The X800XT PE is ATI's flagship technology, and its main change over the standard X800 XT is a core frequency increase from 500MHz to 520MHz, and a memory increase from 500MHz to 560MHz. Consequently, it performs better than the standard X800 XT's, topping all the benchmarks and achieving a phenomenal 26588 marks in 3DMark01 in 1024 x 768. But unfortunately for ASUS, there are other cheaper cards nipping at its heels, like our Labs winning PowerColor X800XT, which eat in to its value for money score.

The card itself is reassuringly well built, and the large gun metal cooler does a good job of keeping the card cool. One of the more unusual extras bundled with this card is the USB webcam. It ties in with ASUS's proprietary GameFace technology, which enables Picture-in-Picture support in games. The other extras are quite respectable, too, with a soft-DVD player, video editing software and Deus Ex 2. Like the 6800GT, we were unable to get our hands on more than one of Platinum Edition, however the scores here, which were calculated against the standard X800 XT's in the labs, should give you some indication of the price jump when moving up to the higher clock and memory speeds.