[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 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.
As you can see in Figure 1, the greatest advantage of HIS IceQ II model over its competitors is its huge cooler. Its fan is big, so it produces greater airflow with less noise, and also the plastic used is UV sensitive, so it glows when a black light is installed inside your case. Also, it blows the hot air produced by the video card to outside the computer case, preventing your computer from overheating.
Figure 1: HIS Radeon X800 GTO IceQ II.
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 <a href=https://www.entechtaiwan.com/ target=”_blank”>PowerStrip</a> 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.
The reviewed Radeon X800 GT model from HIS runs at 400 MHz for the chip and 1 GHz for the memory.
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 Radeon X800 GTO IceQ II from HIS”]
As we mentioned, the great advantage of this model from HIS is its cooler. HIS produces two Radeon X800 GTO IceQ II models, HX80GOQ256-3TOE and HX80GOQT256-3TOE (a.k.a. “Turbo”). This second model comes with an overclocking utility that puts the graphics chip running at 500 MHz. Even thought that was the model we’ve got for reviewing, we didn’t enable its overclocking feature.
Figure 2: HIS Radeon X800 GTO IceQ II.
Figure 3: HIS Radeon X800 GTO IceQ II, back view.
We disassembled the video card heatsink to take a look, see Figure 4. As you can see, it is made of copper.
Figure 4: IceQ II cooler detached from the video card.
This video card uses 1.6 ns GDDR3 memory chips from Samsung, which can run up to 1.2 GHz, according to the manufacturer. Since this video card accesses the memory at 1 GHz, there is an amazing 20% headroom for overclocking the memory still inside the memory’s specs. Of course you can even 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 5, you can see all cables and adapters that come with this video card.
Figure 5: Cables and adapters that come with HIS Radeon X800 GTO IceQ II.
This video card comes with several games, two in full version (Flat Out and Dragon Siege 1.1), five demos (RollerCoster Tycoon 3, Half-Life 2, Act of War: Direct Action, Tribes: Vengeance and Axis & Allies) and one trial (Guild Wars 10-hour trial).
Before going to our benchmarking results, let’s recap this video card main features.
[nextpage title=”Main Specifications”]
- Graphics chip: Radeon X800 GTO running at 400 MHz.
- Memory: 1.6 ns 256-bit 256 MB GDDR3 memory from Samsung (K4J55323QF-GC16), running at 1 GHz.
- Bus type: PCI Express 16x.
- Connectors: One VGA, one DVI and one mini-DIN for S-Video and component video outputs.
- Number of CDs that come with this board: Five.
- Games that come with this board: Flat Out (full), Dragon Siege 1.1 (full), RollerCoster Tycoon 3 (demo), Half-Life 2 (demo), Act of War: Direct Action (demo), Tribes: Vengeance (demo), Axis & Allies (demo) and Guild Wars (10-hour trial).
- Programs that come with this board: PowerDirector 3. SE Plus, Power2Go 4, PowerDVD Copy, overclocking utility, etc.
- More Information: https://www.hisdigital.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.
* Researched on https://www.pricewatch.com on the day we published this review.
[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, HIS Radeon X800 GTO was 6.26% faster than Sapphire Radeon X700 Pro, 10.72% faster than XFX GeForce 6600 GT, 14.35% faster than PowerColor Radeon X800 GT, 36.98% faster than ATI Radeon X600 XT, 40.09% faster than Albatron GeForce 6600 and 57.81% faster than Sapphire Radeon X600 Pro.
HIS Radeon X800 GTO achieved a performance similar to HIS Radeon X800 GT, NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GT and ATI Radeon X1600 XT.
HIS Radeon X800 GTO was beaten by ATI Radeon X850 XT P.E, which was 16.20% faster, ATI Radeon X1800 XT, which was 14.82% faster, MSI GeForce 7800 GTX, which was 10.41% faster, ATI Radeon X1800 XL, which was 8.54% faster, XFX GeForce 7800 GTX, which was 6.31% faster, NVIDIA GeForce 7800 GT, which was 6.29% faster and GeCube Radeon X800 GTO, which was 4.17% faster.
At a resolution of 1280×1024 without any image quality enhancement, HIS Radeon X800 GTO was 3.84% faster than ATI Radeon X1600 XT, 10.97% faster than PowerColor Radeon X800 GT, 12.32% faster than Sapphire Radeon X700 Pro, 14.19% faster than XFX GeForce 6600 GT, 54.85% faster than Albatron GeForce 6600, 56.63% faster than ATI Radeon X600 XT and 86.42% faster than Sapphire Radeon X600 Pro.
