X800 XT ordered and on the way

[biglawdog1]

Ordered a Sapphire x800 XT for an outrageous price yesterday and its supposedly on the way. The website had it adverted as of Monday night at 8:00 PM - called them Tuesday morning to make sure it was actually in stock and could be shipped same day before i ordered. Now its on the way.

Interestingly, they're already sold out and they've apparently raised the price about 40 dollars since I bought it (demand maybe ?). Even though it cost me quite a bit o cash, I'm glad I ordered one before they sold out. I'll post a review here when I get it installed and working on a couple of games.

As an aside, since I'm paranoid, how do I check to make sure its an XT rather than a Pro- just want to make sure I'm not being taken for a ride.

For people looking for these cards, I saw that Newegg had at least one version up (though out of stock). It was about 100 bucks less than what I paid for it. I'm assuming this is their version of the pre-order.

[nocturnx]

wow very kool, I cant wait to see your review for it.
Be sure to incude some benchmark scores with 3dmark03 for it

[Alaron]

Check the cards ram to see if your card is an XT. The ram chip's number will end in 16 if the card is an XT. The Pros end in 20. These numbers are response times, 1.6ns and 2.0ns. Faster ram is on the XT. You could also compare speeds.

XT: Core: 525mhz
Memory: 575mhz

Pro Core: 475mz
Memory: 450mhz

[BassMaster4000]

I will be getting the XT through my work for $406. It will be an awsome card and will blow everything else out away. good choice in video card biglawdog.

[biglawdog1]

Heh woah.

After a bit of trouble getting everything working right, the first Aquamark score the new card shot out was 59,250.

Had a 9800 XT a while back and best score I ever hit (with same hardware) was 39,700.

Only problem I seem to be having I sometimes get a quick black screen when im opening up a folder - and whatnot- any idea whats causing that ?

[BassMaster4000]

All that I can think of is either check your resolution settings, or maybe update the drivers... but the drivers should not be the case considering the card is new and it probably came with the newest drivers.

[biglawdog1]

Did a clean windows install in case it was an old driver conflict. No dice. Reinstalled everything and Cat 4.6 (which came with the card) and got the same damn sporactic black screen. However, when I drop the desktop resolution (or application resolution) down to 1200x1000, the problem goes away. Tried running Farcry in 1600x1200 reso and it gives me black screen issues again- bump it back to 1200x1000 and problem goes away.

I am baffled as to the problem. One of the big reasons I wanted to get a fast card is that my LCD monitor (21 inch samsung)'s native reso is 1600x1200 and wanted to be able t orun stuff to best take advantage of my monitor. If anyone has any ideas, I'd appreciate it.

On the upside, ran Aquamark after a clean install and I'm scoring around 63,000 at stock speeds.

[glc]

What's your refresh rate at 1600x1200? All a LCD needs is 60Hz, it won't flicker like a CRT.

[biglawdog1]

Yes, its set at 60. Now, the black screen is coming up on the 1200x1000 reso. It seems to do it almost every time when I use the scroll button on the mouse to scroll down on webpages. Does this indicate anything ?

I've posted on several message boards and nobody has a clue =x

[Rof_lmao]

maybe the card is messed up, rma it!