Customer Reviews

ATI RADEON X800XL 256 MB AGP Graphics Card

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

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!

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.

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.

I was using a Gefore FX 5200 and needless to say the difference between the two cards is huge. Performance is great, the image quality is absolutely superb(I am playing 'Guild Wars' on a 17" lcd running maximum settings with 4x anti aliasing).
I have several problems with this card:
1. It is big. it just barely fits in my motherboard, and it actually touches the RAM.
2. It is getting very hot - when I play with full settings on, the card starts to heat and make annoying beeps. I have solved this temporarily by blowing a house fan on it(just until I get a water cooling system).
3. I cant seem to get a temperature reading for this card. maybe its just me.


Amazon - Great handling, shipment very fast(came after 4 days with a super free saving). I would not hesitate to use this site again.

system specs:
Athlon xp 2500+@2.07
Abit nf7
2*256 ddr 400 cas 3
philips lcd 17" 25ms
Maxtor IDE 120 GB
lousy PSU and case(could be the cause for the overheat)

While this isn't exactly THE top-of-the-line card in existence, it hits the price-to-performance sweet spot dead center. I'm running a machine that's over 1 1/2 years old, and the stock graphics card (a Radeon 9200 LE) was sorely underpowered, especially considering some of the newer, more visually rich games recently released (Half-Life 2, Doom 3, etc.). I'd had my eye on the Radeon 9800 Pro for quite a while, but knowing that the industry was moving away from the AGP interface to the more advanced PCI-e standard, I wanted to wait a little longer and upgrade to something that would absolutely devour frames on the aformentioned games, without having to upgrade a second time. Well, I have to say that i'm extremely satisfied. This card plays Doom 3 at a solid 60 fps at 1024x768 resolution with graphics quality set to high. Half-Life 2 runs with comparable smoothness at the recommended settings (a mix of medium and high quality). Far Cry is silky smooth at medium settings plus high quality textures. Considering the low amount of system RAM (512 MB) I have installed, this is more than satisfactory. I actually had purchased a GeForce 6600 GT OC at first, but when I got it home and found that Doom 3 only ran smoothly at medium settings on my machine - I was disappointed - so I took it back and found that this one had been discounted to the same price. Benchmarking websites consistently show this card in the top groupings of game performance, so it is a solid choice.

Pros: plenty of RAM (256 MB) for today's and tomorrow's demanding games, not too power hungry (only requires 300w power supply & one power connection), reasonably priced, relatively painless installation (see below)

Cons: like all video cards this one will be pathetically obsolete within a year or so (since it uses an AGP interface it really already is), misleading installation instructions (spent an hour looking for motherboard drivers I didn't even freakin' need, thanks ATI), will be trolling websites within a year looking at benchmarks for the NTI RadeoForce XXX100000000 GT SP XL OC Super Ultra Gamer's Edition which will run Half-Life 3 at 500 fps and make this card look like a burned-out waffle iron

I got this card to replace my 9800Pro that I damaged beyond repair. I was fairly happy with my 9800, but knew that I eventually needed an upgrade anyway so I decided to spend more money to get a better card.

I ended up deciding on this one, although I didn't get it from amazon or a retail store. I got a brand new genuine ATI card from Ebay for much cheaper.

Anyway after the card arrived I couldn't help but notice how much of a behemoth this card actually is. It is fairly heavy and very big compared to my 9800. I was unable to get the card to fit into my AGP slot because my after market Zalman chipset cooler was in the way of the large cooler on the graphics card. It took me a few tries to figure out why I couldn't get the card to go in. After I realized what was happening, I literally had to break down my entire PC, remove the motherboard from the case and subsequently remove the Zalman chipset cooler so I can remove some of the fins on it to allow the VGA card to fit in the AGP slot. It was a real pain getting the Zalman removed, not to mention having to remove the mobo from the case just to get this card to fit, but I finally got everything back together.

I first tried this card out on Doom 3, and while it ran, I noticed an increase in performance and graphics quality, however after only about 5 minutes, the game would lockup and the card returned a VPU recover error. This happened all the time on D3, and also later discovered that it happened on all my other games as well. I verified that I was using the latest CCC drivers (5.10), and even tried to use the drivers on the CD to no avail. I sent ATI a trouble ticket, but as expected just got a form letter basically telling me to try things I already have and things I already knew. After trying almost everything, I decided to benchmark the card with 3DMark01 and 3DMark05 and found that they also would lockup. I finally decided to update the BIOS on my motherboard and this update fixed all of the problems I was having with this card. I was able to run my benchmarks with no lockups, and more importantly, my games no longer lockup either.

Besides of the few issues I was having with lockups, this is a great card, though the advertised $300 price tag is very steep for some. Personally if you are fairly satisfied with your current AGP, I wouldn't go out and get this card unless you absolutely want an upgrade. The price will certainly come down over time. And you can also find this card for cheaper than the retail price like I did. Be warned though, because of its size, getting this card installed in your system may require more than just plugging it in you AGP slot, as it did for me.

My system:
====================
AMD Athlon64 3000+
MSI K8N Neo Platinum
ATI RADEON X800XL 256MB
1GB Corsiar Value Select PC3200
200GB Maxtor 7200RPM HD
Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS
Samsung DVD+-RW
Samsung CD-RW

I have this video card for a year, it's excelllent. All actual games runs without a problem

I must say thet this card is awesome, if you still have an agp motherboard this is an excellent option, but make sure you have enough ram and a fast processor or you will be dissapointed!

I purchased this card and had to return because it would not fit in my PC. The card is almost 12" long and too long for my PC. I had the 9600 and 9800 Radeons and had no issues with a graphics card fitting. Anyhow, I purchased the x850xt and it is much shorter. If you have the room, go for it.