HIS Radeon X800 GTO achieved a performance similar to HIS Radeon X800 GT.
HIS Radeon X800 GTO was beaten by ATI Radeon X1800 XT, which was 19.14% faster, ATI Radeon X850 XT P.E, which was 18.18% faster, MSI GeForce 7800 GTX, which was 13.81% faster, XFX GeForce 7800 GTX, which was 13.58% faster, ATI Radeon X1800 XL, which was 11.95% faster, NVIDIA GeForce 7800 GT, which was 10.23% faster, NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GT, which was 4.41% faster and GeCube Radeon X800 GTO, which was 4.39% faster.
At a resolution of 1600×1200 without any image quality enhancement, HIS Radeon X800 GTO was 6.26% faster than PowerColor Radeon X800 GT, 7.20% faster than ATI Radeon X1600 XT, 13.36% faster than XFX GeForce 6600 GT, 21.84% faster than Sapphire Radeon X700 Pro, 71.37% faster than Albatron GeForce 6600, 90.97% faster than ATI Radeon X600 XT and 130.70% faster than Sapphire Radeon X600 Pro.
HIS Radeon X800 GTO achieved a performance similar to HIS Radeon X800 GT.
HIS Radeon X800 GTO was beaten by ATI Radeon X1800 XT, which was 28.74% faster, ATI Radeon X850 XT P.E, which was 24.85% faster, MSI GeForce 7800 GTX, which was 22.31% faster, XFX GeForce 7800 GTX, which was 21.75% faster, ATI Radeon X1800 XL, which was 18.46% faster, NVIDIA GeForce 7800 GT, which was 16.85% faster, NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GT, which was 8.12% faster and GeCube Radeon X800 GTO, which was 6.23% faster.
At a resolution of 1024×768 enabling image quality enhancements, HIS Radeon X800 GTO was 4.98% faster than Sapphire Radeon X700 Pro, 6.97% faster than PowerColor Radeon X800 GT, 21.22% faster than XFX GeForce 6600 GT, 70.09% faster than ATI Radeon X600 XT, 85.14% faster than Albatron GeForce 6600 and 101.33% faster than Sapphire Radeon X600 Pro.
HIS Radeon X800 GTO achieved a performance similar to ATI Radeon X1600 XT and HIS Radeon X800 GT.
HIS Radeon X800 GTO was beaten by ATI Radeon X1800 XT, which was 25.74% faster, ATI Radeon X850 XT P.E, which was 23.44% faster, XFX GeForce 7800 GTX, which was 19.92% faster, ATI Radeon X1800 XL, which was 19.01% faster, MSI GeForce 7800 GTX, which was 16.21% faster, NVIDIA GeForce 7800 GT, which was 10.93% faster, GeCube Radeon X800 GTO, which was 5.54% faster and NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GT, which was 3.98% faster.
At a resolution of 1280×1024 enabling image quality enhancements, HIS Radeon X800 GTO was 10.42% faster than Sapphire Radeon X700 Pro, 30.18% faster than XFX GeForce 6600 GT, 97.43% faster than ATI Radeon X600 XT, 125.69% faster than Albatron GeForce 6600 and 137.22% faster than Sapphire Radeon X600 Pro.
HIS Radeon X800 GTO achieved a performance similar to ATI Radeon X1600 XT, HIS Radeon X800 GT and PowerColor Radeon X800 GT.
HIS Radeon X800 GTO was beaten by ATI Radeon X1800 XT, which was 41.77% faster, ATI Radeon X850 XT P.E, which was 35.12% faster, ATI Radeon X1800 XL, which was 32.06% faster, XFX GeForce 7800 GTX, which was 27.84% faster, MSI GeForce 7800 GTX, which was 25.40% faster, NVIDIA GeForce 7800 GT, which was 19.41% faster, NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GT, which was 10.73% faster and GeCube Radeon X800 GTO, which was 7.90% faster.
At a resolution of 1600×1200 enabling image quality enhancements, HIS Radeon X800 GTO was 4.39% faster than HIS Radeon X800 GT, 17.68% faster than Sapphire Radeon X700 Pro, 32.01% faster than ATI Radeon X1600 XT, 68.08% faster than XFX GeForce 6600 GT, 212.73% faster than Albatron GeForce 6600, 247.18% faster than ATI Radeon X600 XT and 326.98% faster than Sapphire Radeon X600 Pro.
