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ATI RADEON X800 Pro 256 Graphics Card 100435200

ATI RADEON X800 Pro 256 Graphics Card 100435200

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Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Killer Fast for older games
Review:
This card is wonderful for playing 2003 era fast FPS games!

But be careful, this model does NOT support the new Shader Model 3, which is going to be an increasingly important limitation as it's used in more and more games. If you need a new card NOW, this one can't be beat, but if you can wait for the next update that supports SM 3, you'll be happier that your tech didn't go stale so quickly.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Don't be an idiot
Review: For you people that toss around USELESS 3D Mark scores, PLEASE get a life ! First of all, 3D Mark is a joke for testing real world performance. It makes me laugh to see people post 3D Mark scores, and change their video drivers every 3 days to try and squeeze out every 3D Mark point they can. Let me explain something people...when ATI and Nvidia release drivers and your 3D Mark scores go up, its usually due to an image quality feature being turned off in the new driver by default.

Posting scores here is pointless...let me ask ya something Mr. 3D Mark...what image quality settings did you have on when ya benchmarked? Both Nvidia and Ati make very good cards. I used to be hardcore Nvidia until about a year ago. I went with an Ati Radeon 9800 pro and the image quality blew my socks off. Keep in mind that Ati cards generally outperform Nvidia cards when all the nice image quality features are turned on. The 6800 and the X800 are so close in performance, it all comes down to personal preference really, so take your flame wars to another site, or go change those drivers for the 1000th time.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: You know you want it
Review: ... but did you also know you need it? Why? Because on a top end machine the following games have settings that go way past the limitations of even this card - Microsoft Flight Simulator 2004, Doom 3, FarCry and the soon to be released Half-Life 2. These are all new engines that will drive the games of tomorrow, meaning that I will probably be trading this one in for Xmas 2005 when the 512 line should make its mark. Anyway how does this card pan out?

First of all it is a nightmare if you setup your card on a television and then forget to change it back for use with a monitor. So learn a lesson well about these monitor/television compatible cards. Make sure to change the Display Properties to whichever type you are using next because if you don't then you will not see anything and thus can not change it back. Next you need to know that these cards are top of line and make quite a great deal of noise. We are talking about listening to something like a 50cfm fan in your box doing the rounds. You are probably going to want to run your box cooler with these types of high-end chipsets running to get the most out of them so go searching on the net for a good environmental setup.

All these new series of graphics card come with DirectX 9.0c or higher but the real key to unlock this God is with the new ATI range of drivers that enhance and accelerate the visual experience - CATALYSTâ„¢ (Basically complete Real-time 3D immersive game play*). The four games for this card I have already mentioned (Playing it with Counter-Strike: Source is extremely good although I believe maybe a 128mb would give virtually the same playability for now). So if you want those games then consider this card.

FarCry has an exceptional environment with something like X100 zoom on your binoculars. The enemy AI is unreal but in terms of graphics it is a real ride with this card. I believe you need this card for the full FarCry experience; however I do not believe that it pushes this card to its limit.

MS Flight Simulator 2004 does push this card past it limits. Put everything up full in the details panel and look out the window over populated areas. You will see a delay and suddenly several sectors start to pop up. A 512mb card will make that game real-time.

Doom3 has the ability to actually configure to a 512mb card if one existed now. Doom3 is an experience and a half, not 100% but unlike anything you have seen before and pretty scary to say the least. Anyway with this card the demon disintegration graphics are akin to watching someone getting beamed up in front of you. The lighting dynamics are also crucial to the game play. Get Doom 3 and this card and you will be stunned by something that looks like an XBOX 2 or PS3.

Half-Life 2 really needs this... if you buy the new Bronze edition from Steam you can DL the encrypted HL2 files onto your HD along with CS: Source and Play Source right away which is a big improvement on any version of CS you have seen. Anyway it looks top spec on this card but I believe a 128mb card can play Source at it highest settings. Anyway the point is to look for the HL2 video and know that in reality HL2 is going to cost you $300 if you want the full experience.

It's a tough cookie but let's face it. You have no choice. Now go work or Beg for it. We all did it!

*As for using unsupported ATI drivers for this card. Well even Catalyst is unsupported (Use at your own risk from ATI sort of thing) so hammering around with this card is probably not a bad idea however it is always useful to do that after the card has passed its warranty but the choice is there is you want it. Personally I would stick to the ATI releases and get some good tutorials on your computer environment

5 Stars but an XBOX is almost the same price.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: nVidia beats this..
Review: Dang, the graphics produced by this card are astounding, it truly is High-Def, it is much better than the Nvidia 6800. If u are into grafics, or a extreme gamer like me then u need this card.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Uh.. The 6800GT is FASTER..R..R...
Review: I benchmarked this GPU and GF6800GT. X800 Gives me ~9,400 Marks (Tested w/ 3DMarks03, P4 3.2, 1GB DDRRAM) and 6800GT Gone up to ~10,800 Marks. But technical specs are same. Except X800 does not support Vertex Shader 3. So I gives X800Pro 4 Stars.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Disregard the other reviews
Review: I have an old ATI Radeon card, and time has come to change. I'm going with this card cause I've seen it in action and it's the best. One person say it's never in stock with Radeon; there's 5 at the local Best Buy. Another person says that it dosn't support the new standards of graphics. People, this is the new standards of graphics. Doom 3 was litterally built with graphics cards like this in mind, same with Half Life 2. Now if you're not into gaming then you're probably looking at this for card for video/graphics editing; this card is by far over kill unless you work for Dream Works. Finally another guy said it's for his "super computer", yeah 1 gig of PC-3200 RAM with a DVD burner; great comp kid, is it a Dell? This is for no-bull computers.

Anyways, this is the finest line of graphics cards on the market, it's closest competition is NVIDIA's new line of cards which compair in many aspects, but ATI (almost) always ranks ahead.

Because it is the finest on the market you're going to need a great computer. If you're not running duel P4 processors, or at least 3.4ghz, you're wasting your money; there's more suited products out there (9800 XT/Pro). You're also going to need a fairly new mother board too, AGP 8x has been out for about a year and a half, so if your mother board is older than that, don't waste your money. You're going to need lots of RAM too, if you're mother board meets the stated requirements, you're running PC-3200 RAM, and you'll need at least 2 gigs, if not more.

I've seen this in action with Doom 3 and it's nothing but beautiful. They were running duel 2.8ghz P4 processors on an amazing Intel Show Case computer, and the people I was talking to said that the 2 gigs of not-for-sale-yet RAM was being pushed to the limits; and to get the full experience from this card, they planed to upgrade.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: The best of the best.
Review: This card will give you unbelivable frame rates in games. It Also gives very nice renderings of the scenery. I am a Flight Sim 2004 player, and got this to go with a somewhat super computer...
X800 Pro
1Gb OCZ PC-3200 RAM
AMD Athlon 3000+ XT
Asus A7N8X
120Gb Hard Drive
DVD burner

This thing is unbelivable, What ever you do you shouldn't have a bottle neck procesor, mother board, or RAM, as this will decrease preformance. If you have the money and other good components I highly recomend it!

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: I'd give ATI NO stars if I could...
Review: This company will tell you that the card is in stock... They lie to the hands that feed them. The products are good if you can get one. I am never going to give ATI my $$ again.


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