The PowerColor X800 XL AGP card

In order to get their boards to market as quickly as possible, PowerColor sticks pretty closely to ATI’s reference design. Occasionally they’ll add in extras such as dual DVI, or perhaps faster memory modules, as we saw with their X800 Bravo Edition, but their X800 XL AGP we’re reviewing today doesn’t deviate at all from the ATI X800 XL AGP reference board.

Board design

As you can see in the pictures, the most striking characteristic of the X800 XL AGP is its size – the board is incredibly long – in fact this is the longest ATI board we’ve seen in recent memory, sizing in approximately 1.6 inches longer than the X800 XL PCI-E and even slightly outflanking NVIDIA’s high-end GeForce 6800 GT/Ultra in length. This is due to two factors: the Rialto bridge chip and the 4-pin Molex power connector. We’ll start with Rialto first.

PowerColor X800 XL AGP card

The back of the card

X800 XL PCI-E (top), X800 XL AGP (bottom). See how much further back the heatsink and R430 chip are on the X800 XL AGP?

As we mentioned earlier, Rialto is located on the underside of the graphics card, closer to the DVI/VGA connectors on the end of the board, placing it directly over the AGP interface. R430 then sits just behind Rialto. When measuring the distance between the front of the card (where the VGA and DVI connectors are located) to the location of R430, the VPU on X800 XL AGP is pushed back 1.5” further than on the PCI-E X800 XL card, this accounts for most of the difference in size between the PCI-E board and its AGP derivative.

It’s interesting to note that X700 AGP boards are much closer in design to their PCI-E cousins, with Rialto sitting underneath RV410, thus allowing PCBs of similar size to be used.

Even the GeForce 6800 GT is dwarfed by the X800 XL AGP

Much larger than the X800 card

PowerColor X800 XL PCI-E and AGP

The remainder of the difference in size between AGP and PCI-E X800 XL cards can be attributed to the board’s 4-pin Molex power connector, which is located on the right side of the board. Unlike PCI Express, the AGP interface isn’t capable of supplying enough power to the board, in addition, Rialto also adds to the card’s power requirements. If the external power connection isn’t hooked up, you won’t get a video signal when you turn on your PC.

Aluminum cooling on the AGP card

Memory modules on the back of the card are also cooled

Another shot of the cooler

The rest of the X800 XL AGP board design is pretty similar to PCI-E cards. Both share the same large ducted aluminum heatsink/fan unit, which is the same cooler in use on the RADEON X850 PRO. The cooler does a good job of keeping the graphics core cool, with the fan’s RPMs varying based on graphics core temperature. If the core begins to overheat, the RPMs crank up to a pretty high setting that can be a little noisy, but fortunately we’ve never experienced this outside of overclocking (and even with overclocking the fan can typically run at the moderate setting).

For video input functionality, ATI’s Rage Theater chip is used. PowerColor includes a VIVO cable for hooking your card up to an external device such as a camcorder. For the memory subsystem, PowerColor uses 2.0ns memory modules manufactured by Samsung.

Rialto poses with Rage Theater

Bundle and accessories

Hardware accessories PowerColor bundles with their X800 XL AGP card include a DVI adapter, component video cable (for outputting to an HDTV) and VIVO cable, RCA composite cable, and an S-Video cable. Surprisingly enough, a Molex power adapter wasn’t included in our card’s packaging. On the software side, PowerColor bundles a copy of Hitman: Contracts and copies of PowerDirector SE+, MediaShow SE, PowerDVD, Power2Go, and PowerProducer DVD are included on a DVD.