1. Introduction
Club3D X850 XT - 01 - Introduction
Club3D
has been one of the leading VGA companies in Europe. Apart from the production
of all widely known ATi and Nvidia based graphics cards, recently they have
set up a collaboration with S3 and XGI, introducing some alternative solutions
into the market.
The X850 XT cards are powered by ATi's latest GPU, codenamed
R480. They come in two flavours, the X850 XT and X850 XT Platinum Edition
(from now on just PE). In this review, we'll be reviewing an X850 XT
card from Club3D and see how well it performs against our previous review
of a
PE card
from Connect3D.
- Packaging/Bundle
|
Club3D X850 XT |
The Club3D X850 XT is packaged in an impressively
designed box. Opening the cover unveils the card and the various accessories
included with
the card:
- DVI-to-VGA adaptor
- 9-pin HDTV Output Cable
- Composite (RCA) Video Cable
-
S-Video Cable
- 9-pin VIVO Cable
- 12V PCI-E power connector
- a Club3D sticker for your case
Apart from these accessories, you will also find 3 CD-ROMs.
A full version of Colin McRae Rally 04, one with Cyberlink's PowerDVD and
PowerDirector 3 DE for DVD playback and video editing and finally a Club3D
Graphics CD. This last CD includes ATi's Catalyst drivers, some ATi demos
(unfortunately not the one with Ruby) and a Club3D screensaver.
2. Features
Club3D X850 XT - 02 - Features
Main Features |
GPU |
Radeon X850 XT - R480 |
Memory Brand/Model |
Samsung K4J55323QF-GC16 (1.6ns) |
Memory Type |
256 MB 256-bit GDDR3 |
Engine Clock Speed |
520MHz |
Memory Clock Speed |
540MHz |
Memory Bandwidth |
35.8 GB/sec |
Pixel Pipelines |
16 |
Vertex Pipelines |
6 |
Fill rate |
8.6 Giga pixels /sec |
DX Support |
9.0 |
OpenGL Support |
1.5 |
Output |
VGA / DVI-I / D-Sub |
Bus |
AGP 4X/8X |
Processing technology |
0.13 micron |
The R480 is not very different from the previous high end R430. It too is
built using the 0.13 micron low-k fabrication process and still features
16
Pixel Pipelines and 6 parallel Vertex engines.
As you can see from the ATITool screenshot, the GPU and Memory clocks for
the X850 XT are set to 520MHz and 540MHz respectively.
The card is equipped with 8x32MB=256MB of GDDR3 memory
from Samsung. The parts used are the famous K4J55323QF-GC16 which are
widely popular,
especially for high-end graphics cards.
The 16 in the memory's name corresponds to 1.6ns memory
speed. Dividing 1 by 1.6, we get the maximum supported memory clock frequency.
Therefore 1/1.6=600MHz which is quite a difference from the 540MHz. Hopefully,
the fansink on the X850XT will provide the card with enough cooling to sustain
increasing
the clock closer to 600MHz.
Here's a table containing the differences between the X800 XT PE and the new X850 XT and XT PE:
|
X800 XT PE
|
X850 XT |
X850 XT PE |
Core(MHz) |
520 |
520 |
540 |
Memory(MHz) |
560(1120) |
540(1080) |
590(1180) |
|
X800=X850 Architecture |
3Dc
To understand what 3Dc does, we need to quickly run through a brief
discussion on normal maps.
You can think of a normal as an arrow pointing outwards from a surface at a
90 degree angle in order to quickly access its angle difference from different
points of lighting.
First, a model with an extremely high polygon count is created (i.e 15000 polygons)
and then one with less (1000 polygons) and that is the one that we'll eventually
keep. Running a simple program calculates the differences between the two models
and stores it as a normal map texture. Before rendering the final model in the
game, the normal map texture is applied on the low polygon model and pixel shader
instructions are used to compute real time lighting.
|
A quick example of Normal Mapping (not 3Dc!) |
Normal mapping is greatly used in some of the most successful
game titles of our days, like Far Cry, Half Life 2 and Doom 3. However, the
problem
with Normal mapping is the great limitation on the texture size due to the
lack of compression.
