GeCube Overclocked Radeon X800 GTO Review

[nextpage title=”Introduction”]

Radeon X800 GTO is the latest graphics chip released by ATI targeted to the mid-range market, located between Radeon X800 Pro and Radeon X800 GT and competing with GeForce 6600 GT from NVIDIA. This Radeon X800 GTO sample we’ve got from GeCube came already overclocked under a limited “special edition” series, so it is faster than Radeon X800 GTO from other companies.

This new chip officially runs at 400 MHz, while both Radeon X800 Pro and Radeon X800 GT run at 475 MHz. However, both Radeon X800 GTO and Radeon X800 Pro process 12 pixels per clock, while Radeon X800 GT processes only eight (the same amount as Radeon X800 SE). Radeon X800 XT can process up to 16.

The model we’ve got from GeCube runs at 472 MHz for core and 1 GHz for memory, what would create a faster video card than Radeon X800 Pro, which runs at 472 MHz for core and 950 MHz for memory.

Figure 1: GeCube Overclocked Radeon X800 GTO.

The problem with this model we’ve got from GeCube is that it is a limited edition, which is already sold out. It can’t be found on GeCube’s website and on its box there is no information at all regarding this card being overclocked.

You can see in our tutorial “ATI Chips Comparison table” the difference between this new chip and the other chips from ATI, while on our tutorial “NVIDIA Chips Comparison Table” you can compare it to its competitors from NVIDIA. It is very important to keep in mind that NVIDIA chips from series 6 and 7 use a Shader 3.0 engine (DirectX 9.0c), while ATI chips still use Shader 2.0 (DirectX 9.0).

It is always important to remember that the “memory clock” column from these tables informs the chip manufacturer (ATI or NVIDIA) recommended clock. In some cases, specially on cheaper video cards, the card manufacturer uses simpler memory chips (in order to cut the board price) and lower memory clocks (compatible with the memory chip used), making the board to achieve a lower performance compared to boards that use the same graphics chip but with their memory chips running at the chip manufacturer recommended clock. Because of that, we always run PowerStrip software in order to check if the video card memory is running at the standard clock set by the chip manufacturer or running at a lower clock rate.

This video card is targeted to the PCI Express bus, so in our review we will compare it only to other PCI Express video cards.

[nextpage title=”The Overclocked Radeon X800 GTO from GeCube”]

Even though we reviewed this so-called “special edition” which is overclocked, GeCube sells the same board without overclocking. The regular model is called GC-RX800GTO3-D3, which also has 256 MB memory. GeCube also has a 128 MB version, called GC-RX800GTO-C3. All Radeon X800 GTO models from GeCube use their “Uni-Wise Fan System”, which is a copper-based active heatsink with heat-pipe technology.

Figure 2: GeCube Overclocked Radeon X800 GTO.

Figure 3: GeCube Overclocked Radeon X800 GTO, back view.

We disassembled the video card heatsink to take a look, see Figure 4.

Figure 4: Video card with its heatsink detached.

Figure 5: Heatsink.

This video card uses 2 ns GDDR3 memory chips from Infineon, which can run up to 1 GHz, according to the manufacturer. Since this video card accesses the memory at 1 GHz, there is no room for memory overclocking inside the memory’s specifications. But of course you can try overclock it over its specs.

This video card has one VGA connector and one DVI connector, allowing you to use two video monitors on your PC. The board comes with one DVI-to-VGA adapter, so you can transform this DVI output into standard VGA.

In Figure 6, you can see all cables and adapters that come with this video card.

Figure 6: Cables and adapters that come with GeCube Overclocked Radeon X800 GTO.

This video card doesn’t come with any game.

Before going to our benchmarking results, let’s recap this video card main features.

[nextpage title=”Main Specifications”]

Graphics chip: Radeon X1800 GTO running at 472 MHz.
Memory: 2 ns 256-bit 256 MB GDDR3 memory from Infineon (HYB18T256321F-2L), running at 1 GHz.
Bus type: PCI Express 16x.
Connectors: Two DVI and one mini-DIN for S-Video and component video outputs.
Number of CDs that come with this board: Two.
Games that come with this board: None
Programs that come with this board: Power DVD 5.0.
More Information: https://www.gecube.com
Average Price in the USA: We couldn’t find this product being sold in the USA on the day we published our review. Radeon X800 GTO from other brands can be found on the USD 175-200 range.

[nextpage title=”How We Tested”]

During our benchmarking sessions, we used the configuration listed below. Between our benchmarking sessions the only variable was the video card being tested.

Hardware Configuration

Motherboard: DFI LAN Party 925X-T2 (Intel 925X, Sep. 20th, 2004 BIOS)
CPU: Pentium 4 3.4 GHz LGA 775
Memory: Two 512 MB DDR2-533 CM2X512-4200 CL4 from Corsair memory modules
Hard Drive: Maxtor DiamondMax 9 Plus (40 GB, ATA-133)
Screen resolution: 1024x768x32@85 Hz

Software Configuration

Windows XP Professional installed using NTFS
Service Pack 2
Direct X 9.0c
Intel inf driver version: 6.0.1.1002
ATI video driver version: 4.10 (6.14.10.6483)
ATI video driver version: 4.12 (Radeon X850 Platinum Edition)
ATI video driver version: 5.3 (Radeon X800 GT)
ATI video driver version: 5.9 (Radeon X800 GTO)
ATI video driver version: 8.173 beta (Radeon X1000 series)
NVIDIA video driver version: 66.93
NVIDIA video driver version: 77.72 (GeForce 7800 GTX)
NVIDIA video driver version: 78.02 (GeForce 7800 GT)

Used Software

We adopted a 3% error margin; thus, differences below 3% cannot be considered relevant. In other words, products with a performance difference below 3% should be considered as having similar performance.

