Conclusion
It’s good to see Sapphire resurrecting one of the original enthusiast lines of videocards with the X800XL Ultimate. It’s not completely silent as most of the cards in the original Ultimate line were known for, but it’s pretty close. Cooling performance is excellent as well, easily the match for Arctic Cooling’s ATI Silencer 4 used on HIS’ X800XL IceQII Turbo which is far larger and bulkier than the Ultimate’s cooler.
With Splinter Cell Pandora Tomorrow and Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, Sapphire’s game bundle is getting a bit outdated, but it’s still easily one of the best around. Hopefully it won’t be too long before Sapphire launches their new Sapphire Select game bundle feature.
The only thing that bothers me about the Ultimate is the poor core overclocking. While 40MHz over stock is respectable, I’ve seen other X800XLs overclock much better than that.
Even though the overclocking left a lot to be desired, I’m still very impressed with the performance of Sapphire’s X800XL Ultimate (and all X800XL’s to be honest). Not only does it make some serious arguments against the ultra expensive X850XT Platinum, it does it at a very reasonable price.
If you’re looking for quiet performance, Sapphire’s X800XL Ultimate should be on your short list.
Verdict
Sapphire Radeon X800XL Ultimate
Rage3D Editor's Choice
Overall Score
5 out of 5
Plus
- Fast
- Excellent cooling performance
- Good bundle
- Affordable
- No external power requirement
Minus
- Unimpressive core overclocking
