Conclusion

We set out to write this review with a goal: is it worth to upgrade to the highest performing ATI AGP card if you’re in an Intel system without room to manoeuvre when it comes to the CPU? The answer is complicated. Let’s do a recap assuming you have a 9800 PRO/XT.

In FarCry you’re better off either not upgrading or moving to a PCI-Express system altogether. In HL2 an upgrade is recommended but keep in mind the results in this review specifically focus on a level that requires a lot of pixel shading power. Most of the game is usually CPU limited. Still, with Lost Coast, the HL2 expansion Aftermath and Day of Defeat: Source making use of high dynamic range lighting you may find one or two years old boards that served you so well, simply outclassed.

In both Battlefield 2 and Doom 3 even ATI’s top of the line AGP card meets its match without FSAA at 1280x1024. The performance increase in Doom 3, for instance, with 4x AA between both cards is simply amazing so the X850 XT PE is a recommended upgrade even for Intel AGP systems. With Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory this is even more pronounced and this game demonstrates quite clearly that even without AA, AF or HDR a faster card would be quite welcome.

The original question then requires a qualified response. Recent games like F.E.A.R. and Quake 4 for instance, demand much more out of your video card than CPU. The extra 128MB of video ram is also showing its advantage in a few games. 3Dc and support for DirectX’s PS 2.0 Extended should also give you some quality improvements in the future. However, if you prefer other types of games the investment in a X850 XT Platinum Edition may be ill-advised. As an example, we barely noticed any performance improvement in the recently released Dungeon Siege 2 between the 9800 PRO and the X850.

Looking farther into the future of new card releases, ATI’s decision on whether or not to release an AGP version of its Radeon X1800 based on the R520 part will only determine if AGP is dead or dying fast. PCI-Express is the future and sooner rather than later you’ll have to upgrade too. The question then becomes: how long will the X850 last you if it has the rest of the system dragging it down? That depends entirely on your upgrade schedule. At this time of writing, a quick browsing of the usual e-vendors show the cheapest XT PE at £195 / €290 / $355 while the AGP version of the X800 XL for instance, is going for £124 / €184 / $226 so you may want to invest on a cheaper but also slower card to last you just enough until you decide to switch to PCI Express.

Something to keep in mind though is that even if AGP is dead, the same can’t be said of an Intel AGP system or an AGP-based AMD system without the highest-end CPU. These systems still have a lot of service in them and the virtual lack of any GHz progress for the last twelve to fifteen months or so might just play to your advantage: upcoming games will most likely take this into account, continuing to push the graphics card while leaving CPU requirements pretty much alone, until such a time that multi-core becomes mainstream and applications make use of it in earnest. During this review the Radeon X850 XT Platinum Edition proved it has enough stamina to handle even the most pixel hungry games we could throw at it one a system such as this.