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ATI Radeon X800 GTO Mini Roundup: Sapphire, Connect3D, and PowerColor

 by Josh Venning on December 26, 2005 12:05 AM EST
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27 Comments
Sapphire X800 GTO2

The X800 GTO2 (pronounced GTO “squared”) is a bit different. Considering the looks, the GTO2 looks a lot like an X800 GT except with a slightly different fan sink and a 6-pin power connector on the corner. The GTO2 is also slightly heavier than the GT.

The GTO2's box looks very similar to the GTO Ultimates, except that the weird looking girl has different skin and is making a “Charlie's Angels”-style gun with her hands. There's also the GTO2 logo in the corner with the words “Limited Edition”, which stands out somewhat.


Click to enlarge.

As far as the card architecture goes, the core for the X800 GTO is the same as the X800 GT, which makes sense given the similarity in name. The core is clocked lower on the GTO than the GT (400MHz as opposed to 475MHz), but the GTO has 4 more pixel pipelines than the GT (12 vs 8). The extra pipes will obviously give it an advantage, but there are other things here that make the GTO so special. Cards like these are made from parts that were originally going to be more powerful cards, but for some reason or other, it didn't quite pass the grade. These could have been intended for cards like the X800 XT or X850 for instance. The cores are then clocked down and sold to manufacturers like Sapphire who then produce their own variation at a much lower cost to the consumer. What’s interesting is that because these cores were intended for higher end cards, there is a lot of potential for user-overclocking, which we'll talk more about later.

Sapphire X800 GTO Ultimate Connect3D Radeon X800 GTO
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  • Le Québécois - Monday, December 26, 2005 - link

    Is it just me or the PowerColor GTO 16 has the exact same spec as the standart ATI Radeon X800XL?

  • AtaStrumf - Monday, December 26, 2005 - link

    Almost. X800XL runs at 400/500 vs. 400/490 of the GTO 16. They also both use the same .11 mikron R430 chip.

  • mamisano - Monday, December 26, 2005 - link

    Wow, you guys are getting really soft lately. The GTO2's main claim to fame is the ability to unlock the 4 extra pipelines and the tremendous overclocking headroom available. At least give it a try, it can always be flashed back if you experience problems.

    Second, did you actually remove any of the HS units to determine the actual core installed on each card? That and a list of brand/speed of memory used on each one would have been very beneficial to the overall review.

    Seems to be another in a line of reviews with decreasing quality.

  • AtaStrumf - Monday, December 26, 2005 - link

    I absolutely agree! Very low quality review and VERY, VERY late!!!

  • Zoomer - Monday, December 26, 2005 - link

    I research all of these cards before settling with the c3d gto - and I would have gotten the gto2 if it was avaliable.

    Sapphire GTO2
    R480
    Samsung 1.6ns

    C3D GTO
    R423
    Samsung 2.0ns

    PowerColor
    R430
    Samsung 2.0ns

    An article at anandtech commented on why the Powercolor card (the R430) can't hit high clocks - although it uses a smaller process, the 130nm uses a low k process. The 110nm process does NOT. The article goes on to say that this shrink was to cut costs, at the expense of clock speed.

    However, it is interesting to note that the die shrink didn't do anything to reduce power draw. An investigation into the voltages the R430 is running at is in order. :)

    One more thing to note - the c3d has VIVO, with a rage theatre chip soldered (as usual) on the board.

    I can't remember the ones for ultimtate, but the fireblade should also be using 1.6ns rams.

  • tuteja1986 - Monday, December 26, 2005 - link

    I wonder why anandtech never did it earlier ;(

  • coldpower27 - Monday, December 26, 2005 - link

    At least the different manufacturer made it interesting, and customized the boards a little bit to differentiate from one another and not stick to the reference design.

    The 6800 GS is quite the competitor for the X800 GTO, and from my persepctive is a better buy if you want something straight out of the box save for the Powercolor X800 GTO 16. Though there is also the XFX Edition clocked at 485/1100 to worry about.
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