ATI Radeon X800 XL Overclocking

Final Thoughts...

The results that we achieved when we only overclocked the core on the Sapphire Radeon X800 XL were not quite what we expected, as we were expecting the core speed to increase a good deal more than this. This leads us to believe that the card that we have from Sapphire does not have the most receptive core on it, while it could also mean that the core on Club3D’s X800 XL is a very receptive one, in terms of overclockability.

From reading around several forums and through many Radeon X800 XL reviews, it would appear that the average overclock for a typical Radeon X800 XL is in the region of 430MHz to 455MHz. On this note, we could well assume that the Sapphire X800 XL we have here is at the bottom end of the range, while the Club3D X800 XL is right at the top end of the range, or even above the typical overclock range for the core.

The increase in clock speeds enabled us to improve the best-playable gaming experience, typically allowing us to increase to 1280x1024 4xAA 8xAF. This was the case with both video cards, and from reports around the web, the clock speeds that we achieved with Sapphire’s Radeon X800 XL are at the bottom end of what seems to be a typical overclock for any brand of Radeon X800 XL.

Bogus reports – don’t believe them!

While we were reading around for information on typical overclocks achieved on various X800 XL’s, we came across a number of reports that cropped up on several forums. The report was stating that the Radeon X800 XL was capable of being BIOS modded to a Radeon X850 XT. We would just like to clarify that these rumours are not true. If you believe the rumour, more fool you for believing it. The two cores are based on different manufacturing processes, and the R480 (Radeon X850 XT) GPU has additional power-saving technologies in its architecture in order to improve its efficiency.

It is possible to flash the X800 XL with an X850 XT BIOS, but you will see absolutely no benefits in overclocking. You are most likely to see display corruption, as the increased clock speeds on the Radeon X850 XT are more than likely to be out of reach, even with an ATI Silencer 5. That is, of course, unless <i>the lap of the Gods</i> is in your favour, and they deliver you an R430 from outer Heaven. We also do not recommend flashing a Radeon X800 XL with an X850 XT BIOS, as this will, without doubt, void your video card’s warranty too.

Closing Thoughts...

It’s really hard to quantify exactly how much power the Radeon X800 XL is using without getting detailed data from either the board partner or direct from ATI. We respect the board partners and ATI for not wanting to give us exact figures, as it is very hard to actually measure where exact figures due to the wide range types of load that can be applied to the video card. No game loads the video card the same, but Doom 3 proved to load the video card more so than any other game title that we used.

Club3D stated that the loaded power draw was close to the maximum 75W that can be delivered by the PCI-Express interconnect on the Radeon X800 XL, which is why they made the decision to implement an additional power connector. Their engineers were not to keen on drawing close to 75W through the motherboard, even though it is possible. By changing the layout of the video card and implementing the additional power connector, they have been able to increase the chances of achieving a higher-than-average overclock with their video cards. Once you get above ~470/1100MHz, we estimate that you are starting to push the PCI-Express x16 interconnect to its limits.

Volt modding the Radeon X800 XL appears to help the cause, as the default core voltage is a mere 1.35v. With 1.5v and a third party cooling solution, such as the ATI Silencer 5, several overclockers have been able to get close to that 500MHz holy grail that will mirror the performance of a Radeon X800 XT for a lot less cash. We don’t support or recommend volt modding your video card, and we can’t be held responsible for your mishaps. Please do not attempt this if you are not experienced with a soldering iron, because once you start soldering to the video cards’ PCB, you are undoubtedly going to invalidate your warranty.

For those of you who are interested, you can find information on how to do the wire mod on XtremeSystems forums. There is also a pencil mod, but this does not work quite as well, and has limited success.

All in all, the Radeon X800 XL continues to interest us here at bit-tech.net, and we’re still wondering how it can deliver such amazing value at a little over £200. Obviously, the price depends on which board partner you choose buy from.