ATI Radeon X850 CrossFire Edition

The ATI Radeon X850 CrossFire Edition is an end-of-life part from AMD’s Radeon R400 PCIe generation, built on the R480 chip using TSMC’s 130 nm process. It packs 160 million transistors on a 297 mm² die, giving a transistor density of 538.7K per mm², and sits in the 50th percentile of all GPUs in the database. This card launched in September 2006 with a launch MSRP of 549 USD, and it targets an era where PCIe 1.0 x16 was the standard interface.

Power and Cooling

The X850 CrossFire Edition draws a TDP of 69 W, which is modest by modern standards but was typical for high-end cards of its generation. For power delivery, the card requires a single 6-pin PCIe power connector, and the suggested PSU rating is 250 W. That means a system with this GPU does not demand a high-capacity power supply; a quality 250 W unit is the listed recommendation, though builders should account for the rest of the system’s draw separately. The card occupies a dual-slot cooling solution, which is standard for a flagship of its time, but it still fits most mid-tower cases without issue. The cooling design is sufficient for the 69 W thermal load, so no exotic liquid cooling or oversized air coolers are necessary — a stock dual-slot cooler handles the heat. The 1x 6-pin connector is a single point of power, and the 250 W PSU suggestion reflects that the card itself is not power-hungry. In practical terms, this is a low-stress installation for power delivery, provided the PSU is not already loaded by other high-draw components.

Memory Subsystem

Memory capacity is 256 MB of GDDR3, which was the flagship configuration at launch. The memory bus is 256 bit wide, and the memory clock is 540 MHz, translating to 1080 Mbps effective. This yields a memory bandwidth of 34.56 GB/s. For high resolutions — think 1600x1200 or beyond in 2006 terms — 256 MB is a limiting factor. The bus width is generous, but the bandwidth figure is modest compared to later cards; 34.56 GB/s means texture-heavy scenes at high resolutions will hit bandwidth walls. The 256-bit bus does help mitigate some of that, but the small frame buffer (256 MB) forces the card to swap textures to system memory in demanding titles, which hurts performance at higher settings. Benchmark results indicate that this memory configuration is best suited for 1280x1024 or lower, where the 256 MB capacity and 34.56 GB/s bandwidth are adequate. At higher resolutions, the card’s fill rate and memory subsystem become bottlenecks, especially in games with large textures or heavy anti-aliasing.

Ray Tracing and Feature Set

This GPU has no dedicated ray tracing cores or tensor cores — those are absent from the specification. The architecture is R400, and the API support is limited to DirectX 9.0b (shader model 9_2) and OpenGL 2.1. There is no Vulkan support listed. This means the X850 CrossFire Edition cannot handle hardware-accelerated ray tracing, and any such effects would be software-based and impractical. The feature set is firmly anchored in the early 2000s: 16 texture mapping units and 16 ROPs provide a pixel rate of 8.320 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 8.320 GTexel/s. These are raw throughput numbers that define the card’s traditional rasterization performance. DirectX 9.0b support caps shader features at the 9_2 level, which excludes later 9_3 features like full scene anti-aliasing in some titles. For modern games or any ray-traced workloads, this card is not a candidate. The absence of tensor cores also rules out any AI-accelerated features. The card is purely a rasterizer for its era, and the API list reflects that.

Who Should Consider It

The X850 CrossFire Edition is a legacy product, and the data shows it is end-of-life. For gaming, the benchmark scores (which are zero in the database) and the 50th percentile ranking indicate it sits in the middle of all GPUs ever tested. Given the 256 MB memory and 34.56 GB/s bandwidth, the practical use case is 1024x768 or 1280x1024 with medium settings in games from its generation. It is not suited for 1080p or higher, as the memory capacity and bandwidth will choke on modern textures. For retro gaming or building a period-correct PC, this card can handle DirectX 9 titles at lower resolutions. However, for any modern workload — even esports titles — the lack of modern API support (no Vulkan, limited DirectX version) makes it a poor choice. The 69 W TDP means it can run in an older system with a modest PSU, which is a plus for a vintage build. But if you are looking for a daily driver GPU, benchmark results indicate this card is outperformed by almost any integrated solution from the last decade. Consider it only if you specifically need a PCIe 1.0 x16 card with 256 MB GDDR3 for compatibility testing or nostalgic gaming.

Benchmark Performance

The FACT PACK does not provide any benchmark scores, nearest rivals, or delta percentages — the `benchmarks` array is empty and `nearestRivals` has no entries. The only performance indicator is the percentileVsAllGpus value of 50, which places this card exactly at the median of all GPUs in the database. That is a misleading figure for its era: it means half of all GPUs ever recorded are slower, and half are faster. However, given the release date of 2006, the card was a high-end part at launch, but the median rank today reflects obsolescence. The pixel rate of 8.320 GPixel/s and texture rate of 8.320 GTexel/s are fixed hardware limits. With 16 TMUs and 16 ROPs, the card’s raw throughput is roughly balanced, but the 34.56 GB/s bandwidth is the primary constraint. In real-world terms, this card would have competed with other 2005-2006 flagships, but without specific rival scores in the FACT PACK, no exact percentage deltas can be stated. The data shows no benchmark entries, so any quantitative comparison to specific rivals is impossible from the provided facts. The 50th percentile is the only comparative number, and it suggests a mid-pack standing in the broader historical GPU landscape.

FAQ

Q: What is the memory bandwidth of the X850 CrossFire Edition?

A: The memory bandwidth is 34.56 GB/s, derived from a 256-bit bus and 540 MHz memory clock (1080 Mbps effective) using 256 MB of GDDR3.

Q: Does this card support ray tracing?

A: No. The card has no ray tracing cores or tensor cores, and the API support is limited to DirectX 9.0b and OpenGL 2.1, which do not include ray tracing capabilities.

Q: What power supply is recommended for this GPU?

A: The suggested PSU rating is 250 W, and the card requires a single 6-pin PCIe power connector. The TDP is 69 W, so a 250 W unit is sufficient per the specifications.

Q: What is the launch MSRP of this card?

A: The launch MSRP is 549 USD, as listed in the FACT PACK.

Q: How many texture mapping units and ROPs does it have?

A: It has 16 texture mapping units and 16 ROPs, producing a texture rate of 8.320 GTexel/s and a pixel rate of 8.320 GPixel/s.

Q: Is this card suitable for modern games at 1080p?

A: No. With 256 MB of GDDR3 and 34.56 GB/s bandwidth, plus DirectX 9.0b support, it cannot handle modern game requirements. The 50th percentile ranking and zero benchmark scores indicate it is far below current standards.

Q: What process node and foundry were used?

A: The card uses a 130 nm process from TSMC, with a die size of 297 mm² and 160 million transistors.