Verdict: A two-year-old GPU that's better than many of ATi's more recent efforts.

The X800-series is an evolution of the Radeon 9800 Pro, which was developed from the even more ancient Radeon 9700 Pro - the first DirectX 9 card and, historically, one of ATi's best products. However, due to its considerable age, the Radeon 9700 Pro and, consequently, the X800-series don't support Direct 9c, Shader Model 3.

The mid-range models of the X800-series proved popular with punters a year or two ago, as they were able to take on the competing GeForce 6-series in non-Shader Model 3 games. As such, it's likely that many people will still own X800-series cards, and want to know how they stack up in today's games against more modern GPUs.

The X800GTO2 was the only X800-series card we could lay our hands on, and was one of the last models to be produced. It has distinctly mid-range specifications, with just 12 pixel processors, 12 texture processors and 12 ROPs. However, as the X800GTO2 was originally based on the R430 or R480 core (depending on when it was made), a simple BIOS upgrade could unlock a further four processing units, bringing the total to 16 pixel processors, 16 texture processors and 16 ROPs - the same number as that of the flagship X800 card, the X800XT PE. Once unlocked, the X800GTO2 could take on cards that were significantly more expensive, although whether it can still do this two years later remains to be seen.

Despite its age and lack of Shader Model 3 support, the X800GTO2 was able to play several of our test games without having to tone down the quality settings. For example, it played Need for Speed: Carbon smoothly at 1,280 x 1,024 with 2x AA and AF enabled - highly impressive for a two-year-old card - while F.E.A.R. was smooth at 1,024 x 768. However, forget about playing S.T.A.L.K.E.R. at maximum detail; at 1,024 x 768 the X800GTO2 jerked along at a miserable 11fps.

It's great to see that a two-year-old graphics card is able to play two of our three test games, but it's clear from the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. results that the X800GTO2 is at the end of its useful life. Just make sure that you upgrade to a card that offers more performance, as many newer GPUs with supposedly better features, such as the X1300-series and X1600-series, are much slower than the X800GTO2.

• Cases - 21st November 2008
• Motherboards - 24th October 2008
• Gaming Headsets - 26th September 2008
• Dream PCs - 24th September 2008
• Headphones - 12th September 2008
• Media PC components - 22nd August 2008
• PSUs - 14th July 2008

• OCZ Core Series 30GB - Hard disks / storage
• Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB - Hard disks / storage
• Asus EAH4870 TOP - Graphics cards
• Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Pro - Sound cards
• Multiwinia - Games
• Zotac GeForce GTX 260² - Graphics cards
• Sapphire Radeon HD 4850 X2 - Graphics cards