This review provides an interesting comparison in technologies by comparing three almost identical graphics cards. All three are from Sapphire and all use the ATI Radeon X1950 PRO GPU, the difference is that one is the AGP version, one is the vanilla version and one is the Ultimate version. The boxes these products come in show just how similar they are, with the AGP and PCI Express versions being virtually identical and the Ultimate standing out in Sapphire's sexy looking translucent plastic box design. Although it's less environmentally friendly it does look a lot better than the rather plain white cardboard boxes that its counterparts arrive in. Yeah, a catchy box can make a difference. - The Inquirer

Sapphire Radeon X1950 PRO HDCP Editions Review

As you might have guessed, according to the specifications there really isn't much different between these cards either. The AGP comes with 512MB GDDR3 memory compared to the 256MB found on the PCI Express versions and the Ultimate has its memory clocked 200MHz higher than the others at 1600MHz. The other point of note is that both the PCI Express cards support ATI's newer internal CrossFire setup. The PCI Express cards both have a single 6-pin power connector, whereas the AGP version draws power from two molex connectors, which may prove a problem for those running older power supplies.

Joking aside, the biggest surprise to us was just how well the AGP fared, we were expecting some decent results, but the fact that the AGP card stands shoulder to shoulder with its PCI Express counterparts kind of makes you wonder what the point of the PCI Express technology is. While AGP is still pretty decent by today's gaming standards it lacks the headroom needed by other GPU intensive applications such as media encoding. The extra 256MB of memory also helps to bolster the AGP cards results and keep it going toe to toe with the other cards, featuring the faster interface.

To be honest we were hoping the results would be somewhat more spectacular, that the AGP card would, for reasons magical or unknown beat out its technically superior counterparts or that the Ultimate version would be streaks ahead of the competition. Alas it was not to be and the results are pretty much as we expected, that all three of these graphics cards are very similar. All is not lost though, there are still some important things we can distil from this information. First and foremost the Radeon X1950 PRO is a very impressive chipset and gives you a great bang for your buck.

If you're not too fussed about DirectX 10 and you're looking for a mid-ranged card that will handle today's latest games with a good amount of eye candy then we reckon you really need look no further. The Zalman cooler is about $35 on its own, so if you were going to be replacing the stock cooler anyway then the Ultimate card will save you ten quid and you'll keep your warranty intact as well. If you still have a motherboard that uses AGP and you want to squeeze some more life out of it then the Radeon X1950 PRO AGP will inject a quite nice performance boost, especially if you're gaming.

If you're not going to be overclocking and happy with the stock cooler then the standard Sapphire Radeon X1950 PRO card should definitely be on your list of candidates and if you have an extra $40 then you could even spring for the 512MB version that should outperform the Ultimate when the settings and eye candy are cranked right up.