Print this article

HIS X800GTO IceQ II Turbo 256MB


Date
: 10/11/05 – 02:25:13 AM

Author
:

Category
: Video Cards

Page 1 : Index

Manufacturer:
HIS – Hightech Information System Limited

Price:
~$200 USD

HIS is back at O² and they've raised the bar yet again. The last visit that HIS made here at Overclockers Online was with an X700 iCooler that Simon took a look at. This Hong Kong based video card powerhouse has offices in Europe, the Middle East, North America and Asia Pacific Regions. HIS is a 1st Tier AIB Partner with ATI and has recently become one of the favorites among PC enthusiasts with their cool and quiet IceQ and IceQ II series of video cards.

Today, I will have the extreme pleasure of bringing to you the new X800GTO IceQ II Turbo from HIS. This video card is labeled as 'the best price/performance card ever built'. I will certainly be able to tell how well it performs and the price listed above is already speaking for itself, so strap yourself in for the ride and let's and see if this statement holds true.

Page 2 : Package

I didn't waste any time in removing the HIS X800GTO out of the FedEx box it arrived in and getting straight to work. As you might be able to tell, I was excited to see what this fresh offering from HIS could do.

The package is of great quality with a cut out in the middle to show the actual card laying in wait. On the left are a couple of crests HIS uses to indicate the cooling and audible abilities of the card. I have highlighted the information on the right. The most important one is at the top. The
iTurbo
badge signifies that this particular card is guaranteed to overclock to the listed values of 500MHz at the core and 1GHz for the memory using the iTurbo software. Some HIS X800GTOs will come with this sticker, some will not.

The rear of the package is completely plastered with information including specifications, system requirements, and awards HIS has taken home. The logos above the bottom black band clearly outline the important features that the X800GTO is capable of. All logos here, and on the front, are raised slightly and are finished smooth giving the whole package great texture.

The ends of the box are responsible for outlining exactly which version of the card and software is included in this great looking box. Confirming the sticker on the front of the box, we see a red dot in the Turbo Edition box, but unfortunately not in the Dual DVI or VIVO boxes. I guess I can't have everything. The rest of the ends here are reserved for letting us know what is included in the packaged software bundle.

The last sides of the package are the top and bottom, seen here. The bottom of the box again is loaded with information about the features of the X800GTO IceQ II Turbo. This includes brief descriptions of the Smartshader, Smoothvision, Hyper Z, Videoshader and Display features. The top proudly displays the IceQ II and iTurbo badges along side the large HIS logo.

Page 3 : Specifications & Features

Normally this section will just have the specifications taken from the manufacturers web site listing all the pertinent information like memory frequency, clock frequency, pipelines and what-have-you. With the HIS X800GTO IceQ II Turbo, there is far too much going on to just skim through this section and move on. I invite you to read about the technologies that HIS has incorporated into this card as it truly is astonishing.

I will start with that standard list of specifications that has been supplied to us by way of the HIS web site:

And HIS has this to say about the X800 series:

IceQ II

HIS IceQ II cooling is the second generation of award winning and performance leading IceQ cooling. HIS's intelligent fan adjustment technology automatically adjust IceQ II fan speed based on X800/X850's loading and temperature to achieve best performance. The fan is certified to generate less than 20dB and the TURBO fan speed mode can reach -11C cooling power. The IceQ cooling system draws cool air from inside the case and exhausts warm air outwards. This prevents the fan from recycling warm air to cool the VPU, which increases cooling performance and lower the air temperature inside the case significantly.

iTurbo

HIS iTURBO easy to use interface provides a flexible way for users to adjust the VPU clock, memory clock and fan speed, plus VPU temperature and fan speed monitoring. Simply press the iTURBO button to boost your video card to maximum speed and stable performance.

Page 4 : Package Contents

Now that we know what this card is all about, time to see what it looks like and comes packaged with.

The box that the X800GTO comes in is quite small and very well packed. I have noticed that the last few video cards I have received have come in smaller and tidier packagings. This is a nice change from the monstrous boxes we were use to seeing not too long ago. The upper contents are separated from the software and manual by a molded clear plastic piece. Nothing in this box will be moving around during transport.