HIS Radeon X800 GTO achieved a performance similar to PowerColor Radeon X800 GT.
HIS Radeon X800 GTO was beaten by ATI Radeon X1800 XT, which was 62.58% faster, ATI Radeon X850 XT P.E, which was 46.48% faster, ATI Radeon X1800 XL, which was 45.71% faster, XFX GeForce 7800 GTX, which was 40.77% faster, MSI GeForce 7800 GTX, which was 38.06% faster, NVIDIA GeForce 7800 GT, which was 29.58% faster, GeCube Radeon X800 GTO, which was 9.40% faster and NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GT, which was 6.31% 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, HIS Radeon X800 GTO was 4.70% faster than HIS Radeon X800 GT, 12.60% faster than PowerColor Radeon X800 GT, 18.71% faster than XFX GeForce 6600 GT, 31.09% faster than Sapphire Radeon X700 Pro, 97.30% faster than Albatron GeForce 6600, 131.66% faster than ATI Radeon X600 XT and 175.75% faster than Sapphire Radeon X600 Pro.
HIS Radeon X800 GTO achieved a performance similar to ATI Radeon X1600 XT.
HIS Radeon X800 GTO was beaten by ATI Radeon X1800 XT, which was 63.45% faster, XFX GeForce 7800 GTX, which was 61.81% faster, MSI GeForce 7800 GTX, which was 56.90% faster, NVIDIA GeForce 7800 GT, which was 43.89% faster, ATI Radeon X1800 XL, which was 37.45% faster, ATI Radeon X850 XT P.E, which was 33.66% faster, NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GT, which was 17.36% faster and GeCube Radeon X800 GTO, which was 11.52% faster.
At a resolution of 1280×1024 without any image quality enhancement, HIS Radeon X800 GTO was 6.15% faster than HIS Radeon X800 GT, 7.62% faster than ATI Radeon X1600 XT, 10.78% faster than PowerColor Radeon X800 GT, 23.69% faster than XFX GeForce 6600 GT, 39.64% faster than Sapphire Radeon X700 Pro, 111.19% faster than Albatron GeForce 6600, 149.90% faster than ATI Radeon X600 XT and 198.05% faster than Sapphire Radeon X600 Pro.
HIS Radeon X800 GTO was beaten by ATI Radeon X1800 XT, which was 74.59% faster, XFX GeForce 7800 GTX, which was 69.14% faster, MSI GeForce 7800 GTX, which was 63.80% faster, NVIDIA GeForce 7800 GT, which was 47.18% faster, ATI Radeon X1800 XL, which was 42.81% faster, ATI Radeon X850 XT P.E, which was 38.04% faster, NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GT, which was 18.25% faster and GeCube Radeon X800 GTO, which was 11.92% faster.
At a resolution of 1600×1200 without any image quality enhancement, HIS Radeon X800 GTO was 12.18% faster than ATI Radeon X1600 XT, 13.79% faster than HIS Radeon X800 GT, 16.84% faster than PowerColor Radeon X800 GT, 28.02% faster than XFX GeForce 6600 GT, 50.84% faster than Sapphire Radeon X700 Pro, 121.81% faster than Albatron GeForce 6600, 178.74% faster than ATI Radeon X600 XT and 230.55% faster than Sapphire Radeon X600 Pro.
HIS Radeon X800 GTO was beaten by ATI Radeon X1800 XT, which was 80.99% faster, XFX GeForce 7800 GTX, which was 77.05% faster, MSI GeForce 7800 GTX, which was 70.49% faster, NVIDIA GeForce 7800 GT, which was 65.35% faster, ATI Radeon X1800 XL, which was 47.19% faster, ATI Radeon X850 XT P.E, which was 41.60% faster, NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GT, which was 20.27% faster and GeCube Radeon X800 GTO, which was 13.50% faster.
At a resolution of 1024×768 enabling image quality enhancements, HIS Radeon X800 GTO was 9.22% faster than ATI Radeon X1600 XT, 14.13% faster than PowerColor Radeon X800 GT, 15.85% faster than HIS Radeon X800 GT, 30.17% faster than XFX GeForce 6600 GT, 59.40% faster than Sapphire Radeon X700 Pro, 128.64% faster than Albatron GeForce 6600, 176.55% faster than ATI Radeon X600 XT and 224.79% faster than Sapphire Radeon X600 Pro.