To get a peek at what would happen if none of the textures were
compressed in a recent game, try Doom 3 and set the details to Ultra High. As
suggested by Id Software, Doom3's publisher, the Ultra High detail level requires
a graphics card with 512Mb RAM. In case you're not really into the graphics
card market there is no card with 512Mb RAM, yet.
Such is the case with normal mapping. The current texture compression
algorithms, DXTC and S3TC, are inapplicable on normal mapping textures as they
produce block artifacts, so programmers usually avoid using them.
3Dc is the solution to this problem with an algorithm that splits
up the texture into blocks. Then compressing each block, it is able to achieve
up to 4:1 compression.
|
When using 3Dc you can get much better quality textures with the same performance from your card. |
The bad thing about 3Dc is that we'll have to wait until the game developers
incorporate it into their engines or release a patch that takes advantage of
it. Ubisoft was supposed to be the first to include 3Dc support into their much
awaited Far Cry patch 1.3. However, as we found out, there is no actual difference
in the game despite the addition of the console command "EnableCompressedMaps".
SMARTSHADER™ HD
• Full hardware acceleration for Microsoft® DirectX®
9.0 programmable vertex and pixel shaders in
hardware
DirectX 9.0 Vertex Shaders
- Vertex programs up to 65,280 instructions
with flow control
- Single cycle trigonometric operations
(SIN & COS)
DirectX 9.0 Extended Pixel Shaders
- Up to 1,536 instructions and 16 textures per
rendering pass
- 32 temporary and constant registers
- Facing register for two-sided lighting
- 128-bit, 64-bit & 32-bit per pixel floating point
color formats
- Multiple Render Target (MRT) support
• Complete feature set supported in OpenGL®
via extensions
SMOOTHVISION™ HD
• 2x/4x/6x Anti-Aliasing modes
Sparse multi-sample algorithm with
gamma correction, programmable
sample patterns, and centroid sampling
Lossless Color Compression (up to 6:1)
at all resolutions, including widescreen
HDTV resolutions
Temporal Anti-Aliasing
2x/4x/8x/16x Anisotropic Filtering modes
- Up to 128-tap texture filtering per
AA sample
- Adaptive anisotropic filtering algorithm
with bilinear (performance) and trilinear
(quality) options
HYPER Z™ HD
• 3-level Hierarchical Z-Buffer with Early Z Test
• Lossless Z-Buffer Compression (up to 48:1)
• Fast Z-Buffer Clear
• Z cache optimized for real-time shadow rendering
• Optimized for performance at high display
resolutions, including widescreen HDTV resolutions
VIDEOSHADER™ HD
• Seamless integration of pixel shaders and video in
real time
• FULLSTREAM™ video de-blocking technology for
Real, DivX, WMV9 and WMV10 formats
• VIDEOSOAP™ noise removal filtering for captured
video
• MPEG1/2/4 decode and encode acceleration
DXVA support
Hardware Motion Compensation, iDCT, DCT and
color space conversion
• All-format DTV/HDTV decoding
• Adaptive Per-Pixel De-Interlacing and Frame Rate
Conversion (temporal filtering)
3. A closer look
Club3D X850 XT - 03 - A closer look
The Club3D X850 XT is identical to the PE card from Connect3D.
|
The front side of the card.(click for hi-res). |
A new cooling solution is added to the card, to make sure it
can handle the new clock speeds of the core and memory modules.
|
Air flows in... |
The fansink draws air from inside the case, which flows through a copper heatsink to cool the GPU and then leaves the case from the other side of the card.
|
and out of the case... |
As you can see from the picture above, it requires two
pci-slots for the Club3D X850 XT to install on your motherboard. The new
fansink is much
larger than the one on the X800 cards so make sure you have a spare slot
below the PCI-Expess.
