Core clock vs. Memory clock

[Blu77]

I'm planning on upgrading my agp card (9700pro) to a x800gto. I was checking newegg's site and came across 3 cards that were in my range, less than $200 usd.

x800gto's
Powercolor: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814131010
Sapphire: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814102609

The only difference that I can see between the 2 are the core and memory speeds.
Powercolor: 475/900
Sapphire: 400/980

Which one is better? Another option is the x800xl. What are the overclocking ability of the x800gto's? I know that the x800xl isn't a great oc'er.

x800xl: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814241010

P.S. This is my first post so be gently .

 

[evolucion8]

Is hard to tell, if those cards are based on the R480 core, I would take the power color since it is running already at faster speed. But if they are based on the R420 core (Like the X800XT) they will overclock very little, and then I would recommend to go to the X800XT since it is already running at faster speed and you can overclock it to Platinum Edition speeds (520MHz or more). you may google them to see their real core specs.

 

[Dman877]

Definitely go with the higher core clock. 80 mhz memory speed (40mhz actual) is pretty attainable for an overclock on memory but 475 mhz on the core means you're definitely getting one of the better cores and not something based on the X800XL (R423?) core that didn't oc past 440 for most people.

 

[Munky]

For the record, it's the r430 core from the x800xl that was a poor overclocker. I had a r420 gto (x800xt core) that not only unlocked to 16 pipes but also OC'd to 580mhz. But from those 2 cards it's hard to tell which core they got, so I'd take the one with higher core clocks. These cards have a 256bit memory interface, so slower memory will not bottleneck them much.

 

[Blu77]

Cool, thanks for everyone's advise. Guess I'll spring for the Powercolor one. Also, I have been searching around and found some sources that stated that these Powercolor GTOs may in fact be using the r420 cores. If this is the case, what can I use to unlock the extra pipelines? Does this "chance" of being a r420 core make it a better deal than the x800xl (16 pipelines) which is only $25 more?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Munky]

Most of the gto's you buy wil not unlock to 16 pipes, because they have one quad permanently disabled. I bought a Connect3d gto, which was known to unlock, so it worked for me. But even if it doesnt unlock, the r420 core will OC to at least 500mhz most of the time, and often as high as 540 or more. The r430 core will never hit those clocks, so even a 12 pipe r420 can potentially be faster than a 16 pipe r430.