The cards

Can you tell the difference between the X800 boards?

Looking at the X800 XT Platinum Edition and X800 PRO boards, you can see that they’re both physically indistinguishable from one another at first glance. The board layout of both cards is the same, with the only exception being the components used (the XT Platinum board ships with faster memory).

Another aspect you’ll quickly notice is that both boards look awfully similar to the RADEON 9800 XT. You’ve got the same fire engine red PCB ATI has become well known for as well as the all-copper heatsink. Thankfully ATI has switched manufacturers for the X800 boards, resulting in a heatsink of much higher manufacturing quality.

Note the cooling on the 9800 XT covers the memory modules

Size comparison between X800 and GeForce 6800 GT

RADEON 9800 XT owners will also notice that the heatsink on the X800 boards is actually smaller than the cooler used on the RADEON 9800 XT. While the heatsink on the 9800 XT covers the graphics core and its accompanying memory modules, the GDDR3 modules found on the X800 boards aren’t covered by the copper heatsink. We found that the memory modules barely get warm to the touch, thus they don’t need the additional cooling.

The same ducted design used on the RADEON 9800 XT is still in place on both X800 cards. Air enters through the card’s fan where it passes between the heatsinks fins before exiting out the right side and upper portion of the duct. The fan itself is large yet quiet. With many more fins present the fan doesn’t have to spin up to the high RPMs used by GeForce 6800 Ultra, resulting in a card that generates a lower noise level. You’ll also notice that the fan is located offset of the graphics core.

X800 PRO reference board

The back of the card

As we mentioned in our RADEON 9800 XT article, this is to give the duct more room to work with, maximizing efficiency. Another added side affect is that the fan’s motor isn’t located directly above one of the hottest components on any graphics board: its core. This heat can prematurely kill the fan’s motor.

Both boards run cool, even during extended operation with overclocking. We wouldn’t hesitate to put either board in a small form factor system. In fact, since the X800 boards require less power than previous high-end DX9 offerings, they’re even more ideal for this use than previous high-end cards!

Looking at the board itself, the underside of both reference cards shipped with Rage Theater chips, which provides VIVO (video-in/video-out) support on both boards. We’ve been told that one of the Built By ATI boards will offer VIVO, but as of press time we don’t know if this is the RADEON X800 XT Platinum Edition or the X800 PRO. Most likely, we’d assume the X800 XT Platinum, as it’s the flagship board, but we weren’t able to get firm confirmation on this from ATI.

Rage Theater onboard

Molex and video connectors

Manufacturing quality much better on the X800 heatsink

Of course, ATI’s X800 board partners can implement this feature if they choose to. It’s obviously there on the reference board. The yellow connector you see on the end of the board is for analog video capture. This feature is seen on some graphics boards in Europe, where you’ll run a cable to a composite video connector on the front of your case, but won’t be offered on ATI’s own “Built By ATI” retail boards. Like video input, it’s possible one of ATI’s board partners in Europe may implement this feature on one of their X800 cards however.

Thermal monitoring

Like the RADEON 9800 XT, both X800 boards ship with onboard thermal diodes, which has been integrated on the graphics core. The board’s fan does boot up with higher RPMs at first, but quickly settles down to normal after a second or two, suggesting that eventually the fan will operate dynamically based on temperature, just as the RADEON 9800 XT does. This feature isn’t enabled in the current beta driver however.

Another feature that is disabled in the current driver is OVERDRIVE. ATI has no plans to offer OVERDRIVE support for the X800 PRO, but they do plan to bring the feature back for X800 XT Platinum Edition users in an upcoming CATALYST driver release.