Digitlife X700 XT review.

[Blastman]

digit-life

Thus, on the whole:

· RADEON X700XT versus RADEON 9800 PRO (ATHLON64 3400+) - victory
· RADEON X700XT versus RADEON 9800 XT (ATHLON64 3400+) - victory
· RADEON X700XT versus GeForce 6600GT - victory
· RADEON X700XT versus GeForce 6800LE (ATHLON64 3400+) - relative parity

X700XT rocks, rated it faster than a 6600GT -- and "relative parity" with a 6800LE.

On the downside, they had problems with the control panel and drivers. Not a very smooth product release by ATI. The card didn't overclock well either -- the GPU was an engineering sample. Must be the most bungled product release for ATI in along while.

X700 XT will be a very nice card once things get sorted out though.

 

[gururu]

the 4.10 drivers seem to have put it up to 6600gt class in some games, BUT it sucked in Farcry. that scares me.

 

[Ronin]

Did you happen to actually read the END of that article?

# Taking into account multiple though minor victories of X700XT over its main competitor GeForce 6600GT, one could have said a lot of good words about the new ATI card, but...
# Obscure and tremendous failure of the card in Far Cry as well as the expected defeat in DOOM III (those two hits!) and poor results in HL2 are the reasons for holding back the leader title from X700XT.
# A fly in the ointment is the noise of the cooler, which is totally unjustified according to our test results.
# Even if we equate with great reserve GeForce 6600GT with RADEON X700XT, such potential technological "homework" as SLI and SM3 provides GeForce 6600GT with better chances for demand (SLI in the first place).
# We decided to skip X700XT overclocking tests because of two reasons: lack of time, and a small potential (the card "freezes" even when its core frequency is set to 505 MHz, while the overclocking potential of 6600GT is excellent. That's why it won't be hard for NVIDIA to release another revision of the card at higher frequencies thus eliminating all shaky speed advantages of X700XT).
# A sweet pill is that X700XT is really faster than its former brothers from the high end camp: 9800PRO/9800XT. And, of course, faster than GeForce FX 5950U. But let's not forget that these cards are from different sectors (PCX and AGP) and thus it won't be quite correct to compare them. When upgrading to another platform, users will have to change the configuration anyway, and a direct comparison will be incorrect.

 

[Pete]

Supposedly ATi has changed the HSF on the X700XT. We should see it in the next round of reviews (from Hexus and B3D, I think).

 

[LTC8K6]

Sounds great considering it was an ES.

 

[Rage187]

Originally posted by: Ronin
Did you happen to actually read the END of that article?

# Taking into account multiple though minor victories of X700XT over its main competitor GeForce 6600GT, one could have said a lot of good words about the new ATI card, but...
# Obscure and tremendous failure of the card in Far Cry as well as the expected defeat in DOOM III (those two hits!) and poor results in HL2 are the reasons for holding back the leader title from X700XT.
# A fly in the ointment is the noise of the cooler, which is totally unjustified according to our test results.
# Even if we equate with great reserve GeForce 6600GT with RADEON X700XT, such potential technological "homework" as SLI and SM3 provides GeForce 6600GT with better chances for demand (SLI in the first place).
# We decided to skip X700XT overclocking tests because of two reasons: lack of time, and a small potential (the card "freezes" even when its core frequency is set to 505 MHz, while the overclocking potential of 6600GT is excellent. That's why it won't be hard for NVIDIA to release another revision of the card at higher frequencies thus eliminating all shaky speed advantages of X700XT).
# A sweet pill is that X700XT is really faster than its former brothers from the high end camp: 9800PRO/9800XT. And, of course, faster than GeForce FX 5950U. But let's not forget that these cards are from different sectors (PCX and AGP) and thus it won't be quite correct to compare them. When upgrading to another platform, users will have to change the configuration anyway, and a direct comparison will be incorrect.

 

[Drayvn]

I Think its faster because they are using the new hotfix which fixes the problem with their RAM.

And the other review sites never said any of those problems, maybe they got a bad card?

 

[Gamingphreek]

Nah probably not a bad card... Not ideal RAM chips but a fine card.

6600GT seems to lead the mid range market whereas the 6800U(E) and the X800XT(PE) are locked in fierce battle at high end. The 6800GT seems to be winning over the X800Pro also but not by much! This round seems to be in favour of Nvidia a bit but ATI's new drivers are helping them out a bit so its still extremely close... more tie than a winner.

-Kevin

 

[Rage187]

actually, the only winner will be the one that rules the low end OEM market.

 

[SneakyStuff]

Originally posted by: Gamingphreek
Nah probably not a bad card... Not ideal RAM chips but a fine card.

6600GT seems to lead the mid range market whereas the 6800U(E) and the X800XT(PE) are locked in fierce battle at high end. The 6800GT seems to be winning over the X800Pro also but not by much! This round seems to be in favour of Nvidia a bit but ATI's new drivers are helping them out a bit so its still extremely close... more tie than a winner.

-Kevin

The average consumer (who makes up the mass purchasing segment here) does not know that drivers are even updated Marketing will be the key to victory here.

 

[Marsumane]

Originally posted by: SneakyStuff

Originally posted by: Gamingphreek
Nah probably not a bad card... Not ideal RAM chips but a fine card.

6600GT seems to lead the mid range market whereas the 6800U(E) and the X800XT(PE) are locked in fierce battle at high end. The 6800GT seems to be winning over the X800Pro also but not by much! This round seems to be in favour of Nvidia a bit but ATI's new drivers are helping them out a bit so its still extremely close... more tie than a winner.

-Kevin

The average consumer (who makes up the mass purchasing segment here) does not know that drivers are even updated Marketing will be the key to victory here.

I'll agree to that. We are also part of their marketing. If their card wins the highend, we tell ppl this and they think that it applies to the low end as well. Its more of an overall marketing scheme that reflects on the other areas seperate from their own.

 

[ronnn]

Originally posted by: Gamingphreek
Nah probably not a bad card... Not ideal RAM chips but a fine card.

6600GT seems to lead the mid range market whereas the 6800U(E) and the X800XT(PE) are locked in fierce battle at high end. The 6800GT seems to be winning over the X800Pro also but not by much! This round seems to be in favour of Nvidia a bit but ATI's new drivers are helping them out a bit so its still extremely close... more tie than a winner.

-Kevin

Every round favours Nvidia. But lets wait until the cards are for sale with pci e solutions and than reccomend the best value - as this is the mid range market.