Preliminary Overclocking Performance...

Somehow I figured there must be some extra power left within the PowerColor Radeon X1950 PRO accelerator. Being powered by a new core manufactured at 80nm, and the excellent silent cooling it would be strange if we couldn't overclock the card. With applying some overclocking we have been able to reach a maximum overclock of 625/1500MHz. This was done by just changing the core and memory clock speeds and leaving all other parameters at default. As the current Catalyst drivers didn't allow any overclocking we used 3rd party software, so these overclocking results are somehow a bit preliminary. So what does that mean in terms of our gaming performance?

Doom 3 - 1280x1024 Gaming Results

Radeon X1950 PRO	595/1400MHz (Ref)	625/1500MHz (OC)
4x AA/0x AF	71.2 fps	74.9 fps
Results Interpretation: Higher index values are better.

Far Cry - 1280x1024 Gaming Results

Radeon X1950 PRO	595/1400MHz (Ref)	625/1500MHz (OC)
4x AA/8x AF	88.95 fps	93.72 fps
Results Interpretation: Higher index values are better.

Quake 4 - 1280x1024 Gaming Results

Radeon X1950 PRO	595/1400MHz (Ref)	625/1500MHz (OC)
4x AA/8x AF	100.7 fps	104.1 fps
Results Interpretation: Higher index values are better.

X³: Reunion - 1280x1024 Gaming Results

Radeon X1950 PRO	595/1400MHz (Ref)	625/1500MHz (OC)
4x AA/8x AF	68.196 fps	69.845 fps
Results Interpretation: Higher index values are better.

As you can see, there is some gain in the results. The PowerColor Radeon X1950 PRO was slightly overclocked, but nonetheless able to improve in each game. For the heavy overclockers, there will be a new Catalyst driver which will feature better support towards overclocking. We managed to overclock the PowerColor Radeon X1950 PRO up to 625/1500MHz, but that was somehow the maximum we could reach. The new drivers should allow you the enabled the overdrive feature and boost the clock even further. Somehow with some extra voltage increase on the core, there should be more potential that could be unlocked...

Final Thoughts

ATI have definitely crafted a very desirable card in the Radeon X1950 PRO. The Radeon X1950 PRO is truly one of the fastest single GPU graphics card on the market, coming at a very attractive price tag of around $229. ATI clearly designed the Radeon X1950 PRO to be fast and with a single goal at hand; to crush the GeForce 7900 GS at both performance and price. In both aspects they have just done that, and more. As such PowerColor just stepped up by having their Radeon X1950 PRO's cards ready together with the standard ATI cards, and gained some respect amongst the high-end gaming enthusiasts.

Without a doubt, the PowerColor Radeon X1950 PRO is one fast graphics accelerator with very silent operation. It did win all the tests we threw at it against the likes of the NVIDIA GeForce 7900 GS. Although it might still be a close battle with pre-overclocked GS versions. The 36 pixel pipes of the RV570 architecture are hard at work and ATI's decision to beef them up in such a considerable way is really paying off. ATI's strongest performance continues to be in DirectX applications, whereas NVIDIA still has the edge in OpenGL applications and games. But the gap is closing with every passing minute.

The Radeon X1950 PRO from PowerColor also has a far superior cooling solution and does not produce troublesome amounts of noise, even under heavy load. The main improvement however would be new RV570 core, the first high-end 80nm graphics chip manufactured by ATI. For enthusiasts it's a shame that there are no real overclocking tools available for those who want to push the Radeon X1950 PRO as far as possible, but this will hopefully be fixed shortly. The overclocking potential however is still top notch.

So far I'm quite pleased with the PowerColor Radeon X1950 PRO gaming performance, which has really taken me by surprise. The PowerColor Radeon X1950 PRO performed above and beyond our expectations. Overall, ATI have assembled a fantastic solution, it offers quite a decent proposition for those looking for a top end product while waiting for each company's respective DirectX 10 parts to ship later this year. So if you are looking for a new graphics card, then surely we can highly recommend the PowerColor Radeon X1950 PRO graphics accelerator. Just go for it!

Pros

• Excellent Gaming Performance
• Gorgeous Design and Functionality
• High Quality and Quiet Cooling
• CrossFire Ready, Multi-GPU Enabled
• Internal CrossFire Bridge
• Simultaneous HDR & Anti-Aliasing
• Future Proof Design
• Avivo Video Technology
• Attractive Pricing

Cons

• N/A

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