|
Removing the fan exposes the R480 core. |
|
The 1.6ns memory parts by Samsung |
|
The new power connector |
Another thing changed in the X850 XT PE board is the new PCI-Express
power socket. It seems the 75W that the PCI-Express bus supports are not
enough for the card and it needs some extra power to operate correctly. Inside
the packaging, you will find an adaptor to connect your power supply with
the card.
|
Dual DVI output and a single D-sub found on the card's rear |
|
The ATI Rage Theater chip |
4. Test System
Club3D X850 XT - 04 - Test System
Processor: Intel P4 3.0GHz L775
Cooler: Big Typhoon
Case: Antec 1080AMG
Motherboard: Gigabyte 8I915P Duo Pro
Memory: 2x512MB OCZ PC-4200 Memory
Hard Disk Drive: WD800JD 80GB 7200RPM
CD-RW: LiteOn LTR-52246S
PowerSupply: Levicom 500Watt
Microsoft WindowsXP Pro SP2
DirectX v9.0c
Benchmarking Software
3DMark05,03,01
Codecreatures Benchmark Pro
AquaMark3 v3.0
ATiTool 0.0.23
Farcry v1.3
CounterStrike Source
Doom 3
Thief 3
Ground Control II
5. 3DMark05
Club3D X850 XT - 05 - 3DMark05
With 3DMark05, Futuremark continues the tradition in its benchmarking software by providing a state-of-the-art Microsoft ® DirectX ® 9 3D performance benchmark.
3DMark05 is an all new 3DMark version taking the most out of Microsoft's DirectX
9. The previous version 3DMark03, did a nice introduction into this level
of technology. However 3DMark03 used DirectX 9 specific features in a limited
manner, because fully supporting hardware
was rare at the time of its launch. In contrast, 3DMark05 requires DirectX
9 hardware with full support for at least Shader Model 2, and takes shader
usage to never before seen levels.
Just like its predecessors, 3DMark05's point system is set so that at the
moment of release, the high-end VGA cards available in stores can only score
around 5000 3DMarks, whereas the worst card that meets the programs requirements
yields a score of 1000.
Game Test 1 -Return to Proxycon
Being the sequel to the "Battle of Proxycon"
from 3DMark03, in "Return to Proxycon" we're once again set in space
and the battle continues as space pirates invade a cargo ship in order to
take control of its valuable cargo.
This test, tries to simulate a future first-person shooter game with all the high details that entails. The dynamic shadows, high-detailed environment and advanced lighting techniques ensure that under normal circumstances, no recent card can run it with decent frame rates.
In this benchmark, the X850XT's performance came really close
to that of the Platinum Edition and both of them left the 6600GT behind by
11fps.
Game Test 2 - Firefly Forest
A forest gets filled with magic fireflies in the night. The moon is nearly full, illuminating the forest with a bluish faint light. The magic fireflies have flickering bright green lights that playfully move around the forest.
This scene is a nice example of a smaller scale outdoor scene with rich vegetation. Immediate visibility is not so far, and there is a skybox surrounding the whole scene.
A large number of trees with their branches swinging separately, and dense vegetation being dynamically distributed according to the camera movements, make this test the most demanding of the three.
In GT2 - Firefly forest, the differences spotted are much smaller
due to the game's demands. Still, the PE card leads the race with the
Club3D X850 XT running a close second, while the 6600GT from Asus had
the worst performance at 10 frames per second.
Game Test 3 - Canyon Flight
A Jules Verne type airship flies through a canyon guarded by a dangerous sea monster. The airmen
defend their ship using heavy cannons, but these seem to have no effect on the huge sea monster.
Finally the crew manages a narrow escape using the ‘last resort’ afterburners of the airship.
This scene is fairly complex with large areas of
water reflecting the high canyon walls. The water actually is one of the key points of interest in this scene.
The water not only does realistic looking reflections and refractions, it has a depth fog, making the sea
monster swimming under the airship actually look deep down in the water. The air in this scene also uses
a volumetric fog, making distant cliffs of the canyon really look far away.
