Overclocking
It
appears ATI has forgone the overdrive tab in favor of the OEM's
applying performance as they see fit. This only makes sense as
who knows better than the OEM as to the actual chipset used, whether
its reference or higher grade.
HIS
bundles iTurbo with some of their current ATI offerings as a separate
install and it can either be run at startup or as you need it
(note that if it is not running, you are not overclocking). iTurbo
allows you to monitor your hardware, temperature and fan speed,
but unfortunately it does not give that information when minimized
to the system tray; you must maximize it to see what the temperature
is. To overclock, you simply click the “iTurbo” button
and the software will clock your VPU and GDDR3 memory to a stable
level. HIS iTurbo will show the memory speed either in actual
MHz or DDR terms (540MHz or 1080MHz DDR). Many OEM versions I
have seen are very conservative with abilities similar to this
but HIS appears to be quite aggressive. Thankfully, they have
built a product that allows them to be.
When
I click on iTurbo, it jumps the VPU to 540MHz (notice anything
familiar with that number? Can you say X850XT-PE?), memory is
advanced to 1180MHz (slightly higher than X850XT-PE speeds). Over
the course of the 2 weeks I have been testing the HIS X850XT and
iTurbo, it is consistently able to clock to these levels. The
memory has the ability, with the iTurbo software, to clock to
1190MHz, the VPU maxes out at 540MHz. There was only one time
out of about 12 that I could not get a stable run at 1190MHz on
the memory. The VPU overclocks to 540MHz automatically, so there
is nothing I can do with iTurbo to go beyond that.
My
only beef with iTurbo is the fact that the one that shipped with
my review was Version Beta 1.0, I looked all over the HIS website
and found nowhere I could download an updated version, or any
version at all. That said, for beta software, I've had no
problems with it during testing.
To
attempt achieving a higher overclock on the VPU, I installed ATI
Tool. Unfortunately, every time I went to test or modify any setting,
the screen went into an array of pretty vertical colors, with
the only way to recover being a reboot. Even so I was able to
test the iTurbo settings using ATI Tool which has a nice section
that checks for artifacts and reports the results to you.
Next
I went for Rage3D, which promptly told me the X850XT series is
not supported. At this point, it appears as though iTurbo is your
best bet, although I am sure there will be tools to follow if
you need to surpass PE frequencies.
Since
we want to test one OpenGL and one DirectX game in overclocked
mode, we chose Half-Life2 and Doom3. We used Benchemall for the
overclocking tests because we want them to be as similar as possible
for direct comparison. As always, overclocking can damage your
equipment and your use of the included HIS software is at your
own risk.
|
|
520/1080
|
540/1190
|
|
Doom
3, 1280x1024
|
63.50
|
65.60
|
|
Half
Life 2, 1280x1024
|
34.82
|
35.12
|
As
you can see, there is only a slight improvement using these
benchmarks with these modern games. Half-Life 2 gave us a modest
0.84% increase, while Doom 3 managed a 3.31% increase, almost
matching the VPU increase of 3.8%. At the end of the day, you
have to make the decision on whether to overclock or not yourself,
so it's going to come down to you deciding if you need those
extra frames. With that said, I have a little more confidence
in the ability of the HIS X850XT IceQ II Turbo to deliver constant
overclocking without damage to the hardware using the iTurbo
software, some of the reasoning behind this thinking is that
after an hour of overclocking and benchmarking this is how things
looked.
Final
Words
My
main concern when initially taking on this review, was that I
didn't want to sound like a school girl who just saw her first,
well, you know. I have to admit, the HIS
X850XT IceQ-II Turbo makes me giddy. The games that I play
have been given a new life. I didn't include it in my review,
but even Quake 3 seems a little crisper (especially at 6xAA 8xAF).
The
X850XT is absolutely a powerful reference card, but you already
knew that. The HIS adaptation of the X850XT is more than well
done, it borders on ingenious. Simple, yet extremely effective
silent cooling, give you stable overclocks to the levels of the
Platinum Edition without even a 2nd glance. Simple inclusions
such as a UV aware enclosure to give you that sparkle if that's
what you desire, but then not to include lights and therefore
not force you to live with it if you don't. Add to that a range
of adapters that could make your day and a Dual DVI output launch
this card to the top of the pile, especially when you consider
the price differential for that Platinum Edition card next to
it.
HIS
has done the unthinkable, they have wrapped leading edge technology
with a common sense approach. They have given you the necessary
tools to show it off, yet empowered you to choose not to. Whether
it is a Cadillac (flare) or a Mercedes (classic) is up to you,
though it is nice to know that under the hood humms a Ferrari.
Pros:
Near silent during day to day operation even when overclocked,
Performance on par with Platinum Edition, Simple yet ingenious
airflow / cooling design, Instant stable Overclocking using iTurbo,
Looks good behind that windowed side panel, lit or unlit, Dual
DVI output, HDTV adapter included (among others)
Cons:
Takes up two slots, Tough to remove due to size (though, why would
you remove it?), Not a great “included” software package
for a premium card, No upgrade (or any other version for that
matter) of iTurbo could be found
Bottom
Line: HIS have wrapped leading edge technology with a
common sense approach. They have given you the necessary tools
to show it off, yet empowered you to choose not to. Whether it
is a Cadillac (flare) or a Mercedes (classic) is up to you, though
it is nice to know that under the hood humms a Ferrari.
If
you have any questions or comments on this or other reviews, feel
free to discuss them in our Forums.
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