ATI X1000 Series Video Card Roundup

X1800 XT and X1800 XL

The ATI X1800XL Video Card:

The Radeon X1800 XL comes clocked at a 500MHz GPU frequency and a 1GHz memory frequency with 256MB of RAM. The MSRP is $449, which aligns it with the NVIDIA GeForce 7800 GT and is already well below MSRP. The X1800 XL comes with dual dual-link DVI, and is a single-slot solution. The heat sink is made of copper and has a small fan, similar to the design of the X800XL. This fan is a little loud as it comes on 100% when first booting, quickly slowing down after the motherboard has begun POST. The unit puts a bit of heat and cycles the fan speed quite a lot while gaming and some even during 2-D operation.

The ATI X1800XT Video Card:

The Radeon X1800 XT comes with either 256MB or 512MB of memory and dual, Dual-Link DVI. The core is clocked at 625MHz on both models and memory is clocked at 1.5GHz. The 256MB version has an MSRP of $499 and the 512MB version $549. A quick hop to our favorite e-tailer shows that the 512MB is already below MSRP and is widely available in the channel. This video card is meant to compete with the GeForce 7800 GTX. It comes in a dual slot configuration with a rear exhausting heat sink similar to the X850XT Platinum Edition. Anyone familiar with the Platinum Edition already knows how this card will sound during bootup, which is very loud. After POST has begun the fan becomes very quiet. You’ll likely hear your chipset fan before this heatsink.

ATI has kept a lot of people happy with their “short” cards but the Radeon X1800 XT and XL are exactly the same length as the GeForce 6800/7800 series, measuring nine inches long.