The card close up

After removing a few screws the heatsink comes of easily:



A large copper base with an aluminum section for the memory chips should keep this card running cool, even when overclocked.



The R520 core



Samsung 2.0ns GDDR3 is used:



Test Setup

Windwithme's Test Setup
CPU	Intel Pentium D 805 Cooled by Thermaltake Sonic Tower
Mainboard	Asus P5LD2
Memory	2*512MB DDRII 667
Other	80gb Seagate SATA HDD

Overclocking the X1800GTO results in larger advantages in speed when it comes down to recent games and benchmarks, older benchmarks display only a small increase although both the core and memory of the X1800GTO overclock well beyond specifications with the stock cooling.

Maximum stable GPU: 585Mhz
Maximum stable Memory: 1124Mhz



During my tests I did run into something odd with the 3DMark03, it showed an abnormally high score when I overclocked the GPU to 590Mhz (not 100% stable).



Overall impressions

The largest competitor for the X1800GTO is nVidia’s 7600GT which seems one step ahead when it comes down to price/performance. But the X1800GTO is not all bad. The MSI package is feature rich with dual DVI and VIVO it will satisfy most multimedia enthusiasts.

The default heatsink is very adequate and keeps the R520 core running cool even when overclocked; under heavy load the GPU temperature reached ~66°C. When in 2D the fan slows down and becomes none disturbing.

However the main downside of the X1800GTO will be price, close to $50 more expensive than the 7600GT you’ll have to reach some very high overclocks to justify the extra expense.

Question/Comments: forum thread