The GT3 is the lightest game test of all three. The Club3D
X850 XT ran the benchmark at an average of 28fps, 1.3fps slower than the
PE from
Connect3D.
Final Score
3DMarks on 3DMark05 are now calculated by the following formula:
(Game Test 1 * Game Test 2 * Game Test 3)^0.33 * 250
This is basically the geometric mean of the total frames
in each game multiplied by 250. This means that all game tests are now equal.
Let's see our results for the X850XT:
The 5600 3DMarks for the Club3D X850 XT is a modest result.
The PE card didn't perform much better, yielding only 185 more marks.
6. 3DMark 2003
Club3D X850 XT - 06 - 3DMark 2003
3D Mark is a widely used and accepted benchmark that stresses the DirectX performance of a VGA card. A very strong point of 3DMark is that it's VGA card measuring is does not require any CPU power. So the resulting fps are a good reference a VGA card's rendering performance. For testing the performance of each card we used the 4 game benchmarks 3DMark has.
3Dmark03 also includes sound and CPU tests as well as some other feature tests.
- Game Test 1 - Wings of Fury (DX7)
This test is a combat flight simulator written for older hardware (DirectX 7). Particles are used a lot in this test - smoke and vapor trails, flak and gunfire, and explosions are produced using point sprites and quads.
- Game Test 2 - Battle of Proxycon (DX8)
This test is a simulation of first person shooter game types. 1.1 and 1.4 Vertex shaders are widely used since all character models are skinned using vertex shaders.This makes this test a good vertex shader comparison for VGA cards.
- Game Test 3 - Trolls' Lair (DX8)
This test should be the favorite of all RPG lovers. It is a cut scene of a female warrior facing two malicious trolls. Again the same vertex and pixel processing is used as in game test 2.
This test also uses post-processing effects, such as Depth of Field and Bloom effects which are widely used in today's game cut scene sequences.
- Game Test 4 - Mother Nature (DX9)
Mother nature represents the level of effects and realism that are possible using 2.0 vertex and pixel shaders, plus some other features that DirectX 9 offers.
The Club3D X850 XT starts off hot on the heels of
the XT PE from Connect3D in the first test, which is mostly limited by CPU
performance. However,
in the next tests the higher clock speeds of the Connect3D begin to
show some difference.
- 3DMark Official score
If you test your machine with 3DMark you can post the results
at 3DMark's online result browser. For more information visit futuremark.com.
3DMark03 offers a larger scale of results as its game tests are
getting outdated and too light to stress test the latest cards. Therefore,
the X850XT falls behind by 650 marks from the PE card from Connect3D.
7. Codecreatures
Club3D X850 XT - 07 - Codecreatures
CodeCreatures is a synthetic 3D benchmark that is a good reference for VGA performance comparison. This is a high-end 3D benchmark that also requires DirectX 8 hardware, making a good tool for measuring the potential of DirectX 8 game performance.
The Codecreatures benchmark is written with Microsoft's DirectX 8.1 API and incorporates the use of Vertex and PixelShaders popular on next generation 3D accelerators.
The benchmark plays a photo-realistic nature scene and calculates the performance of the graphics adapter by measuring the fps that it can display at 1024x768, 1280x1024 and 1600x1200 resolutions.
-Codecreatures number
The codecreatures number is the resulting score of the total benchmarking process and is basically the geometric mean of the three framerates multiplied by 100.
The two X850s performance is almost indistinguishable with only
110 marks between them.
8. Aquamark3 / 3DMark 2001
Club3D X850 XT - 08 - Aquamark3 / 3DMark 2001
Since the majority of today's applications and games are compatible with DirectX 9, the need of benchmark applications that use DX 9 has been brought up. The benchmark uses the 3D engine (Krass engine) of the Aquanox game.
Aquamark Triscore
The Aquamark Triscore comprises 3 values: the overall system performance, the performance of the graphics system and the CPU performance. Keep in mind that this is not the total result of the tests, but the result of the whole benchmark process including all 9 chapters.
