SUMMARY: Today we have taken a look at the AGP 8x versions of the Radeon X800XT and X800PRO IceQ II VIVO Edition series from HIS. We take a look at both cards and the package and then put them up against each other to find out the retail vendor performance difference of the two fastest graphics chips currently available from ATI.
Looking at both AGP graphics cards next to each other makes it a little hard to tell the difference between each. Both of the stickers on each heatsink clearly say “X800PRO” – maybe HIS had excess stickers to make use of. As we mentioned in the introduction, the particular graphics cards we are looking today utilize the IceQ II cooling solution which is the second generation of this particular cooling technology. The original IceQ cooling was found on the 9800 Excalibur series from HIS and it looks like they have done a slight bit of tweaking since then.
Both the cards we are looking at come with an equal 256MB of onboard memory along with VIVO (Video In/Video Out) which is a function that gives you the ability to record video onto your computer and extract your computer image out to a TV or any other device that utilizes S-Video. This is made possible by the ATI Rage Theater chip which can be seen on the back of the card. While VIVO is not something a lot of people use, it can be handy to have as you never know when you may need it. The price difference between a card with and without VIVO is usually quite small; hence most people choose it for this reason.
The IO plate on the card is extremely standard as you can see for yourself but is double the thickness, we will have a closer look at this in just a moment.
IceQ Cooling
The WOW factor alone on the IceQ cooling system is huge - it looks awesome the way it takes up another PCI slot and hangs a few centimeters off the back of the card. However, it is one cooling solution which is not suited for a Small Form Factor system. On the box you see that the cooler is -11c certified which gives you the impression that your graphics card is either going to be running at -11c or it is going to be able to handle -11c. Looking closer at the HIS website, you notice that it really stands for 11c cooler then the default cooler from ATI which works out to be around 30% cooler.
As you can see for yourself the fan used here looks quite cool and a huge blower like device is in play where it pushes air across the heatsink then out the back of your case. One problem that you may run into is trying to plug the power into the card, while it isn’t too difficult it can be a bit tricky to get in the first time you hook the card up.
The IceQ cooling utilizes HIS iTURBO technology which is designed to help adjust the speed of the cards fan depending on what you are doing. When you go to play games, the fan speeds increase and becomes a little louder. This isn’t normally a big deal as you have sound coming from your speakers or you are wearing headphones when you are gaming. Back in calm and the less chaotic waters of Windows, it tames itself down and runs at a lower RPM speed which is much nicer on the ears.
Moving around to the back of the card you can see that the memory is covered with a giant like heatsink. HIS figure that they have to place a back plate on the back to attach the cooler properly, they may as well make it a bit more useful. This helps in making the cooling solution that bit more “extreme.”
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