ATI have again stepped up the heat in the graphics card market. It has had an awesome top-end line with it's Radeon X1900 series and now ATI have felt that the time has come to give that performance sector a nice speed injection. Step up with the Radeon X1950 XTX graphics card. The basics have been kept the same, in almost all aspects. The R580 chip is still based on TMC's 90nm low-k technology and the basic parts that make up the R580 are still present. ATI have kept 48 pixel shaders, 16 texture units, 8 vertex pipes and 16 pixel engines. There has been a few minor improvements in the revision, along with a speed bump, but the basics are all there. - Overclock3D

PowerColor Radeon X1950 XTX 512MB HDCP Review

The efficient ring bus memory architecture is still there, but here's where we get tot the major change for the Radeon X1900's big brother. The Radeon X1950 XTX is using GDDR4 memory. ATI have been the first to bring this new memory technology to the market and it bring with it a smooth speed hike up to 2000MHz. Not too shabby. In my opinion the Radeon X1950 is a showcase for GDDR4 using ATI's top-end technology at this time. However, GDDR4 memory is fast which we can see just by looking at the clock speeds, but what else does it do for your money? Well GDDR4 is a lot about power consumption.

I've mentioned it briefly, but the Radeon X1950 XTX has got a cooler to really impress you. NVIDIA have had their top-end cooler sorted for some time now. ATI, on the other hand, have been met with general disapproval. ATI have listened to the customer feedback and improved upon their old design. We took the card apart to see how it all fitted together and I was very impressed with this cooler. It comes now as well with a heatpipe, a single one is what ATI have decided and will suffice for the card. Perhaps a couple more would have kept that temperature down that little bit more.

The Radeon X1950 XTX is an incredibly fast card. ATI have tweaked what was already a great performer and made it even better. With gaming image quality being more and more a focus of the high-end of the graphics market, ATI have done it right and produced a card that really makes your games look amazing. Take into account this, firstly there is the GeForce 7950 GX2. NVIDIA's highest card is very fast in games. Is this card better? That's all a matter of opinion. At the moment in my eyes ATI has the edge in the image auality field and that's where the Radeon X1950 XTX really thrives.

However if you are looking for a card to tuck safely in your top spec gaming machine then a PowerColor Radeon X1950 XTX is a card you should be putting serious thought into buying. Prices for UK launch look to be around £330, and ATI have said that these cards should be available by the 16th September. This remains to be seen in all honesty, but here's hoping.