Final Thoughts, HEXUS.awards & HEXUS.right2reply
Final thoughts
Performance evaluation shows ATI to be on to a winner with its R580 GPU. Packing in more pixel shaders than ever seen before, whilst keeping the underlying architecture intact, gives the Radeon X1900 XT/XTX cards enough extra bite to topple the GeForce 7800 GTX 512 in modern games where there's extensive use of pixel shading.As happens immediately after a new product release, board partners compete to be first to market with their retail offering. PowerColor and SAPPHIRE, along with pretty much every other ATI AIB partner, use reference Radeon X1900 XT 512MBs, which we've established to be top-notch gaming cards. In fact, there is no meaningful difference between the two partners' cards, and your choice, should you opt to go down the X1900 XT 512MB route for your PCI-Express gaming thrills, will come down to other factors such as price, bundle, and warranty. The X1900 family also benefits from ATI's Avivo video-processing technology, so for some users it's all not about 3D.
£300 buys you either the PowerColor or SAPPHIRE X1900 XT 512MB card, both of which 'overclock' to XTX levels without any additional cooling. SAPPHIRE provides the marginally better bundle and warranty support, we reckon, and both partners' bundles are priced at the lower end of the R580 scale.
Deep-walleted readers who crave for extra framerate can opt for a CrossFire setup, too. Both Radeon X1900 XTs, then, can be recommended to gamers who want maximum image quality and decent framerates. Our benchmarks show that the XT model performs similarly to the GeForce 7900, yet it's cheaper.
SAPPHIRE's Radeon X1900 XTX can be thought of as an XT model with a card BIOS for slightly faster core and memory speeds: the underlying hardware is the same. Is it then prudent to spend the extra above the XTs' price, for what is, in all intents and purposes, the same card? The obvious answer is no, and it seems that the XTX SKU exists to ensure ATI has the current speed crown. Savvy enthusiasts will opt for the cheaper R580 card and 'overclock' it to XTX levels. Therefore, whilst there's nothing intrinsically wrong with the SAPPHIRE X1900 XTX card, it doesn't make a whole lot of sense when considered in relation to the XT.
ATI's Radeon X1900 family is what the X1800 range should have been on launch day. We can recommend both the PowerColor and SAPPHIRE X1900 XT 512MB cards, based on comparative value for money in the high-end portion of the market.
We'd like to see a partner rock the ATI boat and launch a single-slot X1900 card with quieter cooling, perhaps with pre-overclocked core and memory speeds. Anyone wishing to oblige?
- PowerColor Radeon X1900 XT 512MB
- SAPPHIRE Radeon X1900 XT 512MB
Please know that this HEXUS.review was published later than was originally planned, and primarily for the reasons detailed here.