3DMark 2001
3DMark 2001 is the predecessor to 3DMark03. It's mainly a directx8.1 benchmark and the score depends a lot on the CPU power of your computer. However for reference use only we decided it'd be best to just leave it in our benchmark list so you can compare the next generation cards with the possibly outdated you have at home.
9. Half life 2
Club3D X850 XT - 09 - Half life 2
Half life 2 is no doubt the most anticipated pc game of all times. Gamers keeping the excellence of Half Life 1 in their mind as well as the remarkable E3 demo preview, have been anxiously waiting for the much delayed release of HL2.
Regarding the storyline, the player again picks up the crowbar of research scientist Gordon Freeman, who finds himself on an alien-infested Earth being picked to the bone, its resources depleted, its populace dwindling. Freeman is thrust into the unenviable role of rescuing the world from the wrong he unleashed back at Black Mesa. And a lot of people he cares about are counting on him.
Characters - Advanced facial animation system delivers the most sophisticated in-game characters ever seen. With 40 distinct facial "muscles," human characters convey the full array of human emotion, and respond to the player with fluidity and intelligence.
Physics - From pebbles to water to 2-ton trucks respond as expected, as they obey the laws of mass, friction, gravity, and buoyancy.
Graphics - Source's shader-based renderer, like the one
used at Pixar to create movies such as Toy Story® and Monster's, Inc.®,
creates the most beautiful and realistic environments ever seen in a video
game.
AI - Neither friends nor enemies charge blindly into the fray. They can assess threats, navigate tricky terrain, and fashion weapons from whatever is at hand.
To measure performance we used the Video Stress Test(VST) that is available in the CounterStrike:Source beta available through Steam. We set all the details to the highest level and each time changed the resolution from 800x600 up to 1600x1200.
Once again, the power of the cards is too great to be affected
by a simple change of resolution in HL2. The Club3D X850 XT begins to waver
only above 1280x1024, but the average framerate still remains at a very
high level above 100.
Enabling AntiAliasing and Anisotropic Filtering is essential
for these cards. The 6600GT could not handle the details when reaching 1600x1200
but the two X850 cards keep up with excellent fps, even at the highest possible
settings.
10. Doom 3
Club3D X850 XT - 10 - Doom 3
A massive demonic invasion has overwhelmed the Union Aerospace Corporations? (UAC) Mars Research Facility leaving only chaos and horror in its wake. As one of the few survivors, you struggle with shock and fear as you fight your way to Hell and back, in an epic clash against pure evil.
Activision made it's miracle again with Doom 3 which is said to be the best-looking game ever, thanks to the brand-new OpenGL graphics engine used to generate its convincingly lifelike, densely atmospheric, and surprisingly expansive environments. If you are a fan of the previous Doom games then you will get many flashbacks with this revision, since you will find reimagined versions of almost every monster from both Doom and Doom II.
To measure performance on the game we used the timedemo demo1 command from the console (Alt+Ctrl+~).
Enabling the high quality setting and executing the timedemo demo1 command twice for each resolution, we witnessed the following:
First, without the Anti-Aliasing and Anisotropic Filtering settings
enabled, we got the following results:
The Club3D X850 XT is bound by our CPU at the first two resolutions.
In which case the difference between it and the 6600GT seems smaller
than it should be. At 1280x1024 and above, we get a minor drop in fps but
not enough
to affect gameplay.
Enabling Anisotropic Filtering and Anti Aliasing, the X850
XT from Club3D delivers a respectable number of frames per second up to 1280x1024.
However, the 36fps we got at 1600x1200 will most likely cause some inconsistency
in running the game smoothly.
11. Far Cry
Club3D X850 XT - 11 - Far Cry
You are Jack Carver running your own boat charter business in beautiful Micronesia. With a past best left behind you, you'll be focusing on your present assignment: escorting an ambitious journalist named Valerie Cortez to the Island of Cabatu. It seems like a piece of cake, but you'll soon learn: paradise can be hell.
