For overclocking, we saw a close fight between two cards using third party coolers, HIS and Sapphire, which is as much a testament to the cooler as to the VPU and memory. In the end, Sapphire's Ultimate Edition RADEON X800 XL, with its Zalman cooler just about shaded it to earn our Most Overclockable Product award.
For our shootout winner, we narrowed our choices easily to two outstanding cards. They also happened to be the more 'daring' ones that used innovative (albeit third party) coolers to deliver their cool and competent performances. HIS and Sapphire were the final contenders and both were equally capable cards that more than justified their relatively higher price tags. HIS' RADEON X800 XL IceQ II Turbo cemented the reputation of their IceQ II Turbo line of graphics card with yet another excellent showing, consistently doing well for all aspects. Yet, this was more than matched by Sapphire's RADEON X800 XL Ultimate Edition. In the end, we felt that the more reasonably priced Sapphire, coupled with its narrow edge in overclocking is the more deserving Winner of the ATI RADEON X800 XL Shootout.
