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But first let's have a technological view at the current "X" series product from ATI, and there are many. Buying a graphics card for the average PC user is growing complicated. Luckily there are sites like yours truly eh? Specification wise there is just no difference between the AGP and PCI-Express versions besides the fact that the AGP version has the Rialto chip.

Type Radeon X700 Pro Radeon X700 XT Radeon X800 Pro Radeon X800 XL Radeon X800 XT Radeon X800 XT Radeon X800 XT Platinum Edition Radeon X850 XT Radeon X850 XT Platinum Editioncodename RV410 RV410 R420 R430 R420 R423 R423 R480 R480Interface PCI-Express x16 PCI-Express x16 AGP PCI-Express x16 AGP PCI-Express x16 AGP/PCI-Express x16 PCI-Express x16 PCI-Express x16 Frame Buffer 256 MB 256 MB 256 MB 256 MB 256 MB 256 MB 256 MB 256 MB 256 MBCore Freq 425 MHz 475 MHz 475 MHz 400 MHz 500 MHz 500 MHz 520 MHz 520 MHz 540 MHzMemory Freq 433 MHz 525 MHz 450 MHz 500 MHz 500 MHz 500 MHz 560 MHz 540 MHz 590 MHzMemory Controller 128 bit 128 bit 256 bit 256 bit 256 bit 256 bit 256 bit 256 bit 256 bitMemory type GDDR3 GDDR3 GDDR3 GDDR3 GDDR3 GDDR3 GDDR3 GDDR3 GDDR3DirectX 9.0 9.0 9.0 9.0 9.0 9.0 9.0 9.0 9.0Vertex Shaders 2.0 2.0 2.0 2.0 2.0 2.0 2.0 2.0 2.0Pixel Shaders 2.0b 2.0b 2.0b 2.0b 2.0b 2.0b 2.0b 2.0b 2.0bVertex Shader Pipes 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6Pixel Shader Pipes 8 8 12 16 16 16 16 16 16Extra Power-connector - - Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes YesChip - Transistors 120 mln 120 mln 160 mln 160 mln 160 mln 160 mln 160 mln 160 mln 160 mlnChip - Fab Process 110 nm 110 nm 130 nm 110 nm 130 nm 130 nm 130 nm 130 nm 130 nm

Right then, the data above is showing standard reference clock-speeds as suggested by ATI. As you probably have noticed the standard x850 XT model (if you can call it standard) is allowed to run at PE speeds with a 540 MHz core and 1.18 GHz clocked memory thanks to the included iTurbo software.

So why would you chip in another 50 bucks for the PE edition? Well the PE edition is clocked standard at 540 MHz and our findings show that it can in fact can be clocked a little higher than the standard XT version. It's the best of the best. Will you ever notice the difference in games? I doubt it. Therefore I definitely recommend the standard XT version over the more expensive platinum edition. But the high-end enthusiast will probably go for the PE version anyway as it was tested to clock a little higher then rest. Furthermore, 100% same product.

The information below is displayed with the help of Rivatuner.

In truth there is not much differentiation feature-wise between the entire Radeon lineup. 3D Feature wise this R480 part does not differ from the x800 series, except from what we heard some Power Management features and Thermal Throttling capabilities. Nothing really notable above and beyond performance though.

This is the new Rialto chip. It's a bridge chip to make PCI-express VPUs compatible with the AGP bus. This offers ATI a lot of flexibility as they can basically use it on any VPU.