Gigabyte GV-RX18L256V-B Radeon X1800XL

Performance Summary: The performance of the Gigabyte GV-RX18L256V-B was good, but not stellar.  While it was competitive in most of the benchmarks, it never really established itself as the top card, often falling behind not only NVIDIA's GeForce 7800GT, but sometimes even the older X850XT.

There's really nothing terribly special about the RX18L256V-B.  It does the job well from a performance standpoint, but doesn't shine in any one area.  The hardware is standard fare, basically copied from ATi's reference design.  The accompanying bundle is also a bit bland for our tastes with just the basics covered, and only one game that's worth taking a look at, although even then it's almost two years old.  The one bright spot might be the full set of cables that are included, as it means less to purchase down the road should users want to connect their PC to different types of displays.

What's left is a package that doesn't really impress.  The current average price of about $400 simply isn't worth the investment when other cards like Gigabyte's own GeForce 7800 GT can be had for less.  Perhaps, when the price comes down somewhat, this might seem like a good choice, but for now we'll keep our eyes and our money elsewhere.  We're giving the Gigabyte GV-RX18L256V-B a 7 on the HotHardware Heat Meter.  The GPU has lots of nice features, but there are better values out there.

•_Good overall performance •_Overclocks well •_Single-slot solution	•_Priced Higher than other models •_Fan becomes noisy under load •_No Stand Out Features

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