Farcry is an awesome First Person Shooter (FPS) based on a last generation 3D engine named as CryEngine. Real-time editing, bump-mapping, static lights, network system, integrated physics system, shaders, shadows and a dynamic music system are just some of the state of-the-art features that the CryEngine offers.
A great advantage and strong point of the CryEngine is its physics system which supports character inverse kinematics, vehicles, rigid bodies, liquid, rag doll, cloth and body effects. All physics seem to be very realistic and you never get bored when facing enemies, since character models have multiple animations that blend in believable ways.
With an integrated shader system and a massive terrain which maximizes
the view distance to 2km, these features make Farcry a perfect action game and
also a referable benchmark to speak of.
- Benchmark Settings
For this game we recorded a custom demo from the start of the Rebellion
stage. We chose an indoor scene in order to avoid getting the CPU bound effect. This will result in slightly higher results since it is also less
GPU intensive, but we can't afford being stuck at 40-50 fps because of our CPU.
The latest patch (1.3) was used for our tests which updates the
game's graphics engine to use the 3.0 Shader model. This option is only supported
for the 6800 series.
The resolutions we ran the demo under, are as follows: 800x600,1024x768,
1280x1024 and 1600x1200. The first test was committed with Anti Aliasing (AA)
and Anisotropic Filtering (AF) features off. In the second test we leveled
up AA to 4x and AF to 8x. All tests were taken with Jack's flashlight on,
to increase
the game's demands from the graphics cards and with ai_update_interval set
to zero so that the results are subjective.
Far Cry seems to be affected a lot by the lower clock settings
of the X850 XT. Here, the Club3D card cannot deliver as many frames
per second as the Platinum Edition from Connect3D. Even so, the average framerate
is higher than 60 which is simply great.
With our quality settings enabled, the best resolution to enjoy the game seems to be 1280x1024.
12. Thief 3
Club3D X850 XT - 12 - Thief 3
Instead
of Deus Ex from now on we'll
be testing our cards using Thief 3. It's based on the same engine but it’s
much less GPU intensive and playable by more VGA cards than Deus.
The game makes severe use of Pixel Shader 1.1 instructions, the bloom effect and stencil shadows to achieve a wonderful result in your screen.
In the game you play the part of Master Thief Garrett who is back to rule out any evil forces using his unique stealth abilities. Deadly Shadows shows what stealth gameplay is all about. This game really gives you the feel of sneaking around and holding your breath when stuck in a sticky situation.
Since there is no official benchmark for the game, we’ll do our
tests using a GPU intensive scene from the tutorial-level which we believe
that represents the average fps you'll get when playing the game.
With the first three resolutions, both X850's are bound by the
CPU to 54 frames per second. From that point on, the X850 XT from Club3D is
just a breath away from the PE, while the 6600GT miserably fails to deliver
even half the framerates of the other two cards.
The situation remains the same with Multisampling set to 4x and
Anisotropic Filtering at 8x. Note that at the highest resolutions, the ATi
cards are at over triple the performance of the 6600GT.
13. Colin McRae 05
Club3D X850 XT - 13 - Colin McRae 05
For all you racing fans out there, this test is for you and will represent the Racing game category in our benchmarks.
From the graphics point of view the first thing you'll
notice in the game is the excellent amount detail of your racing car. High
resolution textures on the car and lighting make it quite impressive. All
the eye candy such as the sun reflection in the virtual camera are still
the same as the older CM versions but motion blur has been added when your
card hits something hard which will happen most often if you're new to
the racing simulation world.
To measure performance on the game we used fraps to get the average fps of the whole 8th stage of UK which is actually the only stage you get to play on the demo.
Strangely, the Club3D X850XT outperformed the PE from Connect3D.
However, both card's provide more frames than the CPU can handle so the results
are somewhat virtual. The conclusion that should be made from this,
is that the X850 can deliver more than 100fps, no matter the resolution.
