Testing approach.
Before we look at the results obtained with the X800XL 512mb we need to point out that if you’re a gamer who plays at 1024x768 and 1280x960 the 512mb card is not currently the card for you and the 256mb version would suit you fine. The reason for this is that the extra 256mb of memory is not really utilised until you use higher resolutions, or in a few circumstances where a game uses larger texture sizes.

For this reason in most cases we have limited our testing of the XL 512mb to 1600x1200, with the exception of Chronicles of Riddick which is incredibly demanding for most cards, even at 1280x960 and The Project which also kills most cards on standard settings.

We (and I’m sure 99% of you reading) also don’t have a display capable of resolutions higher than 1600x1200 so there are no higher res tests shown here, for those of you who do have a screen capable of this you will see some very nice benefits in games such as Half Life 2 when using the XL 512 compared to a 256mb card.

 

TEST SYSTEM

ATI Radeon X800XL 512mb
Asus Extreme N6800 GT 256mb
ATI Radeon X800XL 256mb

AMD Athlon64 4000+
ATI Bullhead – Radeon Xpress Motherboard
2x512mb of OCZ DDR400 2-2-2-5
Samsung 80gb 7200rpm SATA Drive with 8mb Cache
NEC ND2510A DVD recorder
AOC 19” CRT

Windows XP SP2
DirectX 9.0c
Catalyst 5.4 WHQL
Forceware 71.89 WHQL

Fraps
Powerstrip
Colin McRae Rally 2005
The Project
Rome Total War
Prince of Persia: Warrior Within
Medal of Honour Pacific Assault
Need for Speed Underground 2
Doom3
Chronicles of Riddick
LOTR: Battle for Middle Earth

 

The test system was built from scratch, a format of the hard drive was performed (NTFS) and then Windows XP was installed (SP2). Next the chipset drivers were installed. The only update applied was .net framework 1.1(latest service pack). Following a reboot the Video Card drivers were installed. Next the benchmarking tools were installed and finally the hard drive was de-fragmented. For all tests the Nvidia were set to default quality/optimisations (unless otherwise stated).

 

 

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