Introduction
We took a look at Sapphire's standard Radeon X1950 Pro card right over here. We surmised that the RV570 architecture, boasting 36 pixel processors, 8 vertex shaders, and fast GDDR3 memory hooked up via a 256-bit bus, were the hallmarks of high-end underpinnings in a midrange SKU.A die shrink, HDCP support and internal CrossFire ticked some more 'plus' boxes, and our general view of Radeon X1950 Pro hasn't changed; it provides excellent performance for the £130 asking price. NVIDIA's GeForce 7900 GS also makes a compelling argument for your cash at roughly the same price point, so, for once, the consumer really is spoilt with solid hardware at sensible prices.
Sapphire's taken note of the X1950 Pro's current popularity and added another SKU to the lineup. The Sapphire X1950 Pro ULTIMATE features faster memory and a factory-fitted Zalman cooler as well as additional heatsinks for the RAM modules and power-delivery components. Read on to see if it's as deserving of praise as the regular Radeon X1950 Pro 256MiB card.
