When both ATI and NVIDIA released their latest VPU/GPU chipsets last Summer, it marked a drastic improvement over their previous chipsets in terms of image quality and performance. Being able to run games at 1600x1200 with everything on (at playable framerates) was a fantasy for most gamers prior to this release and both companies were able to deliver the tech, albeit in small numbers for people who actually wanted to buy the hardware. That is of course, a debate for another day.
The X850 series of VPUs is not the revolution that the X800 series was, and more of a late Winter refresh of existing technologies. Outside of the clock speed difference, you will not find any changes technology wise between the X800 and X850. Availability is still a question, but today we'll be checking out a retail edition of the HIS X850XT PE IceQ II video card.
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Review:
Viperlair
Apr 13, 2005, 08:27 AM
