ATI RADEON X800XL 256 MB AGP Graphics Card

by ATI

Product Details

• Shipping Weight: 2.2 pounds
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B0007XGOQY
• Item model number: 100-435508
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #174,243 in Electronics (See Top 100 in Electronics)
• Date first available at Amazon.com: August 24, 2005

Product Description

ATI's RADEON® X800 XL graphics card sets a new standard in graphics performance and visual realism with 16 pipelines, higher clock speeds, and break through image enhancement technology. ATI's RADEON® X800 series ushered in a new category called High-Definition gaming by maximizing performance and image quality in higher detail and at higher resolutions than ever before. High-Definition Gaming is enabled by ATI's revolutionary 3Dc™ image enhancement technology. 3Dc™ has become an industry standard, supporting more complex high-definition visual effects in real-time.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars X800 XL Delivers, September 5, 2005

By 

Machine Gun "MnVols" (Minnesota State) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: ATI RADEON X800XL 256 MB AGP Graphics Card (Personal Computers)

Recently I replaced my GeForce FX 5200 128 MB card with this one, and what a difference! I've always had to play newer games on either medium or low setting at 800 x 600 resolution to run them smoothly. Now I'm playing Far Cry at 1600 x 1200 with highly detailed settings, and everything looks so wonderful. Even on those settings, the game runs smoothly. Chronicles of Riddick and Half-life 2 I can run on the same settings, but I have particles, shadows, and explosions on high instead of highest. For under $300 this is one great card! Beware that this card is huge, and if your dimm slots sit right behind your AGP slot, you might have a little trouble with it. Make sure you have a good 2 inches of room for the card to fit. Unlike others, I found installation to be a snap! I had all the software installed in less than 10 minutes, and then I was freaking out over the quality of Far Cry! THERE ARE BETTER AND MORE EXPENSIVE CARDS OUT THERE, but this card is about the same quality as the GeForece 6800 GT at nearly $100 less! ATI x850 is also a better card, but it too is more expensive. I've had this card now several weeks, and I couldn't be more satisfied! If you want the best AGP card you can buy, then this aint it. But if you want a great priced card that delivers wonderful graphics on todays best games at a nice price then go for the X800 or X800 XL!

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A midrange card that thinks--and acts like--it costs much more, November 16, 2005

By 

Casey A. Henry (Pensacola, Florida, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: ATI RADEON X800XL 256 MB AGP Graphics Card (Personal Computers)

Strengths: TV in/out, Low power consumption, Top-of-the-line features and performance for a midrange price

Weaknesses: Lack of dual-DVI outputs

I have an eMachines T3256, which was an incredible PC for the price ($399 for an Athlon XP 3200+, 512MB PC3200 RAM, 160GB HDD, DVD+-RW, and second-bay CD-ROM). The system's only real weak point, however, is that it relies upon integrated graphics (GeForce 4MX--better than Intel's integrated option, but not by much). From the beginning, therefore, I'd had it in mind to purchase an AGP video card to better round out my "e" PC.

After considerable research on the Net, I narrowed down my consideration to the nVidia GeForce 6600GT and the ATI Radeon X800XL. Ultimately, I chose the X800XL over the 6600GT, and I couldn't be more pleased with the results. Although the X800XL goes for about $100 more than the 6600GT (on average), you get a lot more for the extra cash: double the RAM (256MB vs. 128MB), double the pixel pipelines (16 vs. 8), double the vertex shaders (6 vs. 3), and double the memory bandwidth (256-bit vs. 128.bit). This translates into higher detail settings, better full-screen antialiasing (FSAA) and anisotropic filtering (AF), and smoother framerates--all at higher resolutions. I couldn't be more pleased with the performance this card lets me squeeze out of my budget PC; I can run Far Cry at 1280x1024 at maximum detail settings with FSAA and AF enabled and achieve consistent framerates over 40fps, which is great for an eMachines PC. For those who are interested, I've included some benchmark results below:

Aquamark 3: 48,275
3DMark2001SE: 17,045
3DMark03: 9,300

As other reviewers have mentioned, the card itself is a hefty piece of equipment, measuring almost nine inches in length. This is because the X800 XL was originally designed as a PCI Express card and requires a bridge chip (named Rialto) to communicate with the AGP bus. It fits pretty comfortably inside my PC, but you will definitely want to measure the clearance around your AGP slot if you're thinking about purchasing this card. The only other negative comment I can make about this card is that although ATI includes dual outputs, only one is digital (DVI); the other is an analog VGA port. It would have been nice to have dual DVI-out in order to connect two digital displays.

Other than that, however, this is an outstanding card. Although it requires additional power from the PC's power supply (via a standard 4-pin Molex connector--a splitter cable is included in the box in case you don't have another free power dongle), this card doesn't require much power. It runs great off of my stock 300 Watt power supply, and I've not had any problems with the card locking up because it's not able to draw enough power. The card also runs relatively cool (at least "as is"--I haven't attempted overclocking...yet). I'm able to monitor the GPU temperature via ATI Tray Tools (a must-have third-party app for ATI card owners), and the X800XL runs around 44C at idle 65C while gaming.

Overall, this is a great midrange video card. It should be fairly future-proof as well. Sure, you may not be able to run next year's games at max detail and max resolution, but they'll still look great and run smoothly. If you're like me--a casual gamer who isn't willing to pay a premium for the latest and greatest or to upgrade your system four times a year--this is the card for you.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best AGP available, February 28, 2006

By 

Mark E. Kaminski (new kensington, pa) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: ATI RADEON X800XL 256 MB AGP Graphics Card (Personal Computers)

I found this card on here used for $200. The guy never actually installed and the store he got it at would not take it back once the plastic was off so it is basically brand new. There was another card also on here used six months for the same price.

This is old technology so I would not recommend buying this card new. You can almost buy a PCI-e motherboad and card for the same as this is being sold new. The PCI-e equivalent card can be found for $200 or less.

Works great without the heat issues some folks here were talking about. If you are trying to do one last upgrade on an AGP system this card will give at least a year or two of high end gaming without having to crank down all the video options. I would not buy it new or pay more than I did because you are bascially being charged more since AGP systems are being phased out. Gamers are moving the the PCI-e setups and are always selling these types of AGP cards used on various sites including Amazon.