|
Introduction:::...
If
you read our review of the rather desirable Athlon X2 4800+
dual-core CPU recently, you'll probably have noticed that
the test system graphics were handled by an X850 XT graphics
card from memory maestros Crucial.
Created
as the retail arm of Micron, Crucial's original brief was
to sell memory, something did, and still do, very successful.
Like most forward-thinking companies however, Crucial realised
that there were whole new business areas that they could
exploit, but rather than just dive headlong into things
they had no experience of, Crucial have so far been very
careful to only dabble in items that are in some way associated
with their core memory business. By that I mean things like
Flash drives, memory card readers, Flash memory cards and,
more relevantly as far as today's review is concerned, graphics
cards.
If
memory serves me correctly, Crucial's first dabble into
the graphics arena was with the popular and very successful
Radeon 9800 Pro. It must have worked for them as since then
they've added several new models to their lineup, all ATi
based interestingly enough.
At
the very top of the Crucial graphics portfolio sits a genuine
behemoth of a card, the Radeon X850 XT. Based on the R480
VPU , this chip boasts 160 million transistors and 16 pipelines
, 256MB of DDR3, a 520MHz VPU and 540MHz DDR3, or in short,
masses of pixel pushing power. Yes we say that with every
new generation of graphics chip, but by today's standards
this thing really shifts some pixel plastered polygons.
Like
the X800XT and the X800XT-Platinum Edition, the X850 XT
forgoes the AGP interface in favour of the superior, though
so far barely used PCI Express interface. Hopefully I'm
not stating the obvious by reminding you that you must
be using a PCI Express motherboard in order to use this
product.
As
is customary, the specs:
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
|
