The Active Network
ActiveWin: Reviews Active Network | New Reviews | Old Reviews | Interviews |Mailing List | Forums 
 

Amazon.com

  *  


The Crucial RADEON X850 XT 256MB PCI Express

Crucial ATI X850 XT 256mb PCI-Express
Company: Crucial
Website: http://www.crucial.com/uk
Estimated Street Price: £246 / $450
Part Number: CTVX50XT256MB
Review By: Byron Hinson

Introduction

Crucial is well known for their excellent and competitively low priced PC memory sticks, but as some of you may know, they also sell graphics cards based on the ATI graphic chipsets that have been released. While many users are switching over to PCI-Express based motherboards, a massive user base still remains for AGP based boards, so it's refreshing to still see cards are going to be released in AGP format, albeit less and less over the next year. With the introduction of the X850 ATI has shown their support for the PCI-Express format. The card we have on review today is the Crucial ATI X850 XT 256mb PCI Express based card.

The Crucial RADEON X850 XT sets the newest standard in graphics performance and visual realism. With 16 parallel pixel pipelines, faster frame rates, higher clock speeds, power-throttling, expanded monitor support, and breakthrough image quality, the X850 XT card provides performance, multitasking, and stability. The crown jewel of the Crucial graphics card lineup, the X850 XT is as good as it gets for hard core gaming enthusiasts! Top-of-the-line PCI Express card designed for the Serious Gamer/3-D Modeling user category.

Details

  • Incredible 3-D gaming performance
  • PCI Express™ 16X technology with 16 parallel pixel pipeline utilization
  • 256MB of DDR3 memory
  • 256-bit quad-channel GDDR3 memory interface
  • Dual display support for simultaneous viewing on analog and high-definition digital monitors
  • Powerthrottling technology for cooler running temperature
  • Integrated SmartVision™ technology, providing high-definition gaming
  • Complete DirectX® 9.0 support
  • TV-out functionality

Box Contents

  • CD manual/driver
  • TV cable set
  • DVI-I to VGA adapter
  • S-video to RCA adapter
  • S-video to HDTV adapter
  • Power cable
  • DVD playback CD

Display support

  • CRT monitor: 15-pin VGA connector
  • S-video connector for TV output
  • 1 DVI-I and 1 analog or 2 analog (with included 15-pin VGA adapter)

Operating System Support

  • Windows® XP®
  • Windows® 2000®

System Requirement

  • A PCI Express™-based PC is required with one X16 lane graphics slot available on the motherboard and one additional adjacent expansion slot available
  • Intel® Pentium® 4, AMD® K6/Duron™/Athlon® or compatible with PCIe 4X (1.5V) and 8X (0.8V)
  • 256MB of system memory; 1GB or more for improved performance
  • Installation software requires CD-ROM drive
  • 300 watt or greater power supply recommended

Sophisticated Features

  • SMARTSHADER™ HD: Users will experience complex, movie-quality effects in next-generation 3-D games and graphics.
  • VIDEOSHADER™HD: Enables seamless integration and use of pixel shaders to accelerate video processing and provide enhanced visuals.
  • SMOOTHVISION™ HD: Enhances image quality by removing jagged edges and bringing out fine texture detail without compromising performance.
  • HYPER Z™ HD: Ensures optimized hardware performance by excluding irrelevant data not visible to the end user, enabling new levels of rendering.

General Specifications

  • Powered by RADEON™ X850 XT Series VPU, driven by 16-pipe rendering architecture
  • Full support for DirectX® 9.0 and the latest OpenGL® functionality 256-bit DDR memory interface, featuring HYPER Z™ HD bandwidth-conserving technology
  • 256MB GDDR3 memory
  • 400MHz RAMDAC
  • Native x16 lane PCI Express support
  • VGA connector, TV-out connector

First thing to note here is the lack of any demos or any sign of a bundled game, and while I don't personally have a problem with manufacturers shipping products without games, I would prefer they do when the product is quite expensive. This is one of the very few bad points I could find about the Crucial card.

System Setup

For this review we're using 3 different PC's each running 1GB Crucial Ballistics Memory, 180 GB Western Digital Hard Drives 7200RPM, 8mb Cache, SoundBlaster Audigy 2 and Windows XP SP2. The only difference in each pc is the processors, we're running 3000+, 3800+ and 4000+, reason for this is to spread out the benchmarks across the kind of PC's our readers are using right now. Each benchmark was ran 3 times.