With contents spread out, we can see everything that comes in the package aside from the card itself. There is a good sized manual, the packaged software bundle, and an offer for ten free hours of GuildWars. The hardware that comes with the X800GTO consists of a nice long S-video cable, a DVI > Analog RGB converter, YPrPb component output for HDTV and the additional PCI expansion slot grill as this is a dual slot card. Pretty standard stuff, but the software bundle is quite hefty so I will be looking at that in its own section later on.

With the card out on its own, we can see just how big the card is, not in length or width but in thickness. The benefits of having the IceQ II cooling system will come in testing but it does not come without its drawback. Of course this card will take up a parallel PCI expansion slot and I am sure this will render my PCI-E X1 slot un-usable. However, I think the cooling benefits will far out-weigh this loss.

The backside shows that the memory chips back here were not neglected and possess some cooling of their own in the form of a large metal heatsink.

We already know that the card is not dual DVI, which suits me fine as I still run my trusty 19"CRT for photo editing. If you do happen to have a dual CRT monitor setup the inclusion of the adapter has you covered. If, however, you have a dual DVI monitor setup you would want to purchase the dual DVI copy of this video card.

The IceQ II cooling system pushes fresh air from the rear of the video card to the front passing over the heatsinks along the way via this UV reactive plastic piece and the accompanying fan. This hot air is then exhausted out the rear of the case and left to dissipate out in the open air instead of inside your case. I like the design and really think giving up a PCI expansion slot is well worth the cost to keep the heat generated by a video card out of the case. The fact that this card comes with this cooling system installed is amazing and that is why HIS is becoming one of the favorites among ATI users.

Once you remove the cooler, the card just looks naked and almost weak and powerless. This is definately not the case.

The memory used on the X800GTO is
Samsung K4J55323QF-GC16
modules. These are identical modules that are used on both the 7800GTXs that have recently come through O². Here is a recap of the info supplied by Samsungs web site.

This last line states that we should expect at least 600MHz for an effective speed of 1.2GHz from these modules. I will also note that I was able to overclock the same modules to 1.35GHz on the 7800GTX. This X800GTO doesn't have an additional power supply, so it will be interesting to see what we can get out of the Samsung modules in this setup.

It is time for the standard close up of the GPU. Clearly an ATI X800 R480, isn't it beautiful?

With everything off, I figured I would show you the cooler used on the card. The sticker on the fan lets us know that this is an Arctic-Cooling model and a quick look at their web site indicates that it is an ATI Silencer 4 (Rev.2). The copper base is 2.5mm thick that directly transfers the heat from the GPU and memory modules to the large heatsinks above. Arctic-Cooling offers a 6-year warranty on this unit when purchased from them so that bodes well to the life expectancy of it mounted on the HIS X800GTO IceQ II.

Page 5 : Installation & Overclocking

A video card install does not require A+ certification as we are all aware of. A simple Philips head screwdriver should be all that is required at most. I will be using the top PCI-E slot on the Foxconn NF4SK8aa-8EKRS and have already removed the rear PCI expansion slot covers for the slots on the Antec Take 4 that I will be installing the X800GTO in.

As expected, the PCI-E X 1 slot is rendered useless because of the IceQ II cooling but it was useless before as there really isn't much out there in the way of PCI-E X 1 cards and I certainly don't use it for anything. For some though this may be an issue. If you use this card in a Crossfire setup down the road then you will potentially be losing a lot of future expandability with the loss of a PCI slot with this card in the bottom slot and a Crossfire Edition card in the top slot. If the motherboard only has 2 PCI slots and one gets lost due to the width of this card then you are left with only one PCI slot and a sound card and a RAID card won't fit in one slot. As of right now there are only two manufacturers Crossfire motherboards that I can dig up where this situation would arise. They are the Tul RD480 Ultra and the MSI MS 7194 but the latter one does have an extra X1 slot above the x16 slots so that might alleviate the issue. As you can see that is only two motherboards out of a handful that are in prduction right now but it may come up so I thought it warrented a mention.

