Gigabyte X1800XL Video Card Review :: The Card

Gigabyte X1800XL
Brand	Gigabyte
Model	GV-RX18L256V-B
Graphics Chip	R520
Graphics Memory Type	DDR3
Memory (MB)	256
Graphics Core Clock (MHz)	500
Memory Clock (MHz)	1000
Memory Speed (ns)	2.0
RAMDAC Frequency (MHz)	Dual 400
Active Cooling on Graphics Chip	Yes
Heatsink on Memory	Yes
Video Capture	Yes
Ports
Dual Monitor Support	Yes
VGA Out	DVI-I, DVI-I
Video In and Out	TV Out, S-Video Out
Package and Support
Printed Manual	Yes
Driver CD	Yes
Performance Tool Software	SmartDoctor
Major Games	CounterStrike Condition Zero Xpand Rally
Major Software	None
VR Glasses	No
DVD Player Software	None
Video Recording Software	None

GIGABYTE decided to go with the standard PCB configuration of X1800XL video cards. The card is about the length of a NVIDIIA 7800GT card, with a 29-fin radial fan covering the left side of the PCB. The heat sink covers most of the rest of the video card including the memory modules. Gigabyte decided to use a purple PCB color on the card, differing from the normal red color on ATI's video cards from the last few years. On the face of the heatsink GIGABYTE used their female mascot with horns. Personally, I would have preferred they use Ruby, but that is an ATI trademark.

One thing about modern video cards of the last year or so is the replacement of the AGP (Accelerated Graphics Port) interface with the PCI Express X16 interface. PCI Express allows for bidirectional bandwidth allowing up to 8GB of bandwidth between the card and the system bus. Today no high-end AGP cards are being introduced to the market in any meaningful numbers, meaning if you haven't upgraded to the PCI Express standard, now is a good time, as all video cards for the foreseeable future will come in PCI Express flavors only. The X1800XL requires more than the 75W power the PCI Express x16 slot provides, so an external 6-pin power connector is provided.

GIGABYTE outfitted the card with 8 32MB 2ns GDDR-3 memory modules. The memory is rated for 500MHz, or 1GHz effective. The X1800XL has a 256-bit memory bus with a 512-bit ring bus internal. The memory is clocked at 1GHz meeting the rated speed. The 256-bit memory bus means that the card has 32GB of memory bandwidth (500x2x256/8=32GB). Memory bandwidth is important in video cards. Today, the card with the highest memory bandwidth is the 7800GTX 512MB which has 54.4GB of memory bandwidth.

Input/Output connectors

Input and output ports on the card are the standard 2 DVI-I and 1 TV-Out port found in performance and high-end video cards today. All of the new ATI cards have two TDMS transmitters, allowing for two independent LCD displays displaying 2048x1536 resolutions. ATI cards use an application called Hydravision to drive multiple monitors including two LCDs, two CRTs or one CRT+one LCD. The GIGABYTE card has VIVO (Video In Video Out) capabilities with the included VIVO cable. One thing to keep in mind with the R1K series is their ability to drive two Apple 30 inch LCD monitors at maximum resolution each.

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