HIS Radeon X800 GTO was beaten by ATI Radeon X1800 XT, which was 102.12% faster, XFX GeForce 7800 GTX, which was 89.44% faster, MSI GeForce 7800 GTX, which was 82.62% faster, ATI Radeon X1800 XL, which was 71.51% faster, NVIDIA GeForce 7800 GT, which was 65.51% faster, ATI Radeon X850 XT P.E, which was 49.13% faster, NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GT, which was 27.26% faster and GeCube Radeon X800 GTO, which was 13.15% faster.
At a resolution of 1280×1024 enabling image quality enhancements, HIS Radeon X800 GTO was 5.74% faster than ATI Radeon X1600 XT, 13.10% faster than PowerColor Radeon X800 GT, 14.01% faster than HIS Radeon X800 GT, 55.56% faster than XFX GeForce 6600 GT, 61.45% faster than Sapphire Radeon X700 Pro, 164.66% faster than Albatron GeForce 6600, 193.26% faster than ATI Radeon X600 XT and 226.90% faster than Sapphire Radeon X600 Pro.
HIS Radeon X800 GTO was beaten by ATI Radeon X1800 XT, which was 128.42% faster, XFX GeForce 7800 GTX, which was 102.42% faster, MSI GeForce 7800 GTX, which was 95.18% faster, ATI Radeon X1800 XL, which was 82.96% faster, NVIDIA GeForce 7800 GT, which was 72.67% faster, ATI Radeon X850 XT P.E, which was 58.46% faster, NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GT, which was 30.54% faster and GeCube Radeon X800 GTO, which was 13.15% faster.
At a resolution of 1600×1200 enabling image quality enhancements, HIS Radeon X800 GTO was 16.38% faster than ATI Radeon X1600 XT, 19.53% faster than PowerColor Radeon X800 GT, 20.60% faster than HIS Radeon X800 GT, 71.25% faster than Sapphire Radeon X700 Pro, 80.02% faster than XFX GeForce 6600 GT, 200.97% faster than Albatron GeForce 6600, 322.27% faster than ATI Radeon X600 XT and 351.90% faster than Sapphire Radeon X600 Pro.
HIS Radeon X800 GTO was beaten by ATI Radeon X1800 XT, which was 138.24% faster, XFX GeForce 7800 GTX, which was 108.83% faster, MSI GeForce 7800 GTX, which was 98.90% faster, NVIDIA GeForce 7800 GT, which was 90.00% faster, ATI Radeon X1800 XL, which was 87.87% faster, ATI Radeon X850 XT P.E, which was 62.54% faster, NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GT, which was 29.99% faster and GeCube Radeon X800 GTO, which was 13.59% 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, HIS Radeon X800 GTO was 7.71% faster than HIS Radeon X800 GT, 13.72% faster than PowerColor Radeon X800 GT, 49.03% faster than Sapphire Radeon X700 Pro, 49.76% faster than XFX GeForce 6600 GT, 152.85% faster than Albatron GeForce 6600, 200.14% faster than ATI Radeon X600 XT and 215.09% faster than Sapphire Radeon X600 Pro.
HIS Radeon X800 GTO was beaten by ATI Radeon X1800 XT, which was 67.91% faster, XFX GeForce 7800 GTX, which was 61.75% faster, MSI GeForce 7800 GTX, which was 57.85% faster, ATI Radeon X1800 XL, which was 50.45% faster, NVIDIA GeForce 7800 GT, which was 47.48% faster, ATI Radeon X850 XT P.E, which was 33.27% faster, ATI Radeon X1600 XT, which was 16.04% faster, GeCube Radeon X800 GTO, which was 14.37% faster and NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GT, which was 5.49% faster.
At a resolution of 1280×1024 without any image quality enhancement, HIS Radeon X800 GTO was 8.99% faster than HIS Radeon X800 GT, 14.52% faster than PowerColor Radeon X800 GT, 54.42% faster than Sapphire Radeon X700 Pro, 77.77% faster than XFX GeForce 6600 GT, 176.33% faster than Albatron GeForce 6600, 234.52% faster than Sapphire Radeon X600 Pro and 250.71% faster than ATI Radeon X600 XT.
