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ATI Radeon X1950 XTX 512MB PCI-E HDCP Review |
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Written by Mavke
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Saturday, 26 August 2006 |
X-Bit Labs shares a review on the ATI Radeon X1950 XTX 512MB PCIe graphics card. We have had two kings of the hill after the release of NVIDIA's GeForce 7900 GTX because it shook the lofty position of the ATI Radeon X1900 XTX but couldn't overthrow it. ATI Technologies didn't like that at all and wants to reestablish itself as the sole maker of fastest single chip graphics cards with its new Radeon X1950 XTX which comes at a recommended price of only $499! Historically, the Radeon X1900 XTX was released by ATI Technologies in response to NVIDIA's GeForce 7800 GTX 512MB which had earlier proved its superiority over the ATI Radeon X1800 XT.
 ATI Radeon X1950 XTX 512MB PCI-E HDCP Review
This problem became even more urgent for ATI after the arrival of the GeForce 7950 GX2 because the company lost its competitive edge in the sector of top-end single card graphics solutions. The fact that the GeForce 7950 GX2 is actually a SLI tandem didn't make life easier for ATI. They had to find a way to improve the performance of top-end models in the Radeon X1000 series. ATI didn't have time to equip its R580 chip with additional TMU's notwithstanding the flexibility of the Radeon X1000 architecture which allows making a chip from ready-made functional units as if from lego pieces.
This approach might have been fruitful, but would have also meant projecting a new chip almost from scratch. Although this could have been made faster than with a classic graphics architecture, it didn't make sense in view of the imminent arrival of the next generation of GPU's. But where to find new resources then? Actually, such resources were built into the Radeon X1000 architecture originally. We mean the memory controller. As we said above, using high resolutions along with FSAA raises the requirements bar not only in terms of texturing speed but also in terms of graphics memory bandwidth.
So if there is no way to improve the former parameter, the other may be tinkered with. That's exactly what they did to create the Radeon X1950 XTX! The memory controller in the Radeon X1000 series had originally been designed to support GDDR4, so ATI decided to use this new memory type on the new card as having a much higher frequency potential than GDDR3 while having comparable electrical and thermal characteristics. ATI played a key role in the development of GDDR4, so the company had a chance to try the new memory under real conditions before the release of graphics cards on next-generation processors.
ATI's new Radeon X1950 XTX is a worthy successor to the Radeon X1900 XTX, the previous flagship product. Equipped with new-type memory, capable of working at an unprecedented frequency of 2000MHz, the card has got faster and better than the GeForce 7900 GTX where the Radeon X1900 XTX used to lag behind. The biggest performance growth is observed when full-screen antialiasing is used along with high resolutions. We also want to single out the fact that having the same or higher performance than the GeForce 7900 GTX, the Radeon X1950 XTX provides a much higher quality of anisotropic filtering.
Besides that, like any other member of the Radeon X1000 family, the new card from ATI permits to use FSAA and enhanced floating-point color representation (HDR) simultaneously which greatly improves the visuals in some games. Having two G71 chips under the hood, the NVIDIA GeForce 7950 GX2 cannot offer anything like that with regards to image quality, but is ahead of the Radeon X1950 XTX in performance across a number of applications. The Radeon X1950 XTX is undoubtedly preferable in this respect, and can withstand the GeForce 7950 GX2 who just can support such feature, yet...
Our praises also go to the designers of the new cooling system the Radeon X1950 XTX is equipped with. It is a quiet, yet highly efficient cooler which is no worse than alternatives from Arctic Cooling or Zalman and is far better than the older cooler that used to be installed on the Radeon X1900 XTX. Silence seeking users won't have to buy a third-party cooler for this card. And it looks impressive, too! The only disappointing thing about the new card from ATI is that the company couldn't begin mass shipments of it on the day of the announcement as it had done with the Radeon X1900 XTX.
This is due to a certain deficit of GDDR4, it being a new memory type, but we hope this all will have been adjusted by September when the Radeon X1950 XTX is going to become widely available. At a suggested price of $449 and with excellent performance the new graphics card from ATI has a chance to get highly appreciated by those people who want to have not only a highest frame rate possible but also high image quality in games they play.
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