HIS' X800 IceQIIs Cometh

Excalibur X800 XT (E IceQ II VIVO

Both from a feature standpoint as well as visually, the X800 XT is a dead ringer for its little sister. The only differences can be found below the massive heatsink, in the heart of the graphics processor. With the Excalibur XT, which is really an XT Platinum Edition, all 16 pixel-pipes of the R420 graphics processor are active. Running at a core frequency of 520 MHz and a memory clock of 1.12 GHz, the card follows ATi's reference specifications exactly. Aside from these differences, the rest of the bundle is identical to that of the Pro version.

Software Bundle

On top of the obligatory driver CD, HIS ships Cyberlink's software DVD player PowerDVD 5 and an animated 3D photo album, logically called 3D-Album, with the card. For those who want to edit their home videos or other video sequences there is Ulead's VideoStudio 7 SE. The gaming bundle is rather small and consists only of the role-playing game Arx Fatalis and a sampler CD with five rather outdated game demos. Lastly, ATi's free Multimedia Center Software also comes with the card, rounding off a good software bundle, which leaves very little to be desired.