForce 7800 GT 256MB SKU and 2D-related performance is, arguably, better with the company's Avivo technology being more flexible than NVIDIA's PureVideo.Our benchmarks have shown that you can literally turn on most of a game's eye-candy and still run games at high resolutions; exactly the target audience ATI is after with its high-end SKUs. Gigabyte, with its GV-RX18L256V-B Radeon X1800 XL 256MB card, has stuck to a reference card design which suffers from an annoying temperature-controlled cooler fan that changes speed (and increases noise markedly) as soon as the card is under load. Running at full tilt, which translates to a fan-speed of ~5,300RPM, the card becomes louder than we'd like, and it would definitely be noticeable in quieter systems. It's a shame that Gigabyte hasn't indulged in a little creative design with this model.
Pricing can also be considered an issue. The near-£300 asking price is at the very top end for Radeon X1800 XL 256MB retail packages and up to £50 dearer than those offered by other partners and up to £75 more expensive than the competing GeForce 7800 GT. On the other side, for £75 more (yes, it's still a chunk of money) you can purchase a retail ATI Radeon X1800 XT 512MB package that is up to 40% faster in GPU-bound scenarios and promises, thanks to a larger framebuffer, to be more future-proof, too. Further, ATI's recent announcement that Radeon X1800 XT boards, once validated, can be flashed to run at 700MHz core and 1600MHz (effective) memory, will add to their attractiveness from a gamer's point of view.
Gigabyte, then, has simply taken a reference ATI Radeon X1800 XL 256MB board and packaged it up with its own bundle. The net result is a proposition, when considered against other high-end SKUs, that's a little too expensive to be recommended at the asking price of £290. The bottom line is that the high-end GPU market is now stronger than ever. Board partners need to either compete on price, individual design, or accompanying bundle. Gigabyte hasn't managed to successfully do any of these, so whilst the GV-RX18L256V-B package is decent enough, it has no killer features that make it into a must-have product. It's kind of stuck in a no man's land, if you will. Our recommendation to Gigabyte would be for it to reduce its supplying price such that retailers were marketing it at below £250.