The software we are using is as follows:

  • Windows XP Service Pack 2

  • ATI Catalyst Drivers 5.7

  • Via Hyperion 4.51

  • DirectX 9.0c

  • 3D Mark 2005

  • Half Life 2

  • X2: The Threat

  • Far Cry 1.3

  • Doom 3

The Crucial RADEON X850 XT 256MB PCI Express

Installation is a breeze as always with graphics cards. The Crucial based X850 XT is yet another reference board number, if you peel off the sticker from the card you have what is exactly the same as all of the ATI X850 reference designs, it's a shame that Crucial hasn't decided to make any changes to thinks like the heatsink or the fan on the card.

Benchmarks

Card Crucial RADEON X850 XT ATI RADEON X850 XT PE ATI RADEON X800 XL GeForce 6800 GT GeForce 6800 Ultra GeForce 7800 GTX
Interface/speed PCI-Express PCI-Express PCI-Express PCI-Express PCI-Express PCI-Express
Onboard memory 256MB 256MB 512MB 256MB 256MB 256MB
Core speed 520MHz 540MHz 400MHz 350MHz 425MHz 430MHz
Rendering pipelines 16 16 16 16 16 24
Fillrate (multi-texturing) 8.32GTexels/s 8.64GTexels/s 6.4GTexels/s 5.6GTexels/s 6.8GTexels/s 10.32GTexels/s
Memory interface 256-bit 256-bit 256-bit 256-bit 256-bit 256-bit
Memory speed 1080MHz 1180MHz 980MHz 1000MHz 1100MHz 1200MHz
Memory bandwidth (max) 34.56GB/s 37.76GB/s 31.36GB/s 32GB/s 35.2GB/s 38.4GB/s
Cheapest online price £340 £330 £270 £240 £330 £350

 

Doom 3 has become one of the more used benchmarks for graphics cards since its recent release, it shows off the great power that the graphics engine has, although the gameplay leaves a little to be desired. Once more ID has used OpenGL in the game, this is where ATI lacks a bit of power, although most gamers won't really notice it, those that want the increased FPS will.

Doom 3 1280x1024 High Detail

CPU
FPS
AMD Athlon 64 4000+, 2.4 Ghz - X800 Pro 256MB
55
AMD Athlon 64 4000+, 2.4 Ghz - X800 Pro 256MB
56

Doom 3 1600x1200 High Detail

CPU
FPS
AMD Athlon 64 4000+, 2.4 Ghz - X800 Pro 256MB
42
AMD Athlon 64 4000+, 2.4 Ghz - X800 Pro 256MB
44

Farcry is easily one of the best titles released this year, and that is saying something when you consider it has been up against the likes of Doom 3 and Half Life 2. Graphically in my personal view this is the 2nd best looking game out right now, just one behind Half Life 2, not only that but Farcry is so good looking on an ATI card you'll be well happy with the results.

 

Farcry 1280x1024 Ultra Detail - Athlon 64 4000+ X850

Level
FPS
Volcano
81
Research

87

Training
70
Steam
63

Farcry 1280x1024 Ultra Detail - Athlon 64 4000+ X800

Level
FPS
Volcano
69
Research

76

Training
57
Steam
48

Farcry 1280x1024 Ultra Detail - Athlon 64 3800+ X800

Level
FPS
Volcano
67
Research

74

Training
55
Steam
47

Half Life 2 was one of the most sought after titles ever released when it came out last month and I am glad to say I don't think anyone was disappointed with the game. The graphical performance is as good as I hoped it would be, there are some areas in the game where it does slow down, but not enough to distract from the excellent gameplay on show here. Half Life 2 is probably the best looking title out right now, and with the excellent graphic effects and some great physics on show, it has to be the title you buy to show off a spanking new PC.

Half Life 2 1280x1024 6x Anisotropic 4xAA

CPU
FPS
AMD Athlon 64 3800+, 2.4 Ghz

97

AMD Athlon 64 4000+, 2.4 Ghz

115

Half Life 2 1680x1050 6x Anisotropic 4xAA

CPU
FPS
AMD Athlon 64 3800+, 2.4 Ghz

89

AMD Athlon 64 4000+, 2.4 Ghz

101

X2: The Threat is a great space simulator with a heck of a lot of depth to it, but not only that - it also has some fantastic graphics to boot. The Crucial X850 card handles this game really well even when there is a lot of action on the screen at one time.