HIS Radeon X800 GTO was beaten by ATI Radeon X1800 XT, which was 87.81% faster, XFX GeForce 7800 GTX, which was 80.45% faster, MSI GeForce 7800 GTX, which was 74.39% faster, ATI Radeon X1800 XL, which was 59.64% faster, NVIDIA GeForce 7800 GT, which was 58.21% faster, ATI Radeon X850 XT P.E, which was 36.25% faster, ATI Radeon X1600 XT, which was 17.42% faster, GeCube Radeon X800 GTO, which was 14.89% faster and NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GT, which was 7.65% faster.
At a resolution of 1600×1200 without any image quality enhancement, HIS Radeon X800 GTO was 17.53% faster than HIS Radeon X800 GT, 17.82% faster than PowerColor Radeon X800 GT, 59.64% faster than Sapphire Radeon X700 Pro, 125.95% faster than XFX GeForce 6600 GT, 202.54% faster than Albatron GeForce 6600, 250.86% faster than Sapphire Radeon X600 Pro and 303.39% faster than ATI Radeon X600 XT.
HIS Radeon X800 GTO was beaten by ATI Radeon X1800 XT, which was 105.25% faster, XFX GeForce 7800 GTX, which was 95.73% faster, MSI GeForce 7800 GTX, which was 88.06% faster, NVIDIA GeForce 7800 GT, which was 67.58% faster, ATI Radeon X1800 XL, which was 67.54% faster, ATI Radeon X850 XT P.E, which was 37.64% faster, ATI Radeon X1600 XT, which was 18.21% faster, GeCube Radeon X800 GTO, which was 15.09% faster and NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GT, which was 8.23% faster.
At a resolution of 1024×768 enabling image quality enhancements, HIS Radeon X800 GTO was 3.75% faster than HIS Radeon X800 GT, 14.08% faster than PowerColor Radeon X800 GT, 63.75% faster than Sapphire Radeon X700 Pro, 183.99% faster than XFX GeForce 6600 GT, 252.12% faster than Sapphire Radeon X600 Pro, 290.91% faster than Albatron GeForce 6600 and 304.76% faster than ATI Radeon X600 XT.
HIS Radeon X800 GTO achieved a performance similar to NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GT.
HIS Radeon X800 GTO was beaten by ATI Radeon X1800 XT, which was 85.72% faster, XFX GeForce 7800 GTX, which was 71.74% faster, MSI GeForce 7800 GTX, which was 65.58% faster, ATI Radeon X1800 XL, which was 60.71% faster, NVIDIA GeForce 7800 GT, which was 52.09% faster, ATI Radeon X850 XT P.E, which was 36.01% faster, GeCube Radeon X800 GTO, which was 14.09% faster and ATI Radeon X1600 XT, which was 11.41% 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 HIS Radeon X800 GTO was 15.18% faster than HIS Radeon X800 GT, 16.24% faster than PowerColor Radeon X800 GT, 67.89% faster than Sapphire Radeon X700 Pro, 260.02% faster than Sapphire Radeon X600 Pro and 397.59% faster than ATI Radeon X600 XT.
HIS Radeon X800 GTO achieved a performance similar to NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GT.
HIS Radeon X800 GTO was beaten by ATI Radeon X1800 XT, which was 108.92% faster, XFX GeForce 7800 GTX, which was 87.10% faster, MSI GeForce 7800 GTX, which was 79.38% faster, ATI Radeon X1800 XL, which was 70.01% faster, NVIDIA GeForce 7800 GT, which was 61.33% faster, ATI Radeon X850 XT P.E, which was 39.33% faster, GeCube Radeon X800 GTO, which was 14.32% faster and ATI Radeon X1600 XT, which was 13.97% 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 HIS Radeon X800 GTO was 5.91% faster than NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GT, 21.41% faster than HIS Radeon X800 GT, 21.59% faster than PowerColor Radeon X800 GT, 72.13% faster than Sapphire Radeon X700 Pro, 301.53% faster than Sapphire Radeon X600 Pro and 593.55% faster than ATI Radeon X600 XT.
HIS Radeon X800 GTO was beaten by ATI Radeon X1800 XT, which was 123.59% faster, XFX GeForce 7800 GTX, which was 83.09% faster, ATI Radeon X1800 XL, which was 77.80% faster, MSI GeForce 7800 GTX, which was 76.24% faster, NVIDIA GeForce 7800 GT, which was 58.39% faster, ATI Radeon X850 XT P.E, which was 40.59% faster, GeCube Radeon X800 GTO, which was 14.38% faster and ATI Radeon X1600 XT, which was 11.80% 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, HIS Radeon X800 GTO was 10.62% faster than PowerColor Radeon X800 GT, 10.62% faster than HIS Radeon X800 GT, 15.77% faster than ATI Radeon X1600 XT, 38.67% faster than Sapphire Radeon X700 Pro, 42.51% faster than Albatron GeForce 6600, 149.51% faster than ATI Radeon X600 XT and 205.95% faster than Sapphire Radeon X600 Pro.
