Introduction

Not so long ago we saw the introduction of the fastest single graphics card with the launch of the NVIDIA GeForce 7950 GX2 with the ability of enabling Quad SLI operation. Since than ATI hasn't just been hanging around thing of their next move but have quietly worked upon their counter action. With a redesign of their R580 core, they have now the weapon to go up against the GX2 with their Radeon X1950 XTX video card. No, you won't see any Quad CrossFire coming to counter the Quad SLI technology. Currently ATI required a redesign of their high-end GPU to enable the support for the GDDR4 memory chips and unlock the full potential of their optimized R580+ chip.

We are amongst the very few whom gotten the opportunity to get an early start and received from PowerColor one of their first Radeon X1950 XTX 512MB sample cards. In close collaboration with our friends at Madshrimps, who will focus on the gaming performance, power usage and overclocking, we will bring you an in depth view on the Radeon X1950 specifications and some preliminary performance figures. Coming with the introduction of the renewed Radeon X1950 series are actually two versions, the Radeon X1950 XTX and the CrossFire Edition. Both bearing the same specification and speeds, which can't be said about the Radeon X1900 CrossFire Edition. At a later stage, the lower Radeon X1950 XT will be introduced.

ATI has remained largely silent since NVIDIA released the GeForce 7950 GX2 and made Quad SLI possible. Now though ATI is ready to fire a parting shot in the battle between current generation video cards. ATI takes another stab at restoring parity in the high-end graphics segment with an improved version of the Radeon X1900 XTX graphics card. Reinforced with an enhanced R580+ core and GDDR4 memory, the Radeon X1950 XTX 512MB promises a lot but can it deliver the win for ATI?

Features

• Radeon X1950 XTX (R580+ at 650MHz)
• 512MB 256-bit GDDR4 memory (2GHz)
• Memory Bandwidth of 64.0GB/s
• PCI Express x16 Compatibility
• H.264 playback with Avivo Engine
• High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection Support
• DirectX 9.0c, OpenGL 2.0 and Shader Model 3.0 Support
• Simultaneous Anti-Aliasing and HDR Capable

Some months ago we saw the introduction of ATI's 90nm graphics cards based upon the R580 chip, which is actually an optimized die of the R520 core released last year. With the ATI Radeon X1900 series, ATI has been able to restore somehow the balance when it comes to the high performance graphics card market. With the recent release of the bumped GeForce 7950 GX2 however, ATI fell behind once again and had to come up with something to counter the GX2 and the Quad SLI feature. It didn't take ATI that long to come up with their solution, which led to the introduction of the Radeon X1950 series.

The PowerColor Radeon X1950 XTX card itself looks like any other reference XTX with a large dual slot cooler, which has been resigned since the previous cooler we saw on the Radeon X1900 series. On the Radeon X1900 series the main bad impression that was felt by many was in fact the quit loud cooler when running the card under full load. To relief that burden, ATI has gone back to the design board and came up with a better, though quieter cooling solution for their Radeon X1950 series.

The Radeon X1950 XTX 512MB is the king of kings and build around the refurbished 90nm R580+ core. Make no mistake about it folks; this card is a beast that provides some incredible specifications at the same time demanding plenty of requirements. The Radeon X1950 XTX is set to break records in its standard air cooled fashion. As featured on the Radeon X1900, it offers a ring bus memory architecture, married to greater horsepower derived from its 48 pixel shader processors, along with 16 texture units and 8 vertex shaders. The main difference is the use of GDDR4 memory on the Radeon X1950 series. This gives it a much greater advantage in processing pixel shaders, which are becoming increasingly important in games.

PowerColor clocks its Radeon X1900 XTX 512MB card in at the reference 650MHz core and 2000MHz memory (effective). That's the same speed as the Radeon X1900 XTX's core, although memory bandwidth is up by an impressive 450MHz. This great improvement on the memory raw speed has been accomplished by using the new GDDR4 chips which are currently available from Samsung and Hynix. Doing so ATI achieved their ultimate goal to boost the memory bandwidth and unlock the full capabilities of their high optimized 512-bit internal ring bus controller.