X2: The Threat Patch 4, With Shadows Enabled at 1280x1024x32

CPU
FPS
AMD Athlon 64 3000+
58
AMD Athlon 64 3800+, 2.4 Ghz

75.76

AMD Athlon 64 4000+, 2.4 Ghz
78

While I don't think much of 3D Mark as a benchmarking tool, nearly ever site that reviews graphics cards seems to included it. As you can see the Crucial X800 card does extremely well in the tests.

3D Mark 2005 at 1024x768x32 - 3D Mark Overall Score

CPU
Mark
AMD Athlon 64 3000+
3710
AMD Athlon 64 3800+, 2.4 Ghz

5,048

AMD Athlon 64 4000+, 2.4 Ghz
5,236

ATI has slowly but surely taken over Nvidia's reign with their last two card releases and I don't think that anyone can argue that they deserve it. With the release of the X850 GPU they once again moved ahead of the pack in a vast array of games compared to the latest Nvidia Chip and the lack of Pixel Shader version 3 hasn't made the difference that Nvidia stated it would do.

There are many reasons we liked the X850 XT as the card performs really well and is quite a big upgrade over previous generations of ATI products. It's really fast too even compared to the GeForce 6 range. The card can be overclocked quite easily too which is a big plus for a lot of users. The in-game image quality was excellent and thanks to the excellent Drivers that ATI have been releasing over the last few months the card is really really stable to use.

The Crucial RADEON X850 XT 256MB PCI Express

Overclocking

I ran a number of overclocking tests with the crucial card and I was able to get to around 540MHz on the core and 1180 on the memory for a still stable and usable system. In games like Far Cry I got around 4/5 frames per second more, in a game like Doom 3 it didn't tend to make much difference and it was sometimes unstable. Noise levels were fine throughout, the crucial card uses the same X850 layout as many other ATI x850 Reference cards do, so it manages to keep cool and quiet well. But as I mentioned earlier, if Crucial had added a new fan design then maybe overclocking the card could have gone a little further than it does currently.

3D Mark 2005 at 1024x768x32 - 3D Mark Overall Score (Overclocked)

CPU
Mark
AMD Athlon 64 3800+, 2.4 Ghz

5,138

AMD Athlon 64 4000+, 2.4 Ghz
5,176

Conclusion

How It Grades
Installation: 93%
Ease Of Use: 89%
Speed: 93%
Features: 92%
Drivers
: 90%
Design: 89%
Manual: 90%
Price: 81%
Overall: 92%

The X850 is an excellent graphics card for those of us who have the latest motherboards with PCI-Express included. While I'm still finding it hard to accept the fact that graphics cards now take up two slots inside a computer due to fan sizes and such like, I have to accept how far things have gone in the graphics world over the last few years. While NVidia now have a slender lead over the ATI cards, the X850 is a very good alternative. The drivers are superb, colours are clear and the performance in everything released up until now is excellent. I've been playing games on my Apple Display in 1650x1080 without slow down so high resolutions are really well supported. Once again though the Crucial package disappointed me with the lack of any included games or demos, so i'll again state that when you pay out a lot of money for a graphics card you should expect something a little extra to show it off with, but you don't get that here. Again the X850 can be expensive, but if you want a fantastic graphics card, go for the ATI x850

Feel free to comment on the review here.

Specs & Package
Overall Score 92%
Version Reviewed Crucial ATI X850 XT 256mb
Release Date Out Now
In The Box? 1 Crucial ATI X850 XT 256mb Graphics Card
Drivers CD
Power Adapter Cable
S-Video Cable
VGA Cable
The Good Points One of the fastest on PCI Express Cards today
Great visual quality
Remained cool when overclocked
The Bad Points Expensive
No Demo CD
Reviewers PC Setup AMD Athlon 64 4000+
Sapphire Axion RS480AS9-A58S Socket 939 Motherboard
Crucial 1280 MB DDR PC2700
ATI X850 XT 256mb Graphics Card
Creative Labs Audigy 2 Sound Card (OEM)
180 GB Western Digital Hard Drive 7200 RPM, 8mb Cache
Sony 16x DVD-RW
Sony CD-RW (40x12x48x)
Creative Inspire 5.1 5300 Speakers
Viewsonic VP171s LCD Monitor

 

  *  
  *   *