[nextpage title=”3DMark2001 SE”]

3DMark2001 SE measures video card performance simulating DirectX 8.1 games. It is very effective software for evaluating the performance from previous-generation games, programmed using DirectX 8. In this software we run six tests. We run the software in three resolutions, 1024x768x32, 1280x1024x32 and 1600x1200x32, first without antialising and with no frame buffer, then we put the antialising at 4 samples and the frame buffer at triple-buffering. This improves the video quality but lowers the performance. We were willing to see how much performance we lost by putting the VGA to run at the maximum possible image quality. It is important to note that ATI chips can run at 6x antialising. Since NVIDIA chips cannot run at this configuration, we had to use 4x antialising to use a configuration that is valid to all video cards included in our bechmarks, allowing direct comparison between them.

You may be asking yourself why we added an old program in a review of a latest generation video card. To us, it is as important to know the performance of a video card with the latest games as it is to know its performance in an older game. That’s why we kept this software in our methodology.

At a resolution of 1024×768 without any image quality enhancement, GeCube Radeon X800 GTO was 3.82% faster than ATI Radeon X1600 XT, 4.17% faster than HIS Radeon X800 GTO, 10.70% faster than Sapphire Radeon X700 Pro, 15.33% faster than XFX GeForce 6600 GT, 19.12% faster than PowerColor Radeon X800 GT, 42.69% faster than ATI Radeon X600 XT, 45.93% faster than Albatron GeForce 6600 and 64.39% faster than Sapphire Radeon X600 Pro.

GeCube Radeon X800 GTO achieved a performance similar to XFX GeForce 7800 GTX, NVIDIA GeForce 7800 GT, HIS Radeon X800 GT and NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GT.

GeCube Radeon X800 GTO was beaten by ATI Radeon X850 XT P.E., which was 11.55% faster, ATI Radeon X1800 XT, which was 10.22% faster, MSI GeForce 7800 GTX, which was 5.99% faster and ATI Radeon X1800 XL, which was 4.19% faster.

At a resolution of 1280×1024 without any image quality enhancement, GeCube Radeon X800 GTO was 4.39% faster than HIS Radeon X800 GTO, 8.40% faster than ATI Radeon X1600 XT, 15.85% faster than PowerColor Radeon X800 GT, 17.26% faster than Sapphire Radeon X700 Pro, 19.21% faster than XFX GeForce 6600 GT, 61.66% faster than Albatron GeForce 6600, 63.51% faster than ATI Radeon X600 XT and 94.62% faster than Sapphire Radeon X600 Pro.

GeCube Radeon X800 GTO achieved a performance similar to NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GT and HIS Radeon X800 GT.

GeCube Radeon X800 GTO was beaten by ATI Radeon X1800 XT, which was 14.13% faster, ATI Radeon X850 XT P.E., which was 13.20% faster, MSI GeForce 7800 GTX, which was 9.02% faster, XFX GeForce 7800 GTX, which was 8.80% faster, ATI Radeon X1800 XL, which was 7.24% faster and NVIDIA GeForce 7800 GT, which was 5.59% faster.

At a resolution of 1600×1200 without any image quality enhancement, GeCube Radeon X800 GTO was 6.23% faster than HIS Radeon X800 GTO, 6.41% faster than HIS Radeon X800 GT, 12.88% faster than PowerColor Radeon X800 GT, 13.88% faster than ATI Radeon X1600 XT, 20.43% faster than XFX GeForce 6600 GT, 29.43% faster than Sapphire Radeon X700 Pro, 82.04% faster than Albatron GeForce 6600,
102.87% faster than ATI Radeon X600 XT and 145.07% faster than Sapphire Radeon X600 Pro.

GeCube Radeon X800 GTO achieved a performance similar to NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GT.

GeCube Radeon X800 GTO was beaten by ATI Radeon X1800 XT, which was 21.19% faster, ATI Radeon X850 XT P.E., which was 17.53% faster, MSI GeForce 7800 GTX, which was 15.14% faster, XFX GeForce 7800 GTX, which was 14.61% faster, ATI Radeon X1800 XL, which was 11.52% faster and NVIDIA GeForce 7800 GT, which was 10.00% faster.

At a resolution of 1024×768 enabling image quality enhancements, GeCube Radeon X800 GTO was 3.63% faster than ATI Radeon X1600 XT, 5.54% faster than HIS Radeon X800 GTO, 6.32% faster than HIS Radeon X800 GT, 10.80% faster than Sapphire Radeon X700 Pro, 12.90% faster than PowerColor Radeon X800 GT, 27.94% faster than XFX GeForce 6600 GT, 79.51% faster than ATI Radeon X600 XT, 95.40% faster than Albatron GeForce 6600 and 112.48% faster than Sapphire Radeon X600 Pro.

GeCube Radeon X800 GTO achieved a performance similar to NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GT.

GeCube Radeon X800 GTO was beaten by ATI Radeon X1800 XT, which was 19.13% faster, ATI Radeon X850 XT P.E., which was 16.96% faster, XFX GeForce 7800 GTX, which was 13.63% faster, ATI Radeon X1800 XL, which was 12.76% faster, MSI GeForce 7800 GTX, which was 10.11% faster and NVIDIA GeForce 7800 GT, which was 5.11% faster.