HIS Radeon X800 GTO achieved a performance similar to XFX GeForce 6600 GT.
HIS Radeon X800 GTO was beaten by ATI Radeon X1800 XT, which was 24.38% faster, MSI GeForce 7800 GTX, which was 22.57% faster, NVIDIA GeForce 7800 GT, which was 22.05% faster, ATI Radeon X1800 XL, which was 22.05% faster, XFX GeForce 7800 GTX, which was 21.14% faster, ATI Radeon X850 XT P.E, which was 9.60% faster, GeCube Radeon X800 GTO, which was 8.69% faster and NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GT, which was 7.26% faster.
At a resolution of 1280×1024 without any image quality enhancement, HIS Radeon X800 GTO was 16.00% faster than PowerColor Radeon X800 GT, 17.74% faster than HIS Radeon X800 GT, 23.27% faster than ATI Radeon X1600 XT, 47.72% faster than Sapphire Radeon X700 Pro, 50.55% faster than Albatron GeForce 6600, 181.12% faster than ATI Radeon X600 XT and 244.38% faster than Sapphire Radeon X600 Pro.
HIS Radeon X800 GTO was beaten by ATI Radeon X1800 XT, which was 65.88% faster, XFX GeForce 7800 GTX, which was 64.25% faster, MSI GeForce 7800 GTX, which was 64.07% faster, NVIDIA GeForce 7800 GT, which was 58.80% faster, ATI Radeon X1800 XL, which was 46.64% faster, ATI Radeon X850 XT P.E, which was 39.02% faster, NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GT, which was 37.57% faster, GeCube Radeon X800 GTO, which was 13.43% faster and XFX GeForce 6600 GT, which was 8.71% faster.
At a resolution of 1600×1200 without any image quality enhancement, HIS Radeon X800 GTO was 22.33% faster than PowerColor Radeon X800 GT, 22.71% faster than ATI Radeon X1600 XT, 23.49% faster than HIS Radeon X800 GT, 46.79% faster than Albatron GeForce 6600, 52.55% faster than Sapphire Radeon X700 Pro, 196.95% faster than ATI Radeon X600 XT and 266.98% faster than Sapphire Radeon X600 Pro.
HIS Radeon X800 GTO was beaten by XFX GeForce 7800 GTX, which was 111.05% faster, MSI GeForce 7800 GTX, which was 107.71% faster, ATI Radeon X1800 XT, which was 99.23% faster, NVIDIA GeForce 7800 GT, which was 95.89% faster, NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GT, which was 65.55% faster, ATI Radeon X1800 XL, which was 62.21% faster, ATI Radeon X850 XT P.E, which was 60.41% faster, XFX GeForce 6600 GT, which was 17.99% faster and GeCube Radeon X800 GTO, which was 15.42% faster.
At a resolution of 1024×768 enabling image quality enhancements, HIS Radeon X800 GTO was 4.24% faster than XFX GeForce 6600 GT, 11.65% faster than PowerColor Radeon X800 GT, 12.67% faster than HIS Radeon X800 GT, 20.98% faster than ATI Radeon X1600 XT, 46.43% faster than Sapphire Radeon X700 Pro, 51.54% faster than Albatron GeForce 6600, 165.47% faster than ATI Radeon X600 XT and 222.27% faster than Sapphire Radeon X600 Pro.
HIS Radeon X800 GTO was beaten by ATI Radeon X1800 XT, which was 29.13% faster, NVIDIA GeForce 7800 GT, which was 27.91% faster, XFX GeForce 7800 GTX, which was 27.10% faster, MSI GeForce 7800 GTX, which was 26.83% faster, ATI Radeon X1800 XL, which was 24.93% faster, ATI Radeon X850 XT P.E, which was 13.28% faster, NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GT, which was 10.70% faster and GeCube Radeon X800 GTO, which was 8.67% faster.
