R480 and R430: ATI's Fall PCIe Update

Half-Life 2 - THG8 - 4x AA/8x AF

Conclusion

It is difficult to keep track of ATI's enthusiast-class product range. Radeon X800 graphics cards with PCI Express are now available in many different core designs with varying clock speeds and pipeline numbers - and prices. On top of that, there's the new Radeon X850 product range. The other price segments are equally confusing, including the new X700 in tandem with the "older" X600 cards.

In terms of performance, the new ATI cards don't have much to offer. The X850 XT PE is the new flagship model, but is only marginally faster than its predecessor, the X800 XT PE. Price-wise, the Radeon X800 XL offers good performance values, but it is unclear where the other new X850 and X800 cards fall in relation to previous models.

ATI has not yet been able to supply us with all of the new models for testing. Although clock rates can be simulated, due to the sheer variety of products we wanted to wait and see which of them hit the stores and when. According to ATI, this should happen as early as January; thanks to the new Radeon chip core, supply shortages should finally be a thing of the past.