Enabling the quality settings for AA and AF is strongly suggested
with these cards as they are able to run the game successfully, even at 1600x1200.
14. Ground Control II
Club3D X850 XT - 14 - Ground Control II
Ground
Control 2 is an action-oriented game of tactics and warfare. As Captain Jacob
Angelus of the Northern Star Alliance, you will command squads of infantry,
artillery, and airpower against the might of the Empire of Terra. Base building
and resource-collecting
are replaced with unit control and combat tactics where your knowledge of
the battlefield maneuvers will make the difference in your fight against
a ruthless enemy. Position your troops on hilltops for better aim or inside
buildings and forests for protection as you'll need to use every inch of
terrain to your advantage. Call in air strikes or assault pods to bring the
battle
behind enemy lines. Send out scouts to locate the enemy and use spotters
for your artillery with the 360° free-roaming camera. Experience the total
immersion of futuristic warfare as you lead your forces to victory!
For our benchmarks, we used the highest possible settings on the first mission
of the single player game and moved around the camera to get an average framerate
using fraps.
Ground Control II offers really impressive graphics without requiring much GPU power. Click on the picture above to view a screenshot from the game. Check out these excellent water effects!
Ground control II seems to be no problem for the Club3D X850
XT. The framerates we got from the game are more than excellent, reaching 70
in the worst case, when run at 1600x1200.
Since at the higher levels you need all the VGA power you can
get to handle the tons of bad guys that will fill your screen in order to eliminate
your forces, you need a decent framerate in this benchmark to enjoy the game.
The most appropriate resolution seems to be 1024x768.
15. Overclocking
Club3D X850 XT - 15 - Overclocking
No matter your graphics card, there comes a time in your computer's life when it can no longer cope with the latest technology the ever so popular games use. This is one of the main reasons for overclocking your graphics card. Gamers are always looking forward for a little extra boost in terms of framerate. Even though most of the times the boost is far from noticeable, overclocking remains the last resort when you can't afford to buy a brand new VGA card.
|
Increasing the memory clock too much,
produces the so-called "artifacts". |
The default clock speeds for the Club3D X850 XT are 520MHz for the GPU and
540MHz for the memory. Our target is to clock the card up to a PE, which means
540MHz
GPU and 590MHz memory frequency. For this purpose, we used ATITool version
0.0.23:
|
The highest stable settings we could achieve |
Not only was 540/590 a stable combination of clock speeds but we were able
to set the GPU clock much higher, up to 555MHz. Hopefully, these settings will
help
the X850XT overcome the difference in performance from a PE :
Except for Far Cry, with both Doom 3 and Half Life 2, the overcloked
X850 XT from Club3D managed to edge out the Platinum Edition X850 XT. In Far
Cry, the boost of 3-4 fps was unfortunately not enough to cover the 10fps difference.
16. Conclusion
Club3D X850 XT - 16 - Conclusion
Performance-wise, the Club3D X850XT holds the power to run most games with
great framerates, encouraging you to enable features such as Anti-Aliasing
and Anisotropic-Filtering to improve image quality.
The cost of the Club3D X850 XT varies around US$530. With the small
performance difference we saw against a Platinum Edition X850 XT, it becomes
clear that the X850 XT card offers much more bang for your buck.
Also with a little overclocking applied on the card, you can easily reach the frequencies of a PE. If you decide to push the clocks a bit further, the Club3D X850 XT can even outperform a PE.
The bundle includes a full version of Colin McRae Rally 04, Cyberlink's
PowerDVD and PowerDirector 3 DE. The latter two are very common and accompany
many products so you may already hold a copy of each. However, CM04
is a new addition, and as announced by Club3D, it will be bundled along with
all high-end
graphics cards.
Pros:
-Great performance
-Overclockable to PE clock speeds.
-Low noise fan.
Cons:
-Expensive for most users
Performance: |
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Value for money: |
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Overclocking: |
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Bundle: |
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