I
would have to say one of the joys of doing reviews for Viperlair
is that I get the opportunity to test competing equipment of products
I would typically purchase, and hopefully pass on pertinent information
to the reader that allows them to make an informed decision. This
usually means that I am testing middle to high end Motherboards,
CPU's and Hard Drives. However, in the graphics card arena, the
typical card I would and have purchased is that of the median
category. Somewhere in the $150 to $250 range is a comfort zone
to a lot of us when purchasing our video hardware. When Viperlair
asked me to review an X850XT graphics card, one of ATI's flagship
offerings, I was at first a tad intimidated, as this is not a
product you would see me typically laying down my credit card
for. I mean truly, how many of us have a spare $450+ lying around
for a high end graphics card? Then I thought of what I could and
hopefully will bring to the table for our readers. I mean, here
is a guy that is like the majority of you when it comes to purchasing
equipment; semi-frugal. Hopefully, I can give all of you some
insight into what this particular Graphics solution has to offer.
Hightech
Information Systems, probably one of the better known enthusiast
graphics OEM as of late, has just delivered their latest IceQ
II Turbo, based on ATI's R480 (X850) VPU. Not only is this
graphics card a VIVO solution, it has Dual DVI output for those
of you with 2 DVI capable monitors (there is also a single DVI
with VGA version available). The IceQ
II Turbo is a dual slot graphics card, and the HS/Fan appears
to be the reasoning for this. The ATI Radeon X850 VPU is a native
PCIE processor, though recently ATI has announced AGP products
and we'll be posting our look at the AGP version of this card
shortly.
| Specifications |
|
•
R480 0.13um process (Stock speed of 520MHz)
• Over 160 million transistors
• Up to sixteen parallel pixel pipelines
• Six parallel vertex processing engines
• PCI Express® x16 lane native support
• 256MB 256bit Quad-Channel GDDR3 Memory (Stock speed
of 540MHz (1.08GHz))
• Dual integrated display controllers
• Dual integrated 10 bit per channel 400 MHz DACs
• Integrated 165MHz TMDS transmitter (DVI 1.0 / HDMI
compliant and HDCP ready)
• Integrated TV Output support up to 1024x768 resolution
• YPrPb component output for HDTV display connection
• Single and dual link external TMDS transmitter support
for high resolution and/or multi-monitor DVI configurations
• Compatible with ATI's THEATER™ video decode
and capture devices for VIVO (Video Input / Video Output)
configurations
• Dual DVI + VIVO
• DirectX® 9 and OpenGL® supported
HIS
Specific Modifications
•
Fast: HIS intelligent Cooling technology automatically adjusts
IceQ II fan speed base on X850's loading and temperature
to achieve best performance
• Quiet: Less than 20dB
• Cool: -11°C cooler than original cooling fan
• All Cool: Outstanding IceQ II cooling performance
extends the card life with UV Sensitive effect
• HIS iTURBO: Overclock the graphic card safety, with
the balance of the best performance and cooling effect
|
For
the complete specifications and updates on the HIS
X850XT IceQ II Turbo Dual DVI VIVO 256MB PCIe (HIS X850XT
for future reference), please check out the HIS
website. A few things that caught my eye here was that HIS
included simple things, such as the HDTV YPrPb cable, instead
of it being an afterthought / after market purchase. The DVI output
is HDMI compliant for those newer DLP/LCD projection televisions
that require it.
Finally
a cooling system even the cooling enthusiast would be impressed
with (outside of water cooling that is). Like its brethren, the
X850XT-PE, the X850XT brings 16 pixel pipelines with hardware
support for DirectX 9B and Shader Model 2.0 to the table. Unlike
the XT850XT-PE, the VPU is clocked at 520MHz (vise 540MHz) and
the memory at 540MHz (vise 590MHz).
Unpacking
the box you find a plethora of connectors and adapters for what
ever might float your boat. Cables included in the packaging
are:
•
2 – DVI to VGA converters
• HDTV connector (YPrPb)
• S-Video connector
• Composite Video connector
• Molex Power Adapter Cable
There
are, of course, no DVI cables included, but most manufacturers
of DVI capable monitors supply them. If this is not the case,
its going to set you back another ~$70 to supply a DVI connection
to your Television or Monitor. The Molex power connector has a
dongle where you can power another device but we highly recommend
having the HIS X850XT on a dedicated Molex, clean power could
be very important here.
Moving
on to the included 'goodies' we find a case full of
CD's, first of which is your HIS driver CD followed by the iTurbo
Overclocking tool CD. The titles included are:
•
FlatOut
• Microsoft Dungeon Siege (Full)
• PowerDVD 6
• PowerDirector 3 SE Plus
• Power2Go 4
• 3D Album PicturePro
Not
an overly impressive package for an enthusiast card, but were
not buying it for the included media are we?