At a resolution of 1280×1024 enabling image quality enhancements, GeCube Radeon X800 GTO was 6.48% faster than ATI Radeon X1600 XT, 7.87% faster than HIS Radeon X800 GT, 7.90% faster than HIS Radeon X800 GTO, 8.68% faster than PowerColor Radeon X800 GT, 19.14% faster than Sapphire Radeon X700 Pro, 40.46% faster than XFX GeForce 6600 GT, 113.02% faster than ATI Radeon X600 XT, 143.51% faster than Albatron GeForce 6600 and 155.95% faster than Sapphire Radeon X600 Pro.

GeCube Radeon X800 GTO achieved a performance similar to NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GT.

GeCube Radeon X800 GTO was beaten by ATI Radeon X1800 XT, which was 31.39% faster, ATI Radeon X850 XT P.E., which was 25.23% faster, ATI Radeon X1800 XL, which was 22.40% faster, XFX GeForce 7800 GTX, which was 18.49% faster, MSI GeForce 7800 GTX, which was 16.23% faster than and NVIDIA GeForce 7800 GT, which was 10.67% faster.

At a resolution of 1600×1200 enabling image quality enhancements, GeCube Radeon X800 GTO was 9.40% faster than HIS Radeon X800 GTO, 12.02% faster than PowerColor Radeon X800 GT, 14.20% faster than HIS Radeon X800 GT, 28.75% faster than Sapphire Radeon X700 Pro, 44.42% faster than ATI Radeon X1600 XT, 83.88% faster than XFX GeForce 6600 GT, 242.13% faster than Albatron GeForce 6600, 279.81% faster than ATI Radeon X600 XT and 367.11% faster than Sapphire Radeon X600 Pro.

GeCube Radeon X800 GTO achieved a performance similar to NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GT.

GeCube Radeon X800 GTO was beaten by ATI Radeon X1800 XT, which was 48.61% faster, ATI Radeon X850 XT P.E., which was 33.89% faster, ATI Radeon X1800 XL, which was 33.19% faster, XFX GeForce 7800 GTX, which was 28.67% faster, MSI GeForce 7800 GTX, which was 26.20% faster and NVIDIA GeForce 7800 GT, which was 18.44% faster.

[nextpage title=”3DMark03″]

3DMark03 measures performance by simulating games written to DirectX 9, which are contemporary games. We run this program in three resolutions, 1024x768x32, 1280x1024x32 and 1600x1200x32, first without antialising and anisotropic filtering, and then configuring antialising at 4x and anisotropic filtering also at 4x. This improves the video quality but lowers the performance. We were willing to see how much performance we lost by putting the VGA to run at the maximum possible image quality. It is important to note that ATI chips can run at 6x antialising. Since NVIDIA chips cannot run at this configuration, we had to use 4x antialising to use a configuration that is valid to all video cards included in our bechmarks, allowing direct comparison between them.

At a resolution of 1024×768 without any image quality enhancement, GeCube Radeon X800 GTO was 11.52% faster than HIS Radeon X800 GTO, 14.04% faster than ATI Radeon X1600 XT, 16.76% faster than HIS Radeon X800 GT, 25.57% faster than PowerColor Radeon X800 GT, 32.39% faster than XFX GeForce 6600 GT, 46.20% faster than Sapphire Radeon X700 Pro, 120.03% faster than Albatron GeForce 6600, 158.36% faster than ATI Radeon X600 XT and 207.53% faster than Sapphire Radeon X600 Pro.

GeCube Radeon X800 GTO was beaten by ATI Radeon X1800 XT, which was 46.56% faster, XFX GeForce 7800 GTX, which was 45.09% faster, MSI GeForce 7800 GTX, which was 40.68% faster, NVIDIA GeForce 7800 GT, which was 29.02% faster, ATI Radeon X1800 XL, which was 23.24% faster, ATI Radeon X850 XT P.E., which was 19.85% faster and NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GT, which was 5.23% faster.

At a resolution of 1280×1024 without any image quality enhancement, GeCube Radeon X800 GTO was 11.92% faster than HIS Radeon X800 GTO, 18.81% faster than HIS Radeon X800 GT, 20.45% faster than ATI Radeon X1600 XT, 23.99% faster than PowerColor Radeon X800 GT, 38.44% faster than XFX GeForce 6600 GT, 56.29% faster than Sapphire Radeon X700 Pro, 136.38% faster than Albatron GeForce 6600, 179.70% faster than ATI Radeon X600 XT and 233.59% faster than Sapphire Radeon X600 Pro.

GeCube Radeon X800 GTO was beaten by ATI Radeon X1800 XT, which was 55.98% faster, XFX GeForce 7800 GTX, which was 51.12% faster, MSI GeForce 7800 GTX, which was 46.35% faster, NVIDIA GeForce 7800 GT, which was 31.50% faster, ATI Radeon X1800 XL, which was 27.60% faster, ATI Radeon X850 XT P.E., which was 23.33% faster and NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GT, which was 5.66% faster.

