PowerColor X800 GTO 128MB 256-bit Video Card Review - Doom 3, Far Cry, 3D Mark 2005 Benchmarks
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It’s come time to see how the PowerColor X800 GTO 128 MB benchmarks. The objective here is mainly to see how playable games are and how much overclocking helps frame rates on this card. To start, here is our testbed for these benches:
Processor: AMD 64 3500+
Memory: 1 GB (2 x 512 MB) Kingston 400 MHz
Motherboard: Foxconn NF4SK8AA-8EKRS
Hard Drive: 120 GB Western Digital 133 ATA
To start out, let’s check out Doom 3 performance. As most of you know, Doom 3 is especially rough on ATI based cards because of its use of OpenGL. If we can keep playable frame rates here, it will definitely validate the card for playing most games out there. The first tests had all the advanced settings on except for AA, and they tested resolutions. The second tests were fixed at 1280x1024, had all advanced settings on, and tested AA.
As you can see, the game stays above 60 FPS until you reach the upper resolutions. Even though it dips below 60, it keeps solid rates all the way up to 1280x1024. Even during tough gameplay where FPS drop below the average, Doom 3 stays perfectly playable and looking good.
When anti-aliasing is thrown into the mix, performance starts to take a hit. As we switch on 2x AA, the game stays somewhat above 30 FPS. This means it’s still playable, but during heavy gameplay the framerate may suffer a little. With 4x AA, we’re all the way down to 24 FPS. The game can be played at this level, but it won’t be smooth.
Overclocking generally buys us several frames per second. It might make a noticable difference when you turn a lot of the settings up.
Next up is Far Cry. This is often a more balanced game than Doom 3, since it doesn’t seem to heavily favor OpenGL or DirectX. This shouldn’t be quite so tough on the video card. The tests are all with max settings.
Between the two demos, the X800 GTO 128 seems to be performing similar to how it did in Doom 3. In Doom 3 and Far Cry, I’d have to say that this is good performance in a budget card. It keeps framerates extremely playable on this generation of video games. Before moving on, let’s check out the 3D Mark 2005 synthetic gaming benchmark.
These are very respectable scores on 3D Mark 05. The X800 GTO's gain of 220 points from overclocking is pretty good for the overclock we achieved. It seems the 3D Mark likes overclocked cards more than the actual games do, but that might hint at other games which would benefit even more from this level of overclock.
The Powercolor video card keeps up with the latest games, and proves itself worthy of gaming well. The price for performance on this card is great. If you spend any less on a video card, you will only get a fraction of this level gaming. Lower cards, like the Geforce 6200, are not sufficient for gamers.
Next: Conclusion >>
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