Test System Setup

Processor(s): AMD Athlon X2 3800+ @ 260MHz FSB x 10 (1:1 RAM)

Motherboard(s): DFI Lanparty UT SLI DR Expert (Supplied by Bronet)

Memory: 2 X 1GB G.Skill HV PC4000 @ 260MHz (Supplied by Bronet)

Hard Disk(s): Hitachi 80GB 7,200RPM SATA 2

Operating System: Microsoft Windows XP Professional SP2

Drivers: ATI Catalyst 6.6 and DX9c

We ran into a problem with the Sapphire X1900XTX TOXIC - overclocking it.

When loading up ATI Tool you find that the core and memory speed have dropped below the defaults, not being overly concerned you slide the bars up to default and find that the card freezes and reboots.

Slightly concerned we thought we would venture across to the old Riva Tuner tool. While not a personal favorite, it seemed to detect the graphics card without any problems and then we proceeded to start overclocking it. Moving the sliders and testing found the card completing the tests with no problems. Increase after increase the test completed fine every time...we couldn't believe our eyes. At around the 1000MHz core and 1000MHz (2000MHz) memory, we become just a little suspicious. Maxing the bars out found the test completing fine again, it was here where we began to realize the card wasn't actually being overclocked.

The only program that wanted to cooperate in overclocking was the ATI Overdrive feature in the Catalyst drivers. The problem with the ATI Catalyst overclocking feature is that it's quite limited so the maximum overclock we pushed to was 690MHz on the core and 806MHz (1612MHz DDR) on the memory.

With that out the way we have continued to run with our new graphics card benchmarking suite. We have included in all our tests the X1900XTX TOXIC overclocked to 690MHz/806MHz along with the Sapphire X1900XT.

3DMark05

Version and / or Patch Used: Build 120

Developer Homepage: http://www.futuremark.com

Product Homepage: http://www.futuremark.com/products/3dmark05/

Buy It Here

3DMark05 is now the second latest version in the popular 3DMark "Gamers Benchmark" series. It includes a complete set of DX9 benchmarks which tests Shader Model 2.0 and above.

For more information on the 3DMark05 benchmark, we recommend you read our preview here.

The small overclock can be seen here but the difference is so small that it wouldn't make a difference in real-world gaming. You can clearly see that the lead the XTX carries over the standard X1900XT.