PowerColor X800 PRO Limited Assassin Edition

Around two weeks ago we've looked at PowerColor RADEON 9800 Platinum Edition -- a mainstream video card based on ATI's R360 ASIC. What you will find on our review bench today is a high-end PowerColor X800 Pro Limited Assassin Edition from Tul. Tul Corporation is a Tier-1 provider of ATI-based graphic cards. The company is also a leader in providing motherboards and barebone systems. Be sure to check out our PowerColor A350A-VF IGP 9100 motherboard review as well.

If you recall back in 2002, R300 (RADEON 9700) was blasting at full speed with its full availability. Although it was still a .15µ micron process it was a very mature silicon (ATI's first .15µ chip was the R200) with very few if no flows. R300 was ATI's greatest success which accounted for best performing DirectX 9 chip. During 2002, ATI was already working on a new design -- the R400 which was later canned mainly because of beyond DirectX specifications which could make the chip a bit too avant garde if you will.

So the initial R400 design was scrapped (For time being I assume) and a new core codenamed "Loki" was born. Albeit ATI's introduction of R420 VPU created quite a stir due to lack of Shader Model 3.0, it isn't really a long term problem since the refresh part will most likely support it. For current DirectX 9 games most of the effects available through SM 3.0 can be achieved with SM 2.0b which is exposed in DirectX 9.0c. A clear example would be Far Cry where SM 3.0 dynamic branching is as effecient as branching done with SM 2.0b.

Not everyone can afford a top of the line CPU and 1024 MBs of grade 'A' memory. In this review I will show you that your old Athlon XP is still here kicking and scoring well above average when combined with high-end GPU.