At a resolution of 1600×1200 without any image quality enhancement, GeCube Radeon X800 GTO was 13.50% faster than HIS Radeon X800 GTO, 27.33% faster than ATI Radeon X1600 XT, 29.16% faster than HIS Radeon X800 GT, 32.61% faster than PowerColor Radeon X800 GT, 45.30% faster than XFX GeForce 6600 GT, 71.20% faster than Sapphire Radeon X700 Pro, 151.76% faster than Albatron GeForce 6600, 216.38% faster than ATI Radeon X600 XT and 275.18% faster than Sapphire Radeon X600 Pro.

GeCube Radeon X800 GTO was beaten by ATI Radeon X1800 XT, which was 59.46% faster, XFX GeForce 7800 GTX, which was 55.99% faster, MSI GeForce 7800 GTX, which was 50.21% faster, NVIDIA GeForce 7800 GT, which was 45.68% faster, ATI Radeon X1800 XL, which was 29.68% faster, ATI Radeon X850 XT P.E., which was 24.76% faster and NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GT, which was 5.96% faster.

At a resolution of 1024×768 enabling image quality enhancements, GeCube Radeon X800 GTO was 13.15% faster than HIS Radeon X800 GTO, 23.58% faster than ATI Radeon X1600 XT, 29.14% faster than PowerColor Radeon X800 GT, 31.09% faster than HIS Radeon X800 GT, 47.28% faster than XFX GeForce 6600 GT, 80.36% faster than Sapphire Radeon X700 Pro, 158.70% faster than Albatron GeForce 6600, 212.92% faster than ATI Radeon X600 XT and 267.50% faster than Sapphire Radeon X600 Pro.

GeCube Radeon X800 GTO was beaten by ATI Radeon X1800 XT, which was 78.62% faster, XFX GeForce 7800 GTX, which was 67.43% faster, MSI GeForce 7800 GTX, which was 61.39% faster, ATI Radeon X1800 XL, which was 51.58% faster, NVIDIA GeForce 7800 GT, which was 46.28% faster, ATI Radeon X850 XT P.E., which was 31.79% faster and NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GT, which was 12.47% faster.

At a resolution of 1280×1024 enabling image quality enhancements, GeCube Radeon X800 GTO was 13.15% faster than HIS Radeon X800 GTO, 19.64% faster than ATI Radeon X1600 XT, 27.98% faster than PowerColor Radeon X800 GT, 29.01% faster than HIS Radeon X800 GT, 76.01% faster than XFX GeForce 6600 GT, 82.68% faster than Sapphire Radeon X700 Pro, 199.47% faster than Albatron GeForce 6600, 231.83% faster than ATI Radeon X600 XT and 269.88% faster than Sapphire Radeon X600 Pro.

GeCube Radeon X800 GTO was beaten by ATI Radeon X1800 XT, which was 101.87% faster, XFX GeForce 7800 GTX, which was 78.90% faster, MSI GeForce 7800 GTX, which was 72.50% faster, ATI Radeon X1800 XL, which was 61.70% faster, NVIDIA GeForce 7800 GT, which was 52.60% faster, ATI Radeon X850 XT P.E., which was 40.04% faster and NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GT, which was 15.37% faster.

At a resolution of 1600×1200 enabling image quality enhancements, GeCube Radeon X800 GTO was 13.59% faster than HIS Radeon X800 GTO, 32.19% faster than ATI Radeon X1600 XT, 35.77% faster than PowerColor Radeon X800 GT, 36.99% faster than HIS Radeon X800 GT, 94.52% faster than Sapphire Radeon X700 Pro, 104.48% faster than XFX GeForce 6600 GT, 241.87% faster than Albatron GeForce 6600, 379.64% faster than ATI Radeon X600 XT and 413.30% faster than Sapphire Radeon X600 Pro.

GeCube Radeon X800 GTO was beaten by ATI Radeon X1800 XT, which was 109.74% faster, XFX GeForce 7800 GTX, which was 83.85% faster, MSI GeForce 7800 GTX, which was 75.11% faster, NVIDIA GeForce 7800 GT, which was 67.27 faster, ATI Radeon X1800 XL, which was 65.39% faster, ATI Radeon X850 XT P.E., which was 43.09% faster and NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GT, which was 14.44% faster.

[nextpage title=”3DMark05″]

3DMark05 measures performance by simulating DirectX 9.0c games, i.e., using the new Shader 3.0 model. This programming model is used by Far Cry game and other games to be launched in the future. This new programming model is used by GeForce 6 and 7 series from NVIDIA and Radeon X1000 series from ATI.

We run this program in three resolutions, 1024x768x32, 1280x1024x32 and 1600x1200x32, first without antialising and anisotropic filtering, and then configuring antialising at 4x and anisotropic filtering also at 4x. This improves the video quality but lowers the performance. We were willing to see how much performance we lost by putting the VGA to run at the maximum possible image quality. It is important to note that ATI chips can run at 6x antialising. Since NVIDIA chips cannot run at this configuration, we had to use 4x antialising to use a configuration that is valid to all video cards included in our benchmark, allowing direct comparison between them.

At a resolution of 1024×768 without any image quality enhancement, GeCube Radeon X800 GTO was 8.42% faster than NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GT, 14.37% faster than HIS Radeon X800 GTO, 23.19% faster than HIS Radeon X800 GT, 30.06% faster than PowerColor Radeon X800 GT, 70.44% faster than Sapphire Radeon X700 ro, 71.27% faster than XFX GeForce 6600 GT, 189.18% faster than Albatron GeForce 6600, 243.27% faster than ATI Radeon X600 XT and 260.37% faster than Sapphire Radeon X600 Pro.

GeCube Radeon X800 GTO achieved a performance similar to ATI Radeon X1600 XT.