At a resolution of 1280×1024 enabling image quality enhancements, HIS Radeon X800 GTO was 16.63% faster than PowerColor Radeon X800 GT, 18.47% faster than HIS Radeon X800 GT, 26.14% faster than ATI Radeon X1600 XT, 52.91% faster than Sapphire Radeon X700 Pro, 57.49% faster than Albatron GeForce 6600, 185.87% faster than ATI Radeon X600 XT and 250.67% faster than Sapphire Radeon X600 Pro.
HIS Radeon X800 GTO was beaten by ATI Radeon X1800 XT, which was 71.48% faster, XFX GeForce 7800 GTX, which was 70.15% faster, MSI GeForce 7800 GTX, which was 68.63% faster, NVIDIA GeForce 7800 GT, which was 64.83% faster, ATI Radeon X1800 XL, which was 48.67% faster, ATI Radeon X850 XT P.E, which was 41.44% faster, NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GT, which was 37.64% faster, GeCube Radeon X800 GTO, which was 14.07% faster and XFX GeForce 6600 GT, which was 5.51% faster.
At a resolution of 1600×1200 enabling image quality enhancements, HIS Radeon X800 GTO was 22.40% faster than PowerColor Radeon X800 GT, 23.61% faster than HIS Radeon X800 GT, 24.01% faster than ATI Radeon X1600 XT, 50.80% faster than Albatron GeForce 6600, 56.43% faster than Sapphire Radeon X700 Pro, 225.00% faster than ATI Radeon X600 XT and 266.02% faster than Sapphire Radeon X600 Pro.
HIS Radeon X800 GTO was beaten by XFX GeForce 7800 GTX, which was 114.32% faster, MSI GeForce 7800 GTX, which was 111.94% faster, ATI Radeon X1800 XT, which was 101.06% faster, NVIDIA GeForce 7800 GT, which was 99.47% faster, ATI Radeon X1800 XL, which was 62.86% faster, NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GT, which was 62.07% faster, ATI Radeon X850 XT P.E, which was 59.95% faster, GeCube Radeon X800 GTO, which was 15.38% faster and XFX GeForce 6600 GT, which was 15.12% 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
At a resolution of 1024×768 without any image quality enhancement, HIS Radeon X800 GTO was 6.39% faster than MSI GeForce 7800 GTX, 6.98% faster than XFX GeForce 7800 GTX, 7.77% faster than NVIDIA GeForce 7800 GT, 9.54% faster than ATI Radeon X600 XT, 11.37% faster than PowerColor Radeon X800 GT, 11.49% faster than XFX GeForce 6600 GT, 17.65% faster than Albatron GeForce 6600, 20.62% faster than NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GT and 29.24% faster than Sapphire Radeon X600 Pro.
HIS Radeon X800 GTO achieved a performance similar to HIS Radeon X800 GT, ATI Radeon X850 XT P.E, ATI Radeon X1800 XT, Sapphire Radeon X700 Pro, ATI Radeon X1800 XL, ATI Radeon X1600 XT and GeCube Radeon X800 GTO.
At a resolution of 1280×1024 without any image quality enhancement, HIS Radeon X800 GTO was 6.86% faster than MSI GeForce 7800 GTX, 7.12% faster than XFX GeForce 7800 GTX, 8.07% faster than NVIDIA GeForce 7800 GT, 11.51% faster than NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GT, 11.56% faster than PowerColor Radeon X800 GT, 11.92% faster than XFX GeForce 6600 GT, 59.72% faster than ATI Radeon X600 XT, 62.14% faster than Albatron GeForce 6600 and 95.19% faster than Sapphire Radeon X600 Pro.
HIS Radeon X800 GTO achieved a performance similar to ATI Radeon X850 XT P.E, HIS Radeon X800 GT, GeCube 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, HIS Radeon X800 GTO was 4.00% faster than MSI GeForce 7800 GTX, 4.42% faster than XFX GeForce 7800 GTX, 4.59% faster than NVIDIA GeForce 7800 GT, 8.55% faster than HIS Radeon X800 GT, 9.13% faster than NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GT, 14.23% faster than PowerColor Radeon X800 GT, 15.11% faster than ATI Radeon X1600 XT, 27.44% faster than XFX GeForce 6600 GT, 32.38% faster than Sapphire Radeon X700 Pro, 119.80% faster than Albatron GeForce 6600, 132.85% faster than ATI Radeon X600 XT and 185.14% faster than Sapphire Radeon X600 Pro.
