RADEON X800 PRO Performance with Pentium 4

[Feuerwizard]

http://www.ati.com/home/images/mini_his_1420.jpg

The FiringSquad have a new article out Called RADEON X800 PRO Performance with Pentium 4 that looks at the different CPU scaling you get when paired with Intel's Pentium 4! Here's a snip.

As promised, today we’re here to take a look at the performance of ATI’s RADEON X800 PRO with Intel Pentium 4 processors. Based on our preview from the beginning of this month, we already know the X800 PRO is fast, nearly doubling the performance of RADEON 9800 XT, and at a price point that is $100 less than ATI’s high-end RADEON X800 XT Platinum Edition. This performance is provided by its 12-pipeline R420 core, which is clocked at 475MHz and its 256-bit memory interface operating at 900MHz.

Read the complete article (http://www.firingsquad.com/hardware/x800_pro_pentium4/)

[Rob]

That sounds great, but I think a better comment from them is in their closing thoughts.

ATI’s RADEON X800 PRO is an incredibly powerful graphics card, its 12-pipeline graphics core and high-speed GDDR3 memory gives it significantly more performance than previous graphics cards. But, if you pair it with a slower processor, it can offer little or no performance improvement over RADEON 9800 XT. Think of the RADEON X800 PRO like a sports car, if you pair it with small tires, it will provide minimum performance over your typical econo box or sedan.

I have a 2.5ghz and a 2.8ghz machine, both CPU bottle necked so it would definitely be in my best interest to only get the cheaper 9800XT. Something to get excited about in the future though.

[Ojnod]

With my current system (see sig), it looks like I won't be messing around with upgrades until PCI-X, DDR2, and all those goodies come out. I would kill for 5-10 more FPS though. I like to run 1280x1024 with 4x AA and 8x AF, but in far cry those settings can make me drop down into the 20's depending on where I am, and down into the 30's for UT2k4. The rest of my games are smooth as silk with those settings.

I think I may buy some better video card cooling and go for an OC.