GeCube Radeon X800 GTO was beaten by ATI Radeon X1800 XT which was 46.82% faster, XFX GeForce 7800 GTX, which was 41.43% faster, MSI GeForce 7800 GTX, which was 38.02% faster, ATI Radeon X1800 XL, which was 31.55% faster, NVIDIA GeForce 7800 GT, which was 28.95% faster and ATI Radeon X850 XT P.E., which was 16.53% faster.

At a resolution of 1280×1024 without any image quality enhancement, GeCube Radeon X800 GTO was 6.73% faster than NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GT, 14.89% faster than HIS Radeon X800 GTO, 25.22% faster than HIS Radeon X800 GT, 31.57% faster than PowerColor Radeon X800 GT, 77.41% faster than Sapphire Radeon X700 Pro, 104.24% faster than XFX GeForce 6600 GT, 217.47% faster than Albatron GeForce 6600, 284.33% faster than Sapphire Radeon X600 Pro and 302.92% faster than ATI Radeon X600 XT.

GeCube Radeon X800 GTO achieved a performance similar to ATI Radeon X1600 XT.

GeCube Radeon X800 GTO was beaten by ATI Radeon X1800 XT which was 63.47% faster, XFX GeForce 7800 GTX, which was 57.07% faster, MSI GeForce 7800 GTX, which was 51.79% faster, ATI Radeon X1800 XL, which was 38.95% faster, NVIDIA GeForce 7800 GT, which was 37.70% faster and ATI Radeon X850 XT P.E., which was 18.59% faster.

At a resolution of 1600×1200 without any image quality enhancement, GeCube Radeon X800 GTO was 6.34% faster than NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GT, 15.09% faster than HIS Radeon X800 GTO, 35.27% faster than HIS Radeon X800 GT, 35.60% faster than PowerColor Radeon X800 GT, 83.73% faster than Sapphire Radeon X700 Pro, 160.05% faster than XFX GeForce 6600 GT, 248.20% faster than Albatron GeForce 6600, 303.81% faster than Sapphire Radeon X600 Pro and 364.27% faster than ATI Radeon X600 XT.

GeCube Radeon X800 GTO achieved a performance similar to ATI Radeon X1600 XT.

GeCube Radeon X800 GTO was beaten by ATI Radeon X1800 XT which was 78.34% faster, XFX GeForce 7800 GTX, which was 70.06% faster, MSI GeForce 7800 GTX, which was 63.40% faster, NVIDIA GeForce 7800 GT, which was 45.60% faster, ATI Radeon X1800 XL, which was 45.57% faster and ATI Radeon X850 XT P.E., which was 19.59% faster.

At a resolution of 1024×768 enabling image quality enhancements, GeCube Radeon X800 GTO was 12.70% faster than NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GT, 14.09% faster than HIS Radeon X800 GTO, 18.37% faster than HIS Radeon X800 GT, 30.15% faster than PowerColor Radeon X800 GT, 86.83% faster than Sapphire Radeon X700 Pro, 224.01% faster than XFX GeForce 6600 GT, 301.73% faster than Sapphire Radeon X600 Pro, 345.99% faster than Albatron GeForce 6600 and 361.79% faster than ATI Radeon X600 XT.

GeCube Radeon X800 GTO achieved a performance similar to ATI Radeon X1600 XT.

GeCube Radeon X800 GTO was beaten by ATI Radeon X1800 XT, which was 62.78% faster, XFX GeForce 7800 GTX, which was 50.53% faster, MSI GeForce 7800 GTX, which was 45.13% faster, ATI Radeon X1800 XL, which was 40.86% faster, NVIDIA GeForce 7800 GT, which was 33.31% faster and ATI Radeon X850 XT P.E., which was 19.21% faster.

To run at 1280×1024 enabling image quality enhancements on 3DMark05 the video card must have at least 256 MB of memory, because of that some video cards couldn’t run this test. Here GeCube Radeon X800 GTO was 11.32% faster than NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GT, 14.32% faster than HIS Radeon X800 GTO, 31.67% faster than HIS Radeon X800 GT, 32.89% faster than PowerColor Radeon X800 GT, 91.93% faster than Sapphire Radeon X700 Pro, 311.58% faster than Sapphire Radeon X600 Pro and 468.85% faster than ATI Radeon X600 XT.

GeCube Radeon X800 GTO achieved a performance similar to ATI Radeon X1600 XT.

GeCube Radeon X800 GTO was beaten by ATI Radeon X1800 XT which was 82.75% faster, XFX GeForce 7800 GTX, which was 63.66% faster, MSI GeForce 7800 GTX, which was 56.91% faster, ATI Radeon X1800 XL, which was 48.71% faster, NVIDIA GeForce 7800 GT, which was 41.12% faster and ATI Radeon X850 XT P.E., which was 21.88% faster.

To run at 1600×1200 enabling image quality enhancements on 3DMark05 the video card must have at least 256 MB of memory, because of that some video cards couldn’t run this test. Here GeCube Radeon X800 GTO was 14.38% faster than HIS Radeon X800 GTO, 21.14% faster than NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GT, 38.86% faster than HIS Radeon X800 GT, 39.07% faster than PowerColor Radeon X800 GT, 96.87% faster than Sapphire Radeon X700 Pro, 359.25% faster than Sapphire Radeon X600 Pro and 693.26% faster than ATI Radeon X600 XT.

