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Sapphire X800 AGP VIVO Review |
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Midrange Greatness? |
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by Scott Tammel |
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edited by Josh Walrath |
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This particular X800 AGP model also has an ace up its sleeve. This particular model ships with VIVO (Video In/Video Out). For a card of this nature, having VIVO functionality is a big selling point. VIVO is enabled by using the Rage Theater chip, and it has excellent capture and playback quality. PowerDVD Director is not a top end editor, but it should more than adequately serve the needs of the amateur director.
Sapphire includes a tremendous bundle with its retail cards. Every kind of cable or adapter a user could possibly need is included. The component (HDTV) cable is also very welcome for those looking for a Home Theater PC product. Just like other cards from Sapphire in the X800 family this one has a VGA, DVI, and TV-Out.
The card itself is about as long as the GeForce 6800, and the cooler just barely gets warm to the touch. The fan never spools up past 66% during use, and is not terribly annoying to listen to. The software bundle includes Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow, Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, Redline (an overclocking/tweak utility), Power DVD 5, Power Director 3, and a drivers CD. There’s also a whole bunch of cables and adapters. You get a DVI to VGA dongle, component cable, power splitter, composite cable, S-Video cable, and a 9 Pin VIVO cable. On a side note and ripped straight from Sapphires website: Full retail indicates that the package contains the entire bundle including the Game software bundle and utilities. The Lite retail versions do not come bundled with the software bundle and are packaged with the neccessities needed to enjoy the pinnacle in performance from Sapphire alone. So just be aware there are two versions, one just has more swag with it. Sapphire also spelled necessities wrong, but who’s keeping track?!
The heatsink has quite a few aluminum fins, and again it does a fine job of keeping the card cool. The PCI-E version of the X800 does not have the external power plug, but the AGP interface cannot push enough power by itself. Test Rig AMD Athlon XP 3000+ Gigabyte GA-7NNXP Motherboard Corsair 1GB TwinX XMS 3200XL Audigy 2 Platinum Windows XP Pro SP2 Catalyst 5.5 Drivers Direct X 9.0C While this system is not a barn burner, it is probably very representative of the system that the X800 AGP will find a home in. In many reviews we see the X800 put in a fairly negative light, and that isn’t totally fair. The X800 AGP is a very solid choice for its market, and to illuminate this situation I compared its performance to the now legendary Radeon 9700 Pro. The 9700 Pro found a home in many machines, especially once it started selling for under $249. For those wishing to upgrade, but not spend a small fortune, we can see exactly what the average user will gain from upgrading to the X800.
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