Thoughts
As a means to evaluating X800 PRO's performance, this article comes up with one big conclusion. When you aren't CPU limited, X800 PRO has roughly 75% of X800 XT's performance. When you are CPU limited, it's realistically just as fast.The X800 PRO is the first card in ATI's new lineup to pose questions about price and availability. With X800 XT not available at general retail yet, combined with it's high price tag, it's clear it's an early adopter's card at the time of writing.
The PRO, with it's performance, general availability (although it is somewhat slow, cards are in the hands of some customers as I type this) and price that's competetive with 9800 XT (in terms of price/performance), is the one that will appeal to many more people.
At ~£300 in the UK and availability about to reach good levels, it's hard not to recommend if you're in the market for a new graphics card and have money to play in the current high-end.
For those waiting for the price to drop, X800 PRO's performance is compelling, start saving those pennies.
It's a well judged part from ATI, the combination of finely balanced memory clocks, the core render setup and price contributing to that.
It may pay to see what NVIDIA have to offer in the same price range and we'll be evaluating 6800GT performance in the near future, but in isolation against the ATI products that sit above and below it, the X800 PRO is highly recommended if you have the money to spend.
