GECUBE X800 XL 512MB SilenCool

Overclocking:

In general, the Radeon X800 XL is not the best overclocker out there - it is hampered by the poor clocking 110nm manufacturing process that is used for the R430's GPU. You can read more about Radeon X800 XL overclocking in general in this article that we wrote a few months back.

The GECUBE Radeon X800 XL 512MB SilenCool Edition was a slouch when it came to overclocking, but we are not holding that against the card. We achieved clock speeds of 402/1030MHz over the stock clocks of ~398/982MHz. It was clear that we were held back by the cooling solution, but we don't think that the cooling solution is a poor one - it was never designed with overclocking in mind.

Gameplay Summary:

The GECUBE Radeon X800 XL 512MB SilenCool performed well during our real-world gameplay evaluations, and we were greeted with a couple of surprises. There are evidently some games out there that do benefit from a larger frame buffer, and there are going to be more games that follow suit in the future.

Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory may well be another game that benefits from larger frame buffers, but only on GeForce 6 and 7 series video cards because of the additional in-game details that are available to video cards utilising the Shader Model 3.0 code path. We think that the GeForce 7800 GTX will benefit from a larger frame buffer more so than the former due to the improvements in its ability to process high-dynamic range lighting techniques in a much more efficient manner.

Battlefield 2 proved to be a surprise to us - we have always believed that the engine is one of the most intensive out there at the moment. The fact that the GECUBE Radeon X800 XL 512MB was the highest performer in this title proved that the game does benefit from a larger frame buffer - 512MB really seems to help the cause. We were able to increase the details from 1280x960 0xAA 8xAF with Terrain, Texture and Texture Filtering quality set to High and all other details at Medium to include Dynamic Shadowing at High quality and also apply 2xAA to the scene.

In contrast, the GeForce 6800 GT was capable of a smooth frame rate at 1280x960 2xAA 8xAF with Terrain, Texture and Texture filtering set to High while all other details were at Medium quality. We wonder how much extra performance we would see with a larger frame buffer on the GeForce 6800 GT.

Both Half-Life 2 and Doom 3 also benefited from a higher level of image quality when we increased the frame buffer from 256MB to 512MB, although the improved image quality in Doom 3 is hardly recognisable. The difference between the 256MB Radeon X800 XL and GECUBE's X800 XL 512MB SilenCool Edition was that the latter was able to utilise the 'Ultra Quality' setting which is designed for video cards with a 512MB frame buffer.

It is questionable whether there is a great deal of difference between High Quality and Ultra Quality - id Software did such a great job of compressing the textures and light maps in the High Quality setting that there is really not a great deal of difference between the two settings, other than the Ultra setting requires a 512MB frame buffer for game play to be anything but choppy. On the other hand, Half-Life 2 allowed us to increase the Anti-Aliasing quality from 2xAA to 4xAA while remaining completely playable and smooth.

After noting these performance improvements with additional frame buffer, it is also important to note that there are still games being released, which are optimised for a 256MB frame buffer. In fact, there are very few games out there that will show massive improvements from increasing the card's local frame buffer to 512MB.

Final Thoughts...

GECUBE's SilenCool cooling solution is great in some respects, but limited in others. As we mentioned at the top of this page, it does not make for the greatest overclocker out there. In fact, we would go so far as to say that this video card is a poor overclocker. However, the cooling solution is clearly not designed with overclocking in mind - it is an effective and silent design that will suit anyone who craves complete silence from their gaming computer.

The card works well and we encountered no problems during our evaluations, in fact there is very little bad to say about this video card. It is priced at £289.99 including VAT at LowestOnWeb, which is probably a little expensive in comparison to the 256MB version of this card, and also in comparison to the XFX GeForce 6800 GT, which is priced at a little over £250 at Scan.

You can read about the 256MB version of this card over on our sister publication, TrustedReviews, where it won a recommended award. It performs essentially the same as the Club-3D Radeon X800 XL that we have used here for comparison purposes, and it sports the same cooler as the video card we have reviewed here. It's available from Lowest for an attractive £215 - well worth considering.

Unfortunately, the price puts it out of the reach of many consumers and the additional £75 is not really justified at this moment in time, when the XFX GeForce 6800 GT can offer much better all round performance for £40 less than the GECUBE Radeon X800 XL 512MB SilenCool Edition. As more and more games start to utilise the additional frame buffer, the additional cost will start to be justified.

However, right now, the 256MB version of this card packs a great punch with an asking price that is £35 less than XFX's GeForce 6800 GT and is well worth considering if you are on a strict budget. If you can stretch to £250, the GeForce 6800 GT will offer you a little more performance along with the added buzzwords, such as the likes of HDR and Shader Model 3.0.