GeCube Radeon X800 GTO achieved a performance similar to ATI Radeon X1600 XT.

GeCube Radeon X800 GTO was beaten by ATI Radeon X1800 XT which was 95.49% faster, XFX GeForce 7800 GTX, which was 60.07% faster, ATI Radeon X1800 XL, which was 55.45% faster, MSI GeForce 7800 GTX, which was 54.09% faster, NVIDIA GeForce 7800 GT, which was 38.48% faster and ATI Radeon X850 XT P.E., which was 22.92% faster.

[nextpage title=”Doom 3″]Doom 3 is one of the heaviest games available today. As we’ve done on other programs, we ran this game at three resolutions: 1024x768x32, 1280x1024x32 and 1600x1200x32. This game allows several image quality levels and we’ve done our benchmarking on two levels, low and high. We ran demo1 four times and wrote the obtained number of frames per second. The first result we discarded at once, since it is far inferior than the other results. This happens because at the first time we run the demo the game must load all textures to video memory, fact that doesn’t happen from the second time we run the demo on. From the three results left, we consider as our official result the middle result, i.e., we discard the highest and the lowest values. Curiously almost all times the values obtained at the second round on were the same.

A very important detail that we must mention is that Doom 3 has an internal FPS lock: it is only capable of generating 60 frames per second, even if your board is able to produce more frames per second than that. This is done in order to make the game to have the same “playability” sensation independently from the video card installed on the PC. This lock, however, is disabled in the game benchmarking mode.

For further details on how to measure 3D performance with Doom 3, read our tutorial on this subject.

At a resolution of 1024×768 without any image quality enhancement, GeCube Radeon X800 GTO was 8.69% faster than HIS Radeon X800 GTO, 10.41% faster than XFX GeForce 6600 GT, 20.23% faster than PowerColor Radeon X800 GT, 20.23% faster than HIS Radeon X800 GT, 25.83% faster than ATI Radeon X1600 XT, 50.72% faster than Sapphire Radeon X700 Pro, 54.90% faster than Albatron GeForce 6600, 171.20% faster than ATI Radeon X600 XT and 232.54% faster than Sapphire Radeon X600 Pro.

GeCube Radeon X800 GTO achieved a performance similar to ATI Radeon X850 XT P.E. and NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GT.

GeCube Radeon X800 GTO was beaten by ATI Radeon X1800 XT, which was 14.44% faster, MSI GeForce 7800 GTX, which was 12.77% faster, NVIDIA GeForce 7800 GT, which was 12.29% faster, ATI Radeon X1800 XL, which was 12.29% faster and XFX GeForce 7800 GTX, which was 11.46% faster.

At a resolution of 1280×1024 without any image quality enhancement, GeCube Radeon X800 GTO was 4.34% faster than XFX GeForce 6600 GT, 13.43% faster than HIS Radeon X800 GTO, 31.58% faster than PowerColor Radeon X800 GT, 33.55% faster than HIS Radeon X800 GT, 39.82% faster than ATI Radeon X1600 XT, 67.56% faster than Sapphire Radeon X700 Pro, 70.77% faster than Albatron GeForce 6600, 218.88% faster than ATI Radeon X600 XT and 290.63% faster than Sapphire Radeon X600 Pro.

GeCube Radeon X800 GTO was beaten by ATI Radeon X1800 XT, which was 46.24% faster, XFX GeForce 7800 GTX, which was 44.80% faster, MSI GeForce 7800 GTX, which was 44.64% faster, NVIDIA GeForce 7800 GT, which was 40.00% faster, ATI Radeon X1800 XL, which was 29.28% faster, ATI Radeon X850 XT P.E., which was 22.56% faster and NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GT, which was 21.28% faster.

At a resolution of 1600×1200 without any image quality enhancement, GeCube Radeon X800 GTO was 15.42% faster than HIS Radeon X800 GTO, 41.19% faster than PowerColor Radeon X800 GT, 41.64% faster than ATI Radeon X1600 XT, 42.54% faster than HIS Radeon X800 GT, 69.43% faster than Albatron GeForce 6600, 76.08% faster than Sapphire Radeon X700 Pro, 242.75% faster than ATI Radeon X600 XT and 323.58% faster than Sapphire Radeon X600 Pro.

GeCube Radeon X800 GTO achieved a performance similar to XFX GeForce 6600 GT.

GeCube Radeon X800 GTO was beaten by XFX GeForce 7800 GTX, which was 82.85% faster, MSI GeForce 7800 GTX, which was 79.96% faster, ATI Radeon X1800 XT, which was 72.61% faster, NVIDIA GeForce 7800 GT, which was 69.71% faster, NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GT, which was 43.43% faster, ATI Radeon X1800 XL, which was 40.53% faster and ATI Radeon X850 XT P.E., which was 38.98% faster.

At a resolution of 1024×768 enabling image quality enhancements, GeCube Radeon X800 GTO was 8.67% faster than HIS Radeon X800 GTO, 13.28% faster than XFX GeForce 6600 GT, 21.33% faster than PowerColor Radeon X800 GT, 22.44% faster than HIS Radeon X800 GT, 31.48% faster than ATI Radeon X1600 XT, 59.13% faster than Sapphire Radeon X700 Pro, 64.68% faster than Albatron GeForce 6600, 188.49% faster than ATI Radeon X600 XT and 250.22% faster than Sapphire Radeon X600 Pro.

GeCube Radeon X800 GTO achieved a performance similar to NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GT.

