Heh ever heard of Loki? well it's the codename for the R420

Since that XFX GeForce 7600GT 580M AGP didn't work in AGP x4 mode in my ageing AthlonXP 2700+ system I traded it for a very nice boxed and Zalman modded ASUS AX800XT Platinum Edition AGP 256MB

it has a very nice Zalman VF700Cu cooler and it has the Zalman HSF heatsinks for the memory 8 in total, so here some pics 8)




As you can see it has a nice creamy orange PCB instead of the default red one, it gives this card a nice extra glance to it.

The nice Zalman was allready attached to it , the 7600GT 580M had a Nvidia PCI-E to AGP convertorchip which didn't allow me to use it in AGP x4 mode it only accepted AGP x8, and this X800XT PE AGP is 100% reverse AGP x1/x2/x4 compliant.

Anyways the 7600GT has gone to a good friend and he gave me this one with this nice cooler mod on it and really it's very silent, even at full load with ATi Overdrive enabled.

It's also a nice collectors item for my 7 part ATi collection

yeah it shines and so silent with that Zalman cooler on it

Even Fear runs fine on it heh! kinda surprised me there Didn't you have an X800XT PE AGP before your X1900 XT FalconFly?

Heh check this it would of been the followup card of the R420 Meet the R480 with 512MB GDDR3!! the ATi Radeon X850 XT PCI-E 512MB


Here a very nice review of the X850XT 512MB @ Firing Squad:
http://www.firingsquad.com/hardware/ati_x850xt_512mb_prev/


here the 256MB X850XT heh the difference is quite noticable!

and here the memory modules on the back of the 512MB card just to show the difference


It's performance isn't bad either, the extra 256MB GDDR3 really kicks in at higher reso's with max settings


"ATI claims a 20-30% performance improvement over a stock X850 XT in DOOM 3, multiple areas in Half-Life 2, and Far Cry, allowing the 512MB card to even outperform the more expensive X850 XT Platinum Edition, but only one resolution was given: 1600x1200 with 6xAA and 16xAF."

They aren't covered like they are on the 256MB card , even the top cooler of the 512MB card doesn't cover all ram chips too.

It would be a very nice addition to my ATi collection Yes I collect ATi cards as 3dfx ones

All the ATi cards I have at the moment are:

ATi Rage Pro Turbo AGP x2 8MB SDR 64Bit
ATi Rage 128 LX Turbo 8MB SDR 128Bit from GateWay Systems
ATi Rage Fury MAXX 64MB 128Bit SDR [Dual Rage 128 Pro 32MB]
ATi M18 Mobillity Radeon 9800 256MB GDDR2 256Bit
ASUS ATi Radeon X800XT Platinum Edition AGP x8/x4 256MB GDDR3 256Bit
Sapphire ATi Radeon X1900 XTX PCI-E x16 512MB GDDR3 256Bit
Sapphire ATi Radeon X1950 XTX CrossFire Edition PCI-E x16 512MB GDDR4 256Bit

So not that bad any other ATi collector's around here?

I suppose that the X800XT PE was the biginning of the GDDR3 Enthousiast cards of ATi.

yeah the X850 Pro you have has the R481 VPU aka the modified R420 It's Image quallity is amazing for it's time and now even 3 years later these VPU's still can keep up with the latest titles, which shows on how future proof there were built 3 years ago

3Dc really gives a great possitive impact on 3D image quallity it's like S3TC but then with more surface detail.

yeah the R300 was a super chip and still is that one made 3 massive victories, it first beat the Ti4600 with ease, then the 5800Ultra and even with the 5900Ultra it made it's best place, at the top, with all settings set @ max details FSAA + AF at max the 9700 pro was faster in anygame. the GeForce FX 5950 Ultra was the only card that could barely beat it , so it's obvious the 9700 Pro still has enough juice to keep up even with games of today

the 9700 Pro effect will be something hard to replace, some say that a 8800GTX had a 9700 Pro effect on ATi if it would it would have to be faster than the following 2 ATi generations which I doubt see happening

the R600 how ever will also be a very intersting thing to observe, the GeForce FX serie was fast in DX8 but slow in DX 9, the * serie is indeedly fast in DX9 but I think it will meet it's bottleneck in DX10 and ATi will justy slide in without probs like 9700 Pro did thanx to it's 256Bit 8cross Laned Memory interface and that it was 100% DX9 compliant and still is ofcourse

My favourite group of ATi cards is the R4.xx High End series.

R420:
ATi RADEON X800 SE AGP 256MB
ATi RADEON X800 Pro AGP 256MB
ATi RADEON X800 XT ALL-IN-WONDER AGP 256MB
ATi RADEON X800 XT AGP 256MB
ATi RADEON X800 XT PE AGP 256MB

R423:
ATi RADEON X800 SE PCI-E 256MB
ATi RADEON X800 Pro PCI-E 256MB
ATi RADEON X800 Pro CrossFire Edition 128MB
ATi RADEON X800 Pro CrossFire Edition 256MB
ATi RADEON X800 XT PCI-E 256MB
ATi RADEON X800 XT PE PCI-E 256MB

R480:
ATi RADEON X850 Pro PCI-E 256MB
ATi RADEON X850 Pro CrossFire Edition 256MB      
ATi RADEON X850 XT PCI-E 256MB

ATi RADEON X850 XT PE PCI-E 256MB

R481:
ATi RADEON X850 Pro AGP 256MB
ATi RADEON X850 XT AGP 256MB
ATi RADEON X850 XT PE AGP 256MB

R430:
ATi RADEON X800 VE ALL-IN-WONDER AGP 256MB
ATi RADEON X800 GT AGP/PCI-E 256MB
ATi RADEON X800 GT ALL-IN-WONDER AGP 256MB
ATi RADEON X800 AGP/PCI-E 256MB
ATi RADEON X800 XL AGP/PCI-E 256MB

The R430's were made after the R481's as to fill in the gaps Quite a shame that the 512MB R480 was never put to mass production but then with XT PE speeds, that would of been a very nice card.


The R481 is a remake of the R420 the R480 is a remake of the R423, the speeds of the R480's class types is the same  as that of the R481 types. sames goes for R420 types as R423 types.