HIS Radeon X800 GTO achieved a performance similar to ATI Radeon X1800 XT, ATI Radeon X1800 XL and GeCube Radeon X800 GTO.
HIS Radeon X800 GTO was beaten only by ATI Radeon X850 XT P.E, which was 3.09% faster.
At a resolution of 1024×768 enabling image quality enhancements, HIS Radeon X800 GTO was 12.97% faster than PowerColor Radeon X800 GT, 15.01% faster than HIS Radeon X800 GT, 31.60% faster than ATI Radeon X1600 XT, 54.84% faster than Sapphire Radeon X700 Pro, 64.71% faster than XFX GeForce 6600 GT, 166.37% faster than Albatron GeForce 6600, 208.92% faster than Sapphire Radeon X600 Pro and 236.45% faster than ATI Radeon X600 XT.
HIS Radeon X800 GTO was beaten by ATI Radeon X850 XT P.E, which was 21.51% faster, ATI Radeon X1800 XL, which was 21.41% faster, ATI Radeon X1800 XT, which was 20.82% faster, NVIDIA GeForce 7800 GT, which was 20.25% faster, MSI GeForce 7800 GTX, which was 19.56% faster, XFX GeForce 7800 GTX, which was 19.56% faster, GeCube Radeon X800 GTO, which was 10.01% faster and NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GT, which was 7.74% faster.
At a resolution of 1280×1024 enabling image quality enhancements, HIS Radeon X800 GTO was 14.82% faster than PowerColor Radeon X800 GT, 19.18% faster than HIS Radeon X800 GT, 28.69% faster than ATI Radeon X1600 XT, 62.41% faster than Sapphire Radeon X700 Pro, 77.38% faster than XFX GeForce 6600 GT, 203.92% faster than Albatron GeForce 6600, 223.67% faster than Sapphire Radeon X600 Pro and 236.27% faster than ATI Radeon X600 XT.
HIS Radeon X800 GTO was beaten by ATI Radeon X1800 XT, which was 64.37% faster, XFX GeForce 7800 GTX, which was 58.60% faster, MSI GeForce 7800 GTX, which was 55.31% faster, ATI Radeon X1800 XL, which was 52.84% faster, ATI Radeon X850 XT P.E, which was 48.32% faster, NVIDIA GeForce 7800 GT, which was 46.48% faster, GeCube Radeon X800 GTO, which was 13.30% faster and NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GT, which was 12.51% faster.
At a resolution of 1600×1200 enabling image quality enhancements, HIS Radeon X800 GTO was 21.17% faster than PowerColor Radeon X800 GT, 22.78% faster than HIS Radeon X800 GT, 38.96% faster than ATI Radeon X1600 XT, 70.21% faster than Sapphire Radeon X700 Pro, 74.40% faster than XFX GeForce 6600 GT, 201.95% faster than Albatron GeForce 6600, 323.63% faster than Sapphire Radeon X600 Pro and 385.88% faster than ATI Radeon X600 XT.
HIS Radeon X800 GTO achieved a performance similar to NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GT.
HIS Radeon X800 GTO was beaten by ATI Radeon X1800 XT, which was 111.04% faster, XFX GeForce 7800 GTX, which was 77.77% faster, ATI Radeon X1800 XL, which was 74.28% faster, MSI GeForce 7800 GTX, which was 70.58% faster, ATI Radeon X850 XT P.E, which was 59.22% faster, NVIDIA GeForce 7800 GT, which was 53.70% faster and GeCube Radeon X800 GTO, which was 15.09% faster.
[nextpage title=”Conclusions”]
Radeon X800 GTO is a terrific mid-range VGA, being faster than GeForce 6600 GT in almost all programs we run. That’s terrific: it’s the best card for the users looking for high-end graphics but don’t want to spend a lot of money on a very high-end VGA.
The only program that Radeon X800 GTO wasn’t better than GeForce 6600 GT was in Doom 3, which continues to be NVIDIA’s arena.
HIS model is a very good solution if you are willing to buy a Radeon X800 GTO because of its IceQ II cooling system, which doesn’t produce a lot of noise and pulls away hot air from inside your PC to outside.
Also, its 1.6 ns memory chips can be extreme valuable for overclockers. We didn’t overclocked this card ourselves, but it is clearly overclock-friendly if you think on its cooler, memory chips and overclocking utility.
So, go for it: you can buy HIS Radeon X800 GTO IceQ II with your eyes closed.
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