reviewsTESTED. REVIEWED. VERDICTIZED
XXXXXXX 2005 MA XIMUMPC 00
came to the film-cadence tests, ATI’s
new card failed every test except one.
As for the rest of ATI’s much-hyped
Avivo video technology, we’re left won-
dering if it’s a lot of smoke and mirrors,
or if ATI just hasn’t finished implement-
ing everything in its device driver. At the
time of this review, ATI told us that only
two DVD-player programs—Cyberlink’s
PowerDVD and Intervideo’s WinDVD
Platinum—were capable of fully tapping
the X1800 XT; and even then, both play-ers required Registry tweaks. Microsoft’s
Windows Media Player, we were told,
still had “issues” with hardware accelera-
tion at high resolution.
The X1800 XT is a promising card
for games, but in light of its disappoint-
ing video performance, coupled with the
fact that CrossFire Edition versions of the
card weren’t available at press time, it’s
difficult for us to get very excited about
it right now.
—MICHAEL BROWN$550, http://www.ati.comRADEON X1800 XTMEXICAN VANILLA
Slightly faster than a single
nVidia 7800 GTX.
MEXICAN PRISON 8
Intensely hot card requires a
two-slot cooler; lousy video
performance; no CrossFire
Edition (yet).Spend an extra $50 and you can get a Radeon X1800
XT with a mammoth 512MB frame buffer.