GeCube Radeon X800 GTO was beaten by ATI Radeon X1800 XT, which was 18.83% faster, NVIDIA GeForce 7800 GT, which was 17.71% faster, XFX GeForce 7800 GTX, which was 16.96% faster, MSI GeForce 7800 GTX, which was 16.71% faster, ATI Radeon X1800 XL, which was 14.96% faster and ATI Radeon X850 XT P.E., which was 4.24% faster.

At a resolution of 1280×1024 enabling image quality enhancements, GeCube Radeon X800 GTO was 8.11% faster than XFX GeForce 6600 GT, 14.07% faster than HIS Radeon X800 GTO, 33.04% faster than PowerColor Radeon X800 GT, 35.14% faster than HIS Radeon X800 GT, 43.88% faster than ATI Radeon X1600 XT, 74.42% faster than Sapphire Radeon X700 Pro, 79.64% faster than Albatron GeForce 6600, 226.09% faster than ATI Radeon X600 XT and 300.00% faster than Sapphire Radeon X600 Pro.

GeCube Radeon X800 GTO was beaten by ATI Radeon X1800 XT, which was 50.33% faster, XFX GeForce 7800 GTX, which was 49.17% faster, MSI GeForce 7800 GTX, which was 47.83% faster, NVIDIA GeForce 7800 GT, which was 44.50% faster, ATI Radeon X1800 XL, which was 30.33% faster, ATI Radeon X850 XT P.E., which was 24.00% faster and NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GT, which was 20.67% faster.

At a resolution of 1600×1200 enabling image quality enhancements, GeCube Radeon X800 GTO was 15.38% faster than HIS Radeon X800 GTO, 41.23% faster than PowerColor Radeon X800 GT, 42.62% faster than HIS Radeon X800 GT, 43.09% faster than ATI Radeon X1600 XT, 74.00% faster than Albatron GeForce 6600, 80.50% faster than Sapphire Radeon X700 Pro, 275.00% faster than ATI Radeon X600 XT and 322.33% faster than Sapphire Radeon X600 Pro.

GeCube Radeon X800 GTO achieved a performance similar to XFX GeForce 6600 GT.

GeCube Radeon X800 GTO was beaten by XFX GeForce 7800 GTX, which was 85.75% faster, MSI GeForce 7800 GTX, which was 83.68% faster, ATI Radeon X1800 XT, which was 74.25% faster, NVIDIA GeForce 7800 GT, which was 72.87% faster, ATI Radeon X1800 XL, which was 41.15% faster, NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GT, which was 40.46% faster and ATI Radeon X850 XT P.E., which was 38.62% faster.

[nextpage title=”Far Cry”]

Far Cry is a game based on the new Shader 3.0 (DirectX 9.0c) programming model available on series 6 and 7 from NVIDIA and series X1000 from ATI graphics chips. We’ve updated the game to version 1.3.

As we’ve done on other programs, we ran this game at three resolutions, 1024x768x32, 1280x1024x32 and 1600x1200x32. This game allows several image quality levels and we’ve done our benchmarking on two levels, low and very high. To measure the performance we used the demo created by German magazine PC Games Hardware (PCGH), available at https://www.3dcenter.org/downloads/farcry-pcgh-vga.php. We run this demo four times and made an arithmetical average with the results. This average is the result presented in our graphs.

This game has a very important detail in its image quality configuration. Antialising, instead of being configured by numbers (1x, 2x, 4x or 6x) is configured as low, medium or high. The problem is that on NVIDIA chips both medium and high mean 4x, while on ATI chips medium means 2x and high means 6x, making the comparison between ATI and NVIDIA chips completely unfair. Because of that we configured antialising at 4x and anisotropic filtering at 8x manually at the video driver control panel.

For further details on how to measure 3D performance with Far Cry, read our tutorial on this subject.

At a resolution of 1024×768 without any image quality enhancement, GeCube Radeon X800 GTO was 5.66% faster than MSI GeForce 7800 GTX, 6.24% faster than XFX GeForce 7800 GTX, 7.02% faster than NVIDIA GeForce 7800 GT, 8.78% faster than ATI Radeon X600 XT, 10.60% faster than PowerColor Radeon X800 GT, 10.72% faster than XFX GeForce 6600 GT, 16.84% faster than Albatron GeForce 6600, 19.78% faster than NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GT and 28.34% faster than Sapphire Radeon X600 Pro.

GeCube Radeon X800 GTO achieved a performance similar to HIS Radeon X800 GT, ATI Radeon X850 XT P.E., HIS Radeon X800 GTO, ATI Radeon X1800 XT, Sapphire Radeon X700 Pro, ATI Radeon X1800 XL and ATI Radeon X1600 XT.

At a resolution of 1280×1024 without any image quality enhancement, GeCube Radeon X800 GTO was 6.42% faster than MSI GeForce 7800 GTX, 6.69% faster than XFX GeForce 7800 GTX, 7.63% faster than NVIDIA GeForce 7800 GT, 11.06% faster than NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GT, 11.11% faster than PowerColor Radeon X800 GT, 11.47% faster than XFX GeForce 6600 GT, 59.07% faster than ATI Radeon X600 XT, 61.48% faster than Albatron GeForce 6600 and 94.39% faster than Sapphire Radeon X600 Pro.

GeCube Radeon X800 GTO achieved a performance similar to ATI Radeon X850 XT P.E., HIS Radeon X800 GT, HIS Radeon X800 GTO, ATI Radeon X1800 XL, ATI Radeon X1800 XT, ATI Radeon X1600 XT and Sapphire Radeon X700 Pro.

