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ATI Radeon X700XT (RV410) Review |
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Written by Mavke
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Tuesday, 05 October 2004 |
Digit-Life has put up a review on the new ATI Radeon X700XT. So, not so much time has passed since the release of the nVidia GeForce 6600 series, and now ATI is announcing its "Canadian answer". The X700 series also comprises several video cards, united by the same codename of the chip - RV410.
 ATI Radeon X700XT (RV410)
The new series is oriented solely to PCI-Express, so we cannot expect the AGP counterparts in the nearest future (or for good). No matter how you feel about
this series, insulting for the AGP segment still covering almost 99% of users. You can wax indignant over the behavior of the leading manufacturers, but progress is progress. It's appropriate here to remember that the market will finally cross the T's, and the demand may force the manufacturers to listen to users' needs and release the AGP counterparts. Note that it will be easy for nVidia (as it already has an HSI bridge, which converts AGP to PCI-E and vice
versa) and not so simple for ATI, who does not possess such a bridge.
Firstly, we'll have to hope that a new driver (or a game patch) will be released soon to fix this failure in Far Cry. Secondly, ATI will surely have to keep down its appetite concerning $249 for a 256MB video card and to reduce the price by $40-50 waiting for a launch of a more powerful video card from nVidia of the same 6600 series.
Thirdly, we all remember that for a long time the ATI products have been the favorites only because they were considerably faster in shader games than their
nVidia counterparts. And in order to retain the first place, the Canadian company would have to launch a product, which is not equal (relatively) in performance, but noticeably faster than its competitor. And also to take into
account a fair overclocking reserve of 6600GT (which is strangely not the case with X700XT, though both products are manufactured using the same process technology).
ATI still has a "resort" in the AGP sector, where nVidia is presently offering old and weak FX5700 for $150-$200. It's a good chance, but it's very odd to watch the Canadian company trying to play in this sector with 9800 PRO
(which, according to the tests, is obviously out of the competition with the new middle end solutions) instead of introducing the X700 series, having taken advantage of the breakaway from nVidia in this sector. They could have produced various revisions of RV410 (with AGP and PCX interfaces). It's a pity but ATI seems to practically miss that opportunity - the company will hardly have time
to react before the possible launch of new AGP solutions from nVidia.
Interestingly, showing steady preference for PCI-E, both companies actually force OEM integrators to switch to the new platform, which is very profitable for Intel but which does not pay for common users and for most OEM integrators either. Anyhow, the shade of Intel is obviously lurking behind the zealous PCI Express initiative of both graphics leaders.
Well, let's return to ATI. The leadership must be constantly upheld! You cannot just release a successful product once in three years and then rest on your laurels. If they don't understand that in Canada, they will soon lose the
yellow jersey. They could have prided themselves on the powerful X800XT PE, but it cannot be found on shelves yet. You cannot lay claim to lands with a paper crown, and no one will swear allegiance to it...
We'll proceed with our reviews, so we are holding back our final sentence. The quality tests will do their bit, new drivers will be released, which will possibly fix the apparent bugs. We'll see who the winner is after the bulk sales start and various vendors offer their products...
Now what concerns Catalyst of the new version and its new features. It's pleasant to see that users are given the choice - which features they want to reduce and which they don't. This is what concerns A.I. But we'll analyze
exactly what features are disabled and enabled when you switch between the A.I. modes. That's why we are not announcing our sentence yet. But the slow interface
of CCC deserves the hottest words with a definitely negative connotation. It's a shame when this program is so godlessly slow even on a very powerful computer. We hope that the developers will take into account this moment in the nearest future. But on the whole, the idea of A.I. and CCC is very good.
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