With the card resting in the slot and the screw securing it to the rear of the case tightened, I could now install the exhaust grill and secure it as well. We see that the exhaust of the IceQ II lines up with the slot and the card really fits in the case well. There is no additional power connection required from a 6-Pin connection, so we are done and the HIS X800GTO IceQ II iTurbo is installed and ready to roll.

Time to power up the system and install drivers. I will be using the newest Catalyst drivers from ATI and at the time of the review that is 5.9 for x64. I know that HIS includes overclocking software with the X800GTO in the form of iTurbo, but I guess the old adage that you can't teach an old dog new tricks holds true as I will be using ATITool for overclocking. I will take a look at the HIS provided software in the next section, but for now let's see what ATITool will get out of this card.

To find the maximum stable overclock, I like to run the 'Find Max' for both the Core and Memory separately for about 3-4 hours. I then clock that value back about 5 MHz usually and test stability by setting the maximum clock and memory speed and scan for artifacts for at least 6 hours. The stock speeds are
400MHz
at the core and
490MHz
for the memory. The iTurbo sticker on the front guarantees that this card will reach 500MHz for the core and the memory will reach 1GHz, which is only 20MHz up from the stock speed of 490 (effectively 980MHz). As you can see from the photo above, I had no problem reaching those speeds and then shifting into 5th gear and blowing by them.

The maximum values that I was able to reach without artifacts were core-577MHz and memory-610MHz. I figured
570MHz
and
600MHz
were nice round numbers and left the frequencies there for the 6 hours of scanning for artifacts. These frequencies proved to be perfectly stable and the temperature was more than acceptable proving that the IceQ II once again lets you really maximize the cards abilities right out of the box.

This is the graduated fan speed table that I setup for the testing and you can see that after 6 hours of full load scanning for artifacts in ATITool the temperature was at 56C and the fan was only turning at 81% to keep it there. Throughout the 6 hours, the room temperature was 23-24C and not once did the fan have to jump up to 100%. The noise the fan makes at %81 is nothing and when the fan is increased to %100 you cannot tell the difference. I had to unplug the case fans from the Take 4 and also unplug the VapoChill Micro Ultra Low Noise fan just to distinguish the X800GTOs fan at %100. I don't have a decibel meter but I believe HIS when they claim that the fan does not exceed 22dB.

Page 6 : Bundled Software

With a video card, or any computer component for that matter, you will no doubt receive some sort of software package. Normally the software included will just be drivers or the like. With the HIS X800PRO IceQ II Turbo, the software bundle is quite substantial and part of it actually provides added functionality to the hardware. That is what we will be looking at now.

Drivers and Utilities CD

The drivers and utilities CD opens up to the drivers install page and has a link to install or download the latest ATI drivers.

The utilities tab provides a link to install ATI Hydravision. This software provides you the ability to manage and fully utilize a multi-monitor setup.

The last tab, labeled HIS, contains a few web links to the HIS web site as well as a handful of wall papers and calendars. The inclusion of the ATI Hydravision software is very important and those running more than one monitor will definitely want to install it and see what it can do for you.

iTurbo software

This is probably the most important piece of software because it allows you to maximize the performance capabilities of the X800GTO in a very simple and easy to use interface even if you are not an experienced overclocker or advanced computer user. The installation is as simple as it gets and all that is required is to click on the install and to follow the prompts.

Once installed, the HIS iTurbo software minimizes to the notification area of the taskbar. Double clicking on the icon will open up the very simple iTurbo interface. We can see the iTurbo software offers the core temperature and fan speed on the right as well as sliders to adjust the core clock and memory clock frequencies. You can also select the auto fan speed and let the software control the speed of the fan based on the core temperature.

The big iTurbo button in the lower left is all that is required to let the software automatically overclock the card to present safe settings. This automatically brings the core clock up to 499MHz and the memory clock up to 998MHz just as the sticker on the front of the box outlined. Going into turbo mode automatically puts the fan speed in manual and at 100%. You can set the fan back to auto in this mode so the fan is not always running at 100%, although you can't really hear the fan anyway if you have any other fans running in your case.

The setup button takes us to the properties window where the software is automatically set to start with windows and start minimized.