Let's
pull out the card itself. You can see that this is going to
be taking up 2 slots within your system. Although typically
not an issue, you could conceivably run into a problem when
installing into a micro environment. It would be a good idea
to ensure that you have enough space if you have a micro setup
prior to purchasing this particular line of graphics card. HIS
has opted not to include lights with the HIS X850XT, however
the card is covered in UV Sensitive graphics to allow it to
participate in a case with UV lights.
The
design of the cooling is a logical adaptation to ATI's over
sized heat sink requirement on the X850 VPU. HIS has adapted
a board length funneling solution that brings air in from surrounding
case, and expels it out of the rear, rather simple yet ingenious
design. On the back of the card we can see the ATI Rage Theater
Chip, which delivers the video to your Home Theater System in
either NTSC or PAL. Even though GDDR3 memory runs cooler than
previous GDDR versions, HIS has opted to put a HS on it to maintain
those lower temperatures we are all seeking. We will see in
the OC section if this is a benefit of the HIS design.
Installation
went without a hitch and as with most PCIe video cards this
one snapped in nicely and felt snug with little to no play.
Unfortunately this is not the case for removal. Some of my pictures
did not come out as I wanted so I removed the HIS X850XT from
the work bench. This did not go easy at all, the double wide
card got in the way and made unlocking the clasp all but impossible.
I can only imagine how difficult this would be if installed
into a case. The power adapter is wedged behind the fan making
that very difficult to remove as well (so difficult, I disconnected
at the Molex connector and left the adapter connected to the
Graphics card).
As
mentioned, the HIS X850XT is a double slot card, therefore you
need to ensure the slot next to the x16 PCIe slot is vacant prior
to install. In my case, as with most PCIe motherboards, this is
not an issue as unless it's a micro, there should be 2 PCI slots
left over. Once installed, its time to boot up and install the
drivers.
The
driver CD contains the current (when boxed) ATI Catalyst driver,
the version with the Catalyst Control Center or CCC. I opted to
install the drivers sent with video card, as they were only one
revision behind the current available from the ATI website, which
is where I typically like to be. Also included with the software
bundle is the HIS overclocking / VPU monitoring program, called
iTurbo. Call me crazy, but isn't 'i' an Apple marketing thing?
Anyway, I also installed iTurbo, we will be going over the HIS
X850XT IceQ II Turbo Dual DVI VIVO 256MB PCIe ability to Overclock
later on in this review.
***The
ATI CCC is somewhat different than previous Catalyst Driver programs.
It takes you a few clicks to get where you are going (mostly because
everything is moved), and I noticed no ATI Overclock feature,
but since HIS has included their iTurbo program it is a non-issue
with this card.
Testing
All
games were run at HQ unless otherwise stated to allow us to stress
the card out as much as possible. I tested the cards in a 'real
life' scenario by playing the selected games and monitoring that
play using FRAPS on a second by second basis. Although this will
make it harder for you, the reader to duplicate the tests performed,
it should give us a better overall picture of what the cards are
capable of.
With
the simple fact that this is about as high end as it gets in the
graphics card arena currently, we will be performing all tests
at 1600x1200 and 1280x1024 only.
Benchmark
System: Intel 540 LGA775 (2.8 GHz), ASUS P5GDC Deluxe,
1GB Kingston HyperX PC2-5400, WD WD800JD / 80GB SATA 7200RPM,
HIS X850XT IceQ II Turbo Dual DVI VIVO 256MB PCIe, Hitachi CML175-B
LCD Monitor (1280x1024), Samsung Syncmaster 955 CRT (1600x1200),
Windows XP SP2.
The
Comparative System: Intel 540 LGA775 (2.8GHz), ASUS P5AD2
Premium, 1GB Corsair TwinX PC2-5400 Pro, Seagate 120GB SATA 7200RPM,
HIS X850XT PE IceQ II Dual DVI VIVO 256MB PCIe , Windows XP SP2.
Test
software
Doom
3 - Making good use of the BFG, rocket launcher and plasma
gun (the most graphically intense weapons), we'll be kicking ass
on the Enpro level and trying not to let the robot score all the
points.
Half
Life 2 - When the action gets going and there is a lot on
screen, it does help to have a bit of horsepower pushing the graphics
when it comes to Half Life 2. We ran through part of 'Follow Freeman',
specifically the part as you exit the Combine building to take
on the 3 striders.
Far
Cry - Featuring lots of outdoor areas with spectacular nature
effects such as realistic water and beautiful vista's, it all
adds up to a virtual landscape that stretches off into the distance.
We ran through the Rebellion level, and headed outside into the
night time chaos.
Unreal
Tournament 2004 - We loaded up TDM with 31 bots, everything
set to highest levels and tested the gameplay on the Compressed
map.
NEXT
