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Gigabyte X1800XL Video Card Review :: The Bundle
GIGABYTE has traditionally been one of the companies to include a game bundle with their video cards. The first 3D video card I owned was a 3dfx based Diamond Monster 3D card. That card came with 20 games and game demos, including games that took advantage of the advanced features of the card at that time. With the X18000XL, GIGABYTE includes Xpand Rally, a racing game and Counter Strike Condition Zero, an expansion to the best selling game Counter Strike. Neither of these game are recent games, as they were released in 2004.  Hardware bundle  Software bundle  Manual Hardware-wise, the GIGABYTE X1800XL comes with everything you would need from a video card bundle except it only has one DVI-I to D-Sub adapter. With two DVI-I ports, I would normally expect to see two adapters for easy conversion for people owning CRT monitors only. Most monitors on the market today are LCD monitors, making the choice a logical one, as most purchasers of a card like the X1800XL would be using LCD monitors. The Driver CD has the beta Catalyst drivers that support the X1800XL and the other new cards. ATI has released Catalyst 5.11 drivers supporting the R1K series of cards. Driver Screenshots            ATI used to have a reputation for bad driver releases from about the time of the RADEON 8500. Recognizing that their driver team was a weak spot, ATI decided to hire Terry Makedon, AKA Catalyst Maker to head the driver team. A couple of years ago Terry's team came up with a new name for ATI's drivers, Catalyst. Last year ATI introduced the Catalyst Control Center or CCC. This was a new control panel applet that requires Microsoft's .Net to operate. Until the release of ATI's X1800XL series, the CCC was an optional component. With the release of their X1K series, the CCC is no longer optional. Discuss This Article
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