| PowerColor 128MB Radeon X800 GTO Graphics Card
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Software:
Considering that there are no games provided with this card, there isn't a whole lot to talk about. The ATI labeled driver CD was really just that (all options shown in below left image). No extra applications and to my surprise no overclocking utility. The Gigabyte X600 XT to be used in testing came with a much more comprehensive bundle, including V-Tuner, their own overclocking utility.
 
Many cards ship with PowerDVD, but the included suite of CyberLink applications is a nice twist (all options shown in above right image). I can't say I have a use for most of them, but it might be fun to spend a few minutes playing with all that is offered.
My thoughts on CDs containing graphics card drives is that they're about useless. Unless you have a machine without Internet access, you're best off going out on the web and getting the latest drivers straight from the source. With that said, the PowerColor X800 GTO was installed with a freshly downloaded set of ATI drivers, Catalyst Version 6.2.
Installation & Operation:
Physical installation was fairly easy, but one thing became clear as soon as I popped the card into the PCI Express slot on the test motherboard. The X800 GTO was close to an inch longer than the X600 XT it was set to go head-to-head with. The end of the X800 GTO card extends into the vicinity of three of the four DDR slots onboard, while the X600 XT only reaches the first slot. This makes swapping DDR more of a chore, as the graphics card has to be removed first. With the X600 XT, I simply used the second and fourth slots.
One thing I did notice right away upon first boot up was the noise. With the case side panel removed, the X800 GTO's fan was quite obvious, considering the only other fans in the case were slower 120mm units. With the side panel installed it wasn't too bad, but it is still audible as about the only noise source you could actually pinpoint.
This installation will consist of the following components:
» ASUS A8N-E nForce4 Ultra motherboard
» AMD Athlon-64 3200+ Venice core processor
» 2048MB Corsair PC3500 dual channel DDR memory 2-3-2-6 1T
» 200GB Seagate Barracuda 7200.8 SATA hard drive
» Enermax Liberty 500W power supply
» Windows XP Professional, SP2
For comparison purposes during testing, the PowerColor 128MB Radeon X800 GTO Graphics Card was matched up against another card in the same price range... The Gigabyte 128MB Radeon X600 XT.
The table below details the comparison of some of their key features. If you only looked at core clock and memory speed, you would think the X600 XT is the clear cut performance leader, but the 12 pixel pipelines versus 4 figure should make a huge difference!
| Model |
PowerColor X800 GTO |
Gigabyte X600 XT |
| Memory |
128MB DDR |
128MB DDR |
| Memory Speed |
700 MHz DDR |
750 MHz DDR |
| Core Clock Speed |
400 MHz |
500 MHz |
| Interface |
PCIe x16 |
PCIe x16 |
| Pixel Pipelines |
12 |
4 |
| Price |
@ $115 |
@ $105 |
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