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Review: ATI Radeon X1950 XTX

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Environmental Characteristics

The power usage of the test system was recorded using a Extech 380801 power meter and sampled at the desktop and while under load, the second scenario created by running 3DMark06’s two HDR/SM3.0 game tests. Worth noting is that both sets of measurements are affected by other components installed in the test system, so the recordings below are primarily useful in showing the variance between the two graphics boards.

Power
X1900 XTX
X1950 XTX
Idle
126 watts
127 watts
Load
   268 watts
271 watts

ATI has implemented a power management scheme for the X1900s that drop the clock speeds while not running a 3D output. The Catalyst control panel reads both graphics chip lowering their clock speeds from 650 MHz down to 500 MHz.. Once a game or 3D application is launched, however, the board ramps up to full speed and the test system spikes to over 250w power draw. Which is surprisingly low for such a high-end, single-graphics board gaming rig, yet the relatively low power consumption is mostly attributable to the efficiency of Intel’s Core 2 Duo design.

System noise was also sampled using a digital sound meter at the same time for both scenarios, with the meter placed a foot from the test system, which had its left panel removed.

Sound
X1900 XTX
X1950 XTX
Idle
60 dBa
55 dBa
Load
   65 dBa
63 dBa

The two test boards fall within the roughly same range for noise levels, though the X1950’s new cooler is definitely quieter at the desktop. Once both fans spin up through their speed steppings, however, the noise levels generated by both cooling solutions are essentially identical. The larger fan on the X1950, though, creates a less annoying pitch and is somewhat more muffled due to the fact that the fan sits further back along the length of the board. Kudos to ATI for listening and taking action based on community feedback for their earlier Radeon 1K products.

Conclusions

While higher resolution textures and higher range render targets in future games may make better use of the increased memory bandwidth the Radeon X1950 XTX offers, the tests conducted for this article failed to show a truly significant performance advantage. Based on the testing conducted for this review the X1950 showed a rather under whelming average improvement of 7% over ATI’s previous flagship part — a hard sell for those already using an X1900 XTX or similar performing board. Yet despite the fact that the X1950’s 1GHz GDDR4 didn’t enable the refresh part to demolish its predecessor, we still have to give the new product its due recognition in being the overall fastest single-GPU graphics board currently available on the market.

ATI has aggressively reduced the X1950’s initial MSRP by $200 compared to the X1900’s $650 price point this past spring. While NVIDIA’s single-slot SLI offering, the GeForce 7950 GX2, is undoubtedly still the fastest consumer graphics board on the market, it’s also somewhat more expensive in its $550 price category and, furthermore, lacks some of the image quality enhancing features found in the Radeon 1K series of GPUs. Options such as angle-independent texture filtering should be given strong consideration for those interested in paying $400-$550+ for a high-end graphics board. Whether or not, however, the modest performance gains shown by the X1950 today, and possibly more tomorrow, are worth an extra $100 is up to the individual to decide.

ATI also deserves credit for listening to the criticisms leveled against their previous cooler; while the new unit is still quite audible, its reduced pitch makes for a less annoying distraction while gaming. Though all things considered from a price-performance perspective, we probably have to say at this point in time that the Radeon X1900 XTX is currently the better buy.

Final Score: 8


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