The last of the tabs provides us with the ability to set a number of values to display on-screen or in the tray area of the taskbar. That is really all there is to the iTurbo software and as you can see it is quite simple, straight forward, and really does not require any overclocking experience to squeeze more performance out of the HIS X800GTO IceQ II Turbo. Obviously you can raise the values higher and, as I demonstrated using ATI Tool, the X800GTO is capable of substantially higher frequencies but you will be doing so at your own risk.

The rest of the software is contained on a few other CDs. The two full version games are the newer game FlatOut and an older game called Dungeon Siege. There are also a couple full versions of programs like PowerDirector 3 SE Plus, a movie editing software from CyberLink and Power2Go, a burning software suite also from CyberLink. In addition to these full versions, a number of trial or demo applications and games are present in the contents of the CDs.

Page 7 : Test Machine

For testing of the HIS X800GTO IceQ II Turbo I will be using the following set of components…

For the review today, I will be putting the X800GTO IceQ II Turbo up against an X700Pro and something from the NVIDIA vault, a 6600GT. As per usual, testing with include some synthetic benchmarks such as 3DMark 01 SE, 3DMark 03, and 3DMark 05 from the Futuremark lineup as well as Aquamark. In addition to those, I will include SpecViewPerf 8.1 in the mix. I will run each of these manually 3 times and average the results with a reboot in-between runs.

We don't just stop at synthetic benchmarks here at Overclockers Online. The games that will be included in the testing will be the popular Half-Life 2, Doom 3, Far Cry, Halo, and Unreal Tournament 2004. These games will run 3 times using BenchEmAll, with a reboot in-between each run, and the results will be averaged for the charts on the coming pages. The last of the games that will be benchmark is also the newest, Battlefield 2. In order to get an accurate repeatable time demo benchmark, I will be utilizing a little utility courtesy Guru 3D. Enough yackin, let's get to the action.

Page 8 : Synthetic Performance

First up in the myriad of testing will be the run of Futuremark benchmarking software. This software provides a solid representation of DirectX 7, DirectX 8, and DirectX 9 gaming performance.

The X800GTO is off to great start handily out performing both the 6600GT and X700Pro. In reality, the X700PRO won't be much of a match throughout testing, but I will leave its results in the testing for a barometer of just how much better the X800GTO is. We also get our first look at just how much the massive overclock we were able to attain helps in the cards performance, a substantial 1318 points in 3DMark 05 and a whopping 2339 points in 3DMark 03.

Aquamark again shows a huge improvement between the overclocked and stock results. The X800GTO gain walks away with an easy victory.

Spec View is a measurement of the Open GL capabilities of the different video cards and not the Direct X performance like the ones above. As with previous reviews, these results vary greatly depending on the results so you would have to judge which card performs better program by program and not on the whole.

Now it is time to get to the more important gaming performance comparisons. We will soon find out if the HIS X800GTO IceQ II Turbo can maintain its advantage over the BFG 6600GT OC.

Page 9 : Doom III

Doom III is still one of the most demanding games from the GPU point of view, so this is really one of the toughest challenges the video cards will see.

8xAF

4xAA

8xAF 4xAA

The results are somewhat misleading. The ATI chipset is incapable of actually implementing AA and AF in Doom III so the only actually comparable results are that of the run without AF or AA turned on. The stock frequencies of the X800GTO does fall behind the 6600GT but with the overclock we attained, it pulls right in-line with the 6600GT and comes out equal. This is quite the feat as Doom III is optimized for the NVIDIA chipset and the ATI chipset usually suffers.

Page 10 : Far Cry

Far Cry is actually one of my favorite games so the performance of the X800GTO will be very important to me. Far Cry is considered an all time favorite amongst a lot of gamers and with its recent introduction to the console, it is getting new life breathed into it.

8xAF

4xAA

8xAF 4xAA

Here it is no neck and neck race, the X800GTO clearly handles Far Cry far better than the 6600GT. The stock speeds of the GTO are even superior to that of the overclocked 6600GT and that gap widens even more when the workload is increased with the introduction of anti-aliasing. I must also say that Far Cry just looks beautiful on the X800GTO. The water looks spectacular and the shadows just make the game that much more intense.

