ATI Radeon X800 XL 512MiB Reference Board Examination
Looks familiar? You bet it does. The 512MiB Radeon X800 XL doesn't quite use the same PCB as the Radeon X850 PRO, but it's close, and the cooler is identical. Weighing in at 389g, slightly more than the 385g X850 PRO, the 512MiB XL remains a single-slot board with almost identical thermal properties to that hardware.
Sixteen 256Mibit Samsung K4J55323Q DRAMs provide the larger framebuffer on the board. Needing more than ~75W, the PCI Express-based X800 XL has a 6-pin power connector for extra power that can't be supplied via the slot.
Dual-DVI makes a welcome appearance (I'm a dual DVI LCD whore, so two digital display outputs makes me happy) and the Rage Theater on the rear of the board gives you VIVO capabilities. You use the S-Video port on the backplane for that.
The comments I made about the X850 PRO's cooler and fan apply here, so I'll cut and paste.
The ADDA AD4512HB-E03 is a 45mm ball bearing blower fan, 12mm thick. It takes a 12V DC supply, the H in 'AD4512HB' denoting high speed. Be thankful it's not a U. Finally, the 3 in 'E03' denotes control by an IC and speed sensor, so you can be sure it's controllable by the driver and other software.
At the default fan speed of 54% of maximum, the blower in the X850 PRO's cooler assembly is quiet. At 100% it's less irritating than that in the X800 on the previous page, but still rather loud. The blade design of the cooler seems to be responsible for all the audible noise as the blower shoves air across them. The pitch changes of the fan aren't that annoying to my ears, thankfully.
As a modern Radeon configuration, it couldn't get much better for me. Dual digital outputs, VIVO and the smaller single-slot form factor that has made the X8-series of boards from ATI so appealing since their launch is the best Radeon configuration an AIB can assemble, outside of an All-In-Wonder.
The sticker on the board lets you know it's an R430 GPU under the cooler, doing all the hard work. Let's examine performance in a popular game title before I wrap things up.
