FarCry	Source: Ubisoft

Real-time editing, bump mapping, static lights, network system, integrated physics system, shaders, shadows, and a dynamic music system are just some of the state of-the-art features that the CryENGINE offers. The game was set to Ultra quality and the Ubisoft's Regulator and Training demos were run.

FarCry Regulator Demo UQ 1600x1200:
Anti-Aliasing	FPS	Ranking
PowerColor X800 GTO 2x AA	33.86
PowerColor X800 GTO 4x AA	22.52
PowerColor X800 GTO 6x AA	10.48
Anisotropic Filtering	FPS	Ranking
PowerColor X800 GTO 2x AF	40.78
PowerColor X800 GTO 4x AF	41.28
PowerColor X800 GTO 8x AF	39.2
PowerColor X800 GTO 16x AF	39.8
Anti-Aliasing and Anisotropic Filtering	FPS	Ranking
PowerColor X800 GTO 2x AA, 8x AF	21.36
PowerColor X800 GTO 4x AA, 16x AF	21.36
PowerColor X800 GTO 6x AA, 16x AF	5.62

The PowerColor X800 GTO videocard does not have enough memory to run AA/AF settings beyond a crawl, doing so dramatically drops framerates in FarCry. Considering its mainstream audience, it's somewhat remarkable that the X800 GTO is even able to run under AA and AF, not to mention AA & AF. ;-)

An Affordable PCI Express Budget Card

The flurry of new X800 based PCI Express videocards is good news for consumers on a budget if the PowerColor X800 GTO is any example.

PowerColor's X800 GTO packs a nice 3D punch that's slightly better than nVidia's GeForce 6600GT, into a videocard that retails for just $137 CDN ($120 US)! Forget about the GeForce 6200TC, for mainstream gamers there is no excuse not to get something built on the Radeon X800 GTO.

The PowerColor X800 GTO videocard does not come with many software frills, but it does include all the cables you'll need to take advantage of its TV-out features. Home Theatre PCs now have an inexpensive alternative that also provides some decent 3D framerates too.

Unfortunately the Radeon X800 GTO GPU lacks Shader Model 3.0 support.

Where mainstream games are concerned this a moot point, but as titles emerge that take advantage of SM3.0 the loss will be felt. On the other hand, nVIDIA's competitive videocards that do support SM 3.0 are generally too slow to take advantage of the effects anyway. Just be aware of the trade offs you may have to make with certain game titles, because you can bet that future support for SM3.0 will increase.

In terms of the benchmark results, the PowerColor X800 GTO videocard outperformed its GeForce 6600GT competition on the whole. In the mainstream GPU class it is very viable option, but it's quickly put in its place against more powerful videocards like the Radeon X850 or Geforce 7800. Overclocking increases the X800GTO's lead somewhat, despite what looked like a dismal increase in clock speeds. Ultimately, the PowerColor X800 GTO is a good mainstream PCI Express videocard, at an affordable price point

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