Rosewill X800 XL - Results

As you can see, this card can handle the games with a high resolution and high detail at stock speeds. I then ran the same tests with the overclock speed found earlier. The results were better, but nothing to write home about. I figured that the card was no longer the bottleneck that it had floated over to the CPU, which was only running at the stock 1.8 GHz. I wondered if this theory held true, so I ran the games again, but with time with the CPU clocked at 2.7 GHz (300 * 9). This showed some mix results. Far Cry and Counter-Strike: Source showed great leaps in FPS, while Doom 3 showed minimal. Doom 3 appears to be still limited by the video card.

Conclusion

The X800 XL is a great card. While it isn't the very best card you can buy, it is a great choice for the money you spend on it. It is basically an underclocked X800 XT, and is capable of the XT speeds when tweaked some. The card itself has a few points on the high end cards. It only requires one slot for cooling, instead of two, and the X800 XL does not require additional power.

As far as results, this card put some beefy numbers on some stressful games. While it won't take home any records, it does give you decent results. In most games, Nvidia's 6800 GT outperforms this card by a margin so small you would never notice it (though in Doom 3, it performs more like Nvidia's budget 6600 GT, $160), and the prices are very comparable. If buying online, the Rosewill X800 XL generally costs about $290, and you may find other manufacturers that cost up to $10 less. The Geforce 6800 GT 256 MB also costs $290 online.

For the money, it is not a bad deal.The X800 XL is a great choice for people who want a great gaming card while not breaking the bank too much. I recommend this card to gamers and give it the Devhardware Recommended Award.

Pros

• Priced similar to competing cards
• Single slot cooler
• No external power connector

Cons

• No cooling for other side of memory
• Not a strong bundle

I would like to thank you for reading the DevHardware review of the X800 XL today. If you have any questions, feel free to drop by the forums, or you may return to the front page and read a few more reviews, Thank You.