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LOSTCIRCUITS
SHORTCUTS:
Farewell AGP
More AGP Problems
Tech Specs
The Contenders
Sapphire Details
Power and Noise
FutureMarks (Default)
3DMark05 4xAA 8xAF
DOOM3
FarCry, X2
Conclusions
Give us some feedback

 Sapphire RADEON X800XT vs. GeForce 6800GT
and a dash of RADEON X300
(Review by MS, Nov. 3, 2004)
GeForce 6800GT At:

Sapphire X800 XT

The two other contenders, that is the GeForce 6800GT and the RADEON X300 were OEM samples without any accessories or drivers, thence, there is nothing much to write about them either. The Sapphire X800 XT on the other hand arrived in a fashionably SciFi decorated retail package leaving no doubt about any of its product hilights.


      

             

Left to Right: Top: the Retail Box with its transparent window in the back to reveal the actual card (right) -- Bottom: The shipping box contents including manual, included hardware comprises s- and composite video connector cables as well as the VGA -t0 DVI interface. Software included comprises Prince of Persia - The Sands of Time, Splintercell - Pandora Tomorrow, CyberLink PowerDirector 2.55, Cyberlink PowerDVD 5, the driver CD and the Sapphire Redline Utility. With the sample at hand, the Redline Utility did not install but exit with the error message of "Video Card Not Supported". On the Retail CD, the utility has been updated, with some older versions it may be necessary to download the "CD Update Patch" from the Sapphire website. The manual covers the bare minimum with respect to a generic installation but fails to elaborate on any of the advanced features of the card, not to mention that not even the connectors are described. We can blame this potentially on the fact that we were looking at a preproduction sample, hopefully, Sapphire will put a bit more effort into this in the final version, meaning that instead of a rather meaningless manual in 6 or 7 languages, they will at least illustrate the card and its connectors. Click images for larger view. Included with the finaly shipping version is also a 6-pin to Molex power adapter.

Sapphire X800XT:

The Three Amigos

Essentially, the Sapphire X800XT is a reference design featuring a single DVI port and relying on a standard VGA port as primary / secondary output. The GeForce 6800GT, on the other hand features dual DVI while the X300 only has a single DVI output. Sapphire is using 2 ns cycle time (500MHz) Samsung GDDR3 on the X800XT, which precisely matches the specifications but does not exceed them. The same memory chips are availble in different speedgrades up to 1400 MHz data rate (GC14, 700 MHz)

Next Page:    => Some more Details =>

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