| PowerColor 128MB Radeon X800 GTO Graphics Card
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Conclusion:
The PowerColor 128MB Radeon X800 GTO graphics card definitely provides a solid bang for the buck. It may not be one of the cutting edge cards out there, but it is priced at a mere fraction of one of those cards. The testing showed that it could put up respectable numbers in benchmarks, and more importantly that it could easily provide smooth game play in a handful of popular first person shooters.
The performance definitely out weighs the price, and if you want a graphics card that can keep up with some of the latest games without costing much more than $100, this one might be hard to beat. A search of PriceGrabber finds the PowerColor X800 GTO available from just two locations starting at $115. To me, $100 is the ceiling for a card to be considered budget conscientious, and for a card with such performance to be approaching that threshold is pretty impressive.
Although there is a good deal to consider on the positive side, there are a few issues on the negative side. Two of my issues are related to software, One is that the software bundle in general is rather weak. You only receive a disc with basic ATI drivers and another disc with a PowerDVD suite. The PowerDVD suite seems cool, but so many cards come with at least a game or two in addition to a few utilities that this seems a bit spartan.
This first issue is tied directly to my other issue with the software, and that is the lack of an overclocking utility. I know not all manufacturers support overclocking, but with so many going out of their way to provide some sort of utility with their cards, it really can be a selling point to someone interested in getting the most out of their card. Given the overclocking performance achieved with a third party application, it is obvious that the X800 GTO can handle it!
The final issue I had with the card was the noise level. The fan was distinguishable over the din of all the other fans in the system, and could be a nuisance to those seeking performance and silence. But, given the price and the ease of which the GPU cooler can be removed, perhaps spending a few dollars on a third party cooler would be a reasonable investment. You might even be able to kill two birds with one stone by lowering the noise output and increasing the performance through the use of a stronger cooler that allowed for RAM sinks to be used on all memory chips.
Overall, I am quite impressed with the PowerColor 128MB X800 GTO graphics card, and would have no problem recommending it to a gamer on a moderate budget. I award the card a final score of 4.5 out of 5 stars, and the ratings of "Recommended" and "Gaming Approved".
Final Rating (4.5 out of 5 stars):  
 
Pros:
» Solid performance
» Excellent for gaming on a moderate budget
» Well priced
» Easily overclockable
Cons:
» A bit loud
» Meager software bundle
» No overclocking utility
Special thanks to PowerColor for providing the 128MB Radeon X800 GTO Graphics Card to Bigbruin.com for review!
Please drop by the Bigbruin.com Forum and feel free to post any comments or questions.
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