Overclocking Buyer's Guide - August 2004
by Wesley Fink on July 27, 2004 11:24 AM EST- Posted in
- Guides
PCI Express Video
PCIe Overclocking Recommendation: ATI X800 XT Platinum 256MBPrice: N/A
It's almost an embarrassment to recommend a video card that we couldn't find for sale anywhere, but if you are an overclocker looking for top performance on a new Intel 925X board, the X800 XT is the best option for the present. If you're set on a new Intel 775 system for overclocking, then you need to get in line to buy this card.
Unfortunately, the ATI X800 PRO is 12 pipelines instead of 16, so more than just overclocking the video card is required to reach X800 XT performance levels. Many are reporting success in modifying certain brands of the X800 PRO AGP to 16 pipelines, but explaining how to do that is beyond the scope of this Guide. A search should find "how-to" information if this interests you. However, we have not seen any reports of modding a PCIe X800 PRO to 16 pipes. In addition, we could not even find an X800 PRO PCIe for sale at any vendor either.
There are X600 XT PCIe cards available from several vendors and they would be a good alternative if your overclocking goal is to reach the highest speed possible with a 775 platform. We are finding the ATI PCIe cards to be more tolerant of out-of-spec PCIe settings on the 775, so the X600 XT should allow you to reach the highest overclocks possible in the new PCIe systems. However, you need the X800 XT if your goal is the highest overclocks combined with top video performance at those rarified overclocks above 250 to 260 clock frequency.
As we have pointed out in the past, you can choose either the X800 XT or the 6800 Ultra and be perfectly happy and perfectly competitive in the performance area, but for overclocking PCI Express, we have found the ATI cards simply survive to higher PCIe overclock levels.
Listed below is part of our RealTime pricing engine, which lists the lowest prices available on ATI video cards from many different reputable vendors:
If you cannot find the lowest prices on the products that we've recommended on this page, it's because we don't list some of them in our RealTime pricing engine. Until we do, we suggest that you do an independent search online at the various vendors' web sites. Just pick and choose where you want to buy your products by looking for a vendor located under the "Vendor" heading.
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danidentity - Wednesday, July 28, 2004 - link
...for sale either online or in stores, I meant.danidentity - Wednesday, July 28, 2004 - link
Wes, do we have ANY idea when we'll start seeing PCIe X800's?Pollock - Tuesday, July 27, 2004 - link
I would have expected to see the 3000+ in there with the recent price drops... And I'll second #6, even if you did mention CAS 2.5 ram on the summary.I also think that you shouldn't focus on clear cut categories, but perhaps design one for each of the sockets that appeals at the time. Basically what I'm saying there is that you've got to get socket 754 in there but you don't have to cut anything else out.
Pumpkinierre - Tuesday, July 27, 2004 - link
Agree with #15 Wesley, you've added passion to the buying guides.Wesley Fink - Tuesday, July 27, 2004 - link
#15 - The price in the Guide has always been $389, which is certainly close to $390. New Egg shows the eVGA 6800 GT expected tomorrow 7/28 at a price of $410. Pricewatch shows this link for $389 with an ETA of 7/30 - 3 days away - at http://www.buyxtremegear.com/vc129114.html. The PHY brand is also shown at $389 with an ETA of 8/10 at http://www.futurepowerpc.com/scripts/details.asp?P...kherman - Tuesday, July 27, 2004 - link
Awesome article! Love the concept even though I'll never do an OC rig. It's interesting to read about though.RobJ - Tuesday, July 27, 2004 - link
But the 6800GT is not listed in the real-time pricewatch list because eVGA's website says that the GT won't be available until September 2nd and that it will cost $390, not $380. I have been able to find it on some websites for markups as high as $460. I'll wait until the price comes down to $380. Other companies are even selling the GT for $500 and above. That's crazy.Wesley Fink - Tuesday, July 27, 2004 - link
#12 -The only reason I did not list this in the guide is because we will be making some HSF recommendations in the next OC Guide. The HSF I had in mind for $12 was a "SPEEZE 80mm LED CPU Cooler for Socket A, Model "5F353B1L3GL" -OEM" which has an 80mm fan. A quick check shows you can now buy this Speeze for $9.99 from a reputable on-line retailer. I have found the 80mm fan HSF move more air and do a better job of cooling than the more common 60mm fan models - even the expensive ones. The 80mm are also normally lower noise.
trexpesto - Tuesday, July 27, 2004 - link
Wonder what 12$ HSF is used for the DFI Infinity?"Overclockers will also be happy to find the 4 mounting holes around the CPU socket for heavy-duty cooling; although, we do find the CPU area has too many components around the socket that could interfere with some of the larger cooling solutions." - http://anandtech.com/guides/showdoc.aspx?i=2138&am...
Zebo - Tuesday, July 27, 2004 - link
#9 Thanks....While only a couple mobos seem to have found a work around I appologise for my ignorance Wes. Still have issue with the presshot not because of heat, the northwood/canterwood is so much more mature and even a bit faster clock for clock,. The price factor of course.