At a resolution of 1600×1200 without any image quality enhancement, GeCube Radeon X800 GTO was 5.87% faster than MSI GeForce 7800 GTX, 6.29% faster than XFX GeForce 7800 GTX, 6.46% faster than NVIDIA GeForce 7800 GT, 10.50% faster than HIS Radeon X800 GT, 11.09% faster than NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GT, 16.28% faster than PowerColor Radeon X800 GT, 17.17% faster than ATI Radeon X1600 XT, 29.73% faster than XFX GeForce 6600 GT, 34.76% faster than Sapphire Radeon X700 Pro, 123.75% faster than Albatron GeForce 6600, 137.03% faster than ATI Radeon X600 XT and 190.26% faster than Sapphire Radeon X600 Pro.

GeCube Radeon X800 GTO achieved a performance similar to ATI Radeon X850 XT P.E., ATI Radeon X1800 XT, ATI Radeon X1800 XL and HIS Radeon X800 GTO.

At a resolution of 1024×768 enabling image quality enhancements, GeCube Radeon X800 GTO was 10.24% faster than HIS Radeon X800 GTO, 24.28% faster than PowerColor Radeon X800 GT, 26.52% faster than HIS Radeon X800 GT, 44.77% faster than ATI Radeon X1600 XT, 70.33% faster than Sapphire Radeon X700 Pro, 81.19% faster than XFX GeForce 6600 GT, 193.03% faster than Albatron GeForce 6600, 239.83% faster than Sapphire Radeon X600 Pro and 270.12% faster than ATI Radeon X600 XT.

GeCube Radeon X800 GTO achieved a performance similar to NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GT.

GeCube Radeon X800 GTO was beaten by ATI Radeon X850 XT P.E., which was 10.45% faster, ATI Radeon X1800 XL, which was 10.37% faster, ATI Radeon X1800 XT, which was 9.83% faster, NVIDIA GeForce 7800 GT, which was 9.31% faster, MSI GeForce 7800 GTX, which was 8.68% faster and XFX GeForce 7800 GTX, which was 8.68% faster.

At a resolution of 1280×1024 enabling image quality enhancements, GeCube Radeon X800 GTO was 13.30% faster than HIS Radeon X800 GTO, 30.08% faster than PowerColor Radeon X800 GT, 35.02% faster than HIS Radeon X800 GT, 45.80% faster than ATI Radeon X1600 XT, 84.01% faster than Sapphire Radeon X700 Pro, 100.97% faster than XFX GeForce 6600 GT, 244.33% faster than Albatron GeForce 6600, 266.71% faster than Sapphire Radeon X600 Pro and 280.98% faster than ATI Radeon X600 XT.

GeCube Radeon X800 GTO achieved a performance similar to NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GT.

GeCube Radeon X800 GTO was beaten by ATI Radeon X1800 XT, which was 45.08% faster, XFX GeForce 7800 GTX, which was 39.99% faster, MSI GeForce 7800 GTX, which was 37.08% faster, ATI Radeon X1800 XL, which was 34.90% faster, ATI Radeon X850 XT P.E., which was 30.91% faster and NVIDIA GeForce 7800 GT, which was 29.29% faster.

At a resolution of 1600×1200 enabling image quality enhancements, GeCube Radeon X800 GTO was 15.09% faster than HIS Radeon X800 GTO, 14.32% faster than NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GT, 39.45% faster than PowerColor Radeon X800 GT, 41.31% faster than HIS Radeon X800 GT, 59.93% faster than ATI Radeon X1600 XT, 95.90% faster than Sapphire Radeon X700 Pro, 100.72% faster than XFX GeForce 6600 GT, 247.52% faster than Albatron GeForce 6600, 387.56% faster than Sapphire Radeon X600 Pro and 459.20% faster than ATI Radeon X600 XT.

GeCube Radeon X800 GTO was beaten by ATI Radeon X1800 XT, which was 83.37% faster, XFX GeForce 7800 GTX, which was 54.46% faster, ATI Radeon X1800 XL, which was 51.43% faster, MSI GeForce 7800 GTX, which was 48.21% faster, ATI Radeon X850 XT P.E., which was 38.34% faster and NVIDIA GeForce 7800 GT, which was 33.55% faster.

[nextpage title=”Conclusions”]

The overcloked Radeon X800 GTO from GeCube got an awesome performance on our benchmarks, being a terrific mid-range video card, targeted to those users that want a high performance but don’t want to buy a very expensive high-end video card.

The great problem with this video card, however, is to find it on the market. We couldn’t find it anywhere. According to GeCube, this model is already sold out. So we were really frustrated on reviewing a terrific but very hard to find VGA.

We have a couple of constructive critics to GeCube. First, regarding the above mentioned availability of this model. Secondly, the lack of information about the overclocking feature of this card. We couldn’t find any information that this model is overclocked on its box, manual or GeCube’s website. It looks like GeCube wanted to go low profile on this overclocked model, for reasons that aren’t clear to us. We guess they were afraid of ATI – we don’t know ATI’s policy regarding their partners, i.e., if ATI allows them to overclock their GPUs or not –, or they wanted to test the market response for this product before manufacturing more factory-overclocked models, or they wanted to have an overclocked model to send to media to get good results on benchmarks.

As we said, this is a terrific product – if you can find it!