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PowerColor Radeon X1900 GT 256MB PCI-E Review |
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Written by Mavke
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Monday, 15 May 2006 |
Legion Hardware
reveals a review on the PowerColor Radeon X1900 GT 256MB PCIe graphics card. Presently
there are a number of high performance graphics cards available in the $300
price bracket from both ATI and
NVIDIA. The most up-to-date of
which is the GeForce 7900 GT from NVIDIA, or is it? ATI has just unleashed the new Radeon X1900 GT, and yes this
is another $300 options. Before the Radeon X1900 GT, the red team being ATI, was represented by the Radeon
X1800 XT and XL in the $300 price bracket. However, the Radeon X1800 XL is no
longer a worthwhile option as it costs roughly the same as the Radeon X1800 XT,
yet it is significantly slower.
 PowerColor Radeon X1900 GT 256MB PCI-E Review
After a lengthy battle, I eventually found the Radeon X1800 XT to be a superior performer to that of the GeForce 7900 GT. Although there was very little in it, the Radeon X1800 XT did pull ahead on more than one occasion. Now we have the slightly more expensive Radeon X1900 GT which will be available in droves very shortly. The Radeon X1900 GT features more pixel pipelines than the Radeon X1800 XT, but at the same time it features a lower core and memory clock frequency. The real question is will this new Radeon X1900 series graphics card be able to handle ATI's previous flagship product the Radeon X1800 XT?
Nevertheless, that is what we are here today to find out using a long list of popular gaming titles. However, before we do that let's just take a moment to meet this newcomer. Dressed in pink packaging this PowerColor Radeon X1900 GT is no pansy, featuring a core clock of 575MHz and a memory frequency of 1.2GHz. Furthermore, with 256MB of GDDR3 memory utilizing a 256-bit memory bus the Radeon X1900 GT has plenty of memory bandwidth at its disposal. Unfortunately, like the majority of PowerColor products the Radeon X1900 GT is nothing special to look at as it sports a reference like design.
The Radeon X1900 GT was not quite what I hoped it would be for a couple of reasons. Firstly it is not nearly cheap enough, of course prices will be driven down quickly, as they need to. The older Radeon X1800 XT cards are unquestionably faster and the problem with this is they are also cheaper. Even the GeForce 7900 GT was quicker in most cases and when it did come in second to the Radeon X1900 GT there was very little in it. These days it is very uncommon to see either an ATI or NVIDIA product dominating everything, most of the time the performance slightly favors one or the other depending on the game.
This is all very good and well, but the Radeon X1900 GT seemed to be playing catch up for the majority of the testing. Obviously this is not something you want to see a new and expensive Radeon X1900 series graphics card doing. Personally I expected, or had at least hoped, that the Radeon X1900 GT would come out and make reasonably light work of the older Radeon X1800 XT, which would most certainly secure its position in the $300 price range. However this was not the case and I really feel the Radeon X1900 GT is going to have a tough time settling in, certainly with the GeForce 7900 GT being around.
The overclocking performance of the Radeon X1900 GT was not that impressive either and I believe this will be much the same for all Radeon X1900 GT graphics cards. There should be little the GeForce 7900 GT has to worry about in terms of overclocking, as this card easily has the upper hand. The physical size of the GeForce 7900 GT is also smaller. The length of the GeForce 7900 GT is much shorter making it much easier to fit inside most cases. To date I am still yet to look at an exciting GeForce 7900 GT or Radeon X1800 XT graphics card, which offers more overclocking room.
Bottom line is if you are after a $300 graphics card, the PowerColor Radeon X1800 XT is most likely a better option. Keep in mind the Radeon X1800 XT comes in a 512MB variety which also costs around the $300 US mark and is even faster again. The four graphics cards tested here today all featured just 256MB of onboard GDDR3 memory. If you were to choose between the Radeon X1900 GT and GeForce 7900 GT it is really a case of personal preference. Do you prefer the green or the red team?
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