Page 11 : Half-Life 2

Half-Life 2 has to be one of the most popular FPS games on the market. It does rely heavily on the CPU, so at the lower resolutions that will be a bottleneck but once the resolution gets increased and anti-aliasing and anisotropic filtering are turned on, the true strength of the video cards will be shown.

8xAF

4xAA

8xAF 4xAA

Again, much like the Far Cry results, the HIS X800GTO really runs away from the 6600GT at higher resolutions when the power of the GPU is called upon with anti-aliasing. This X800GTO is starting to really impress me with these results especially when it comes to higher resolution performance.

Page 12 : Halo

We can't leave Halo out of the mix.

8xAF

4xAA

8xAF 4xAA

There is just more of the same to be seen here. The overclocked results from the X800GTO really stand out in these graphs. Most video cards aren't really worth the effort or risk to overclock because the gains are minimal, but this HIS X800GTO with the IceQ II cooling system really allows for a substantial overclock that is worth almost 20FPS in every game we have tested at higher resolutions.

Page 13 : Unreal Tournament 04

Another one of the games in our tests that tend to lean on the CPU more is Unreal Tournament 04, but at high resolutions it can really strain a modern GPU.

8xAF

4xAA

8xAF 4xAA

As expected, the gap between the cards at the lower solutions isn't really that large but once at 1600×1200 the higher powered GPU shows its worth and it is clear that the X800GTO is the leader of the pack in this group. I really thought the 6600GT would put up more of a fight, but it just doesn't seem to be in the same ballpark.

Page 14 : Battlefield 2

This is the moment I have been waiting for and I know you have been too. I want to see how the HIS X800GTO handles the newest game out. BF2 is not only the newest but also one of the most demanding on the GPU we have seen since Doom III. The huge overclock capable of the HIS X800GTO might be required here to get some decent numbers, let's take a look.

This fight will be closer than I thought. The stock frequencies of the X800GTO provide almost identical performance to the OC'd performance of the 6600GT. Of course that big overclock on the HIS X800GTO gives the win to the GTO. It is just hard to compete with a card that allows a 40% overclock at the core like the HIS does.

8xAF

4xAA

What is most impressive is the drop off in FPS when anti-aliasing gets turned on. I should say lack of FPS drop in the case of the X800GTO. It just seems to get stronger when the workload increases.

8xAF 4xAA

It was a closer fight in the Battlefield 2 ring but again, the HIS X800GTO IceQ II Turbo is just the clear cut winner in the newest game out. I dont think there is much else to say, but I will sum up my findings here today in the conclusion on the final page.

Page 15 : Conclusion

'the best price/performance card ever built'
How can you argue with that statement after reading this review? If you were not impressed by the 42% overclock of the GPU core or the 22% overclock of the memory, then surely the temperature when running this ridiculously impressive overclock under load thanks to the IceQ II cooling technology that HIS incorporates in their X800GTO offering has you running out the door to buy it. In addition to the overclocking capabilities of the HIS X800GTO, the pure performance of this new chipset is just incredible. I was surprised going through the benchmark results just how much of a difference there was compared to the 6600GT. Considering the fact that both cards are priced within $20 of each other at most retailers, like I said during the results, it didn't seem to be a fair fight as all.

HIS has put together a great package of software that allows even the most basic of computer users to fully utilize their card with the included iTurbo program that will safely overclock the card at the push of a button. To include two full games and a pile of demos really is icing on the cake. I would love for HIS to ditch the two mediocre games and handful of demos to be replaced with a single blockbuster title, but if you start including a $50 game in a $200 package, the competition would start crying foul!

Up until now, the 6600GT based graphics cards have been considered by many in computer forums around the vast landscape that is the Internet, as the best bang-for-the-buck cards on the market. That will have to change with the rollout of the X800GTO based cards as shown by the superb performance shown here today. HIS has presented us with what I would consider the best of that group in their X800GTO IceQ II Turbo by providing all the tools necessary to allow you to really maximize the potential of this chipset all in a package that is very competitively priced.

Advantages:

• WOW can this card overclock!!
• Performance is lights out
• Price is very competitive

  Disadvantages:

• You will waste hours telling all your forum friends about this great card
• Homework and odd jobs will come to a standstill while you game all day long

  Overclockers Online would like to thank HIS for providing this sample for review.