SAPPHIRE Radeon X850XT 256MB GDDR3 PCI Express x16 Video Card 100106-RD - OEM

Comments: I dont like the idea of spending this much money on a video card, however I must admit that this card is awesome! It gives you good control over your card with a bunch of nice utilities. I am not going to lie and say that it can handle anything I put at it like everyone else, cause that isnt true. Here are the 3DMark05 stats: AMD3500+ WD Raptor SATA 10000rpm 4.5ms avg seek 1GB 2x512 matched pair corsair ram ASUS A-8NE MB No tweaks or overclocking: 1024x768: 5750 Overclocked CPU and X850XT: 1024x768: 6268 6268 Is a really good score in my opinion. What about game play: Medal of Honor (Pasific Assualt) 1600x1200 highest detail will drop under 40 fps at times. It will however stay steady in the 50's fps. Is this awesome? I have hered 40 fps is the minimum for good gameplay. So this is exeptional, not awesome. Countertrike: On there stress test I scored 120fps with no overclocking and score anywhere from 90 fps to 110 on 2048x1024. There are not really any cards, expect SLI that can beat this card, however it may not be necessary for all games. If you play 1024x768 and dont care about 3dmark scores, you might want a cheaper one. If you must have 1600x1200 or higher, and you like to show off your 3dmark scores and just have a crazy advantage to all those whom decided to save their money, then get this card!

Pros: Running Oblivion with all settings maxed out (at least all settings that I care to have maxed out), and runs everything silky smooth. Even the outside stuff where there's a lot of objects to render/fighting going on. Frame rate is still plenty high. No noticeable drop in visual quality.

Cons: No SM3.0. Not a huge deal, though especially considering the price vs. performance of this thing.

Overall Review: Definitely adjust the fan settings!!!! Rig: Athlon 64 3500+, 1GB RAM, Gigabyte Motherboard, 160GB HD

Pros: Fast, affordable, not very power hungry. I too experienced a ultra-high whining (whistling) noise when fan control was in the hands of ATItool 0.24. Well, I downloaded the Beta, 0.25 Beta 14, and the high pitched sound went away completely. What a relief. My dogs will actually come back into the room. Hampsters dead though...

Cons: Loud.

Overall Review: I've always owned computers that were built with my own two hands until recently. See, I'm stationed overseas and I don't have the same access to things like I do in the States. Well, my old mobo died and, in anger, I rushed to the NEX to buy their fastest computer. All they had was a liquid cooled dual core P4 Sony VAIO. It is not that bad but there is NO expansion and it came with a piece of S*** PCIe X300. AND I prefer AMD for gaming. Long story short, I got this thing to fit in the case! I had to take out the tv tuner card though. Plus, the power supply is only a 350w and it runs this card fine. Before my computer was silent, now it sounds like a little hair dryer (at 100%). Yes, I am going to replace the cooling solution with Arctic Cooling ASAP. Now I can game. That's all I really was lacking...

Pros: This card is fast and cheap. VERY VERY OVERCLOCKABLE. It is comparable to a 6800 ultra but no where near a 7800gt. Then again, it also costs about 130 less than the 7800gt. I was able to score about 3000 on 3dmark06 w/ this. A 7800gt will get you about 6000 in a similar setup. And this is w/ it overclocked from 540/1080 ---> 595/1220. If I had to do it again, I'll get the 7800gt. An extra 130 will get you a 100% increase in grafix performance. If you are going to spend 180 on this, whats another 100 to get the best on the market now?

Cons: 2 small issues - noise and size. When I read the reviews about how loud the fan was. I thought it was exagerrated. Til I experienced it first hand. Yikes!!! The description of it sounding like a hair dryer in another review is spot on. Not a real biggy for me. I just put my towercase very far away from me. I have it connected to a surge protector which I use to turn it on/off :) The size isnt really a con, but it could be a big issue depending on your case and mobo. This card takes up two spots but for me, I like it. It takes up two spots because it has a cyclone blower attached to it to blow hot air from the vidcard to outside the case. This helps to keep everything running very nice n cool.

Overall Review: You will have to download the latest drivers from ATI (like usual) to get the best performance. ATI tool is also a must to adjust the fan settings - stuck @ 5%. And to overclock. NOTE : Do not use the ATI Catalyst Control to try and overclock this, even if it has the options in it. It will not allow you to truly unlock the full potential of this card. I was able to do 630mhz on the mem w/ ATItool,but ATI catalyst control only allows you to max out at 594mhz. Some benchmarks you may find interesting. Before and after the overclock. 540/1080 --> 595/1220 3dmark01 28,187 -> 21,887 3dmark05 6,366 -> 6,969 3dmark06 2,665 -> 2,941 Note : These scores are taken from the 2nd run to avoid any potential bottlenecks/caching issues w/ the HDD and memory. My system : AMD Opteron 165 1.8->2.6 (same speed as a dual core FX-60!!!) DFI Lanparty Ultra-D 2g OCZ DDR4000 (2x1g) This video card Hope this review helps you in your decision!

Pros: Very fast card! Runs the latest games with max settings.

Cons: Runs a little hot. Doesn't require any special cooling however.

Overall Review: What a nice card for the price! I upgraded from a 9800 Pro, and the performance improvement is huge! Have been running FEAR and HL2 so far at max settings with no problem at all. This card does run hot. It "idles" at about 41C. The cooling fan seems to exhaust enough heat to prevent overheating. Five eggs for this card. Like I said, a great value at a price you will not be able to approach at any brick and mortar.

Pros: When Omega Drivers are used with the card, it screams. I get 100fps with Half Life 2 and Counter Strike, 130fps with UT2004 and it runs older games like Halo PC at insane FPS Rates

Cons: Card runs very hot. Included drivers do not give you optimal performance.

Overall Review: I had been using VooDoo or Nvidia cards all my life. I wasn't a fanboy by any means so when several people strongly urged me to go with ATI I did so after researching the matter. The card runs well under the stock drivers and the Catalyst Control Center but if you try using the Omega Drivers (Google it) you can run the latest games at insanely high frame rates. This card does run hot, 70c while playing HL2 so I had to adjust the fan settings to kick in to 100% earlier than normal. While 70c sounds high, ATI engineers have been quoted as saying 100c is the meltdown point. Whether this is true or not, I am not sure, but make sure you have a well ventilated case if you are going to buy this card. I have to say I am completely satisfied with my purchase, this card has not once stuttered or frozen on me. I would highly recommend it.

Pros: great price good performance what else do you want ? in crossfire mode I scored 22k + in 3DMARK03 I just put one of these babies in a friends pc he scored 11990 3Dmark03 with no O/C his specs athlon 64 3200+ 1 gig pc3200 patriot , and the X850XT

Cons: BIG, RUNS HOT without a good airflow going to I use a slot fan this does the trick nice

Overall Review: BIG CARD

Pros: Overclocks to x850XT PE speeds and beyond (560core/600mem) Runs most games at medium to high settings without hitching in frame rates. Windows detected the card as soon as I plugged it in and booted up. drivers installed fast. Up and running in less than 15 minutes

Cons: The old ATI problem: the classic high-end push fan. Way too loud to ignore, especially during load times. Lack of shader model 3.0, but not really a big deal. I'm not too picky about minute details in image quality.

Overall Review: Good bang for the buck, I got it on a weekend sale for $xxx shipped