ATI Radeon X1950 Pro: CrossFire Done Right
by Derek Wilson on October 17, 2006 6:22 AM EST- Posted in
- GPUs
Final Words
We will have to wait until later today to confirm availability, but ATI has made it clear that this is supposed to be a hard launch. And we certainly hope they deliver on their promise and get those X1950 Pro cards on shelves before people start buying handicapped X1900 GT cards.
All in all, the X1950 Pro is the performance leader at the $200 mark. We heartily recommend it for any gamer with a couple c-notes to drop on graphics hardware. This card is an excellent replacement to the original X1900 GT in both performance, price, and CrossFire capability. While 80nm doesn't deliver huge power savings, RV570 does offer ATI quite an advantage in terms of die size and cost in the long run. We haven't yet tested overclocking with this new core, but we will certainly address the issue once we get our hands on shipping product.
The changes to CrossFire offer quite a bit of value to the end user. The bridge solution is much easier to work with than the external dongle, and while the 2 bridge solution is a little more cumbersome than a single bridge as with SLI, we can't argue with ATI's bridge distribution method or the fact that a 2 channel over the top connection offers greater flexibility in a more than 2 card multi-GPU solution. We also like the fact that ATI is distributing only flexible bridges as opposed to the more common PCB style bridges we often see on SLI systems.
From a technical standpoint, SLI still has the upper hand over CrossFire in terms of scalability and performance in most cases. Over time, we hope to see ATI increasing their scalability in games across the board, but, until we see ATI take a new approach to inter-GPU communication, SLI looks like it will maintain the lead for the foreseeable future. Hopefully ATI has some new approaches lined up for its upcoming R600 that will put CrossFire truly on par with NVIDIA's SLI.
As much as we would like to end this review of a solid product on a high note, we've got to drive home the point that significantly decreasing the specs of a product after it ships is simply not acceptable. The fact that ATI would drop the core clock speed of the X1900 GT by 11% and raise the memory clock by 10% to try to hide the difference is not something we want to see happen. There will be a performance difference between the new and old parts, and not changing the name on the box is simply dishonest. At least ATI has delivered a solid product in the X1950 Pro. Hopefully it'll stay that way throughout its life cycle.
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Zoomer - Thursday, October 19, 2006 - link
Is this a optical shrink to 80nm?Answering this question will put overclocking expectations in line. Generally, optically shrunk cores from TSMC overclock to the about the same as the original or perhaps slightly worse.
coldpower27 - Friday, October 20, 2006 - link
Well no as this piepline configuration doesn't exist natively before on the 90nm node. It's a 3 Quad Part, so it's basedon R580 but has 1 Quad Physical removed as well as being shrunk to 80nm. Not to mention Native Crossfire support was added onto the die.Spoelie - Friday, October 20, 2006 - link
Optical shrink, this is 80nm and the original was 90nm. You're normally correct because the first optical shrink usually does not have the same technologies as the proces higher up (low-k and SOI for example, this was the case with 130nm -> 110nm), but I don't think it's the case for this generation. Regardless, haven't seen any overclocking articles on it yet so I'm quite curious.Spoelie - Friday, October 20, 2006 - link
oie, maybe I should add that it's reworked as well, so both actually. Since this core didn't exist before (rv570 and that pipeline configuration), I don't think that they just sliced a part of the core...Zstream - Tuesday, October 17, 2006 - link
Beyond3D reported the spec change a month before anyone received the card. I think you need to do some FAQ checking on your opinions mate.All in all decent review but poor unknowledgeable opinions…
DerekWilson - Wednesday, October 18, 2006 - link
Just because ATI made the spec change public does not mean it is alright to change the specs of a product that has been shipping for 4 months.X1900 GT has been available since May 9 as a 575/1200 part.
The message we want to send isn't that ATI is trying to hide something, its that they shouldn't do the thing in the first place.
No matter how many times a company says it changed the specs of a product, when people search for reviews they're going to see plenty that have been written since May talking about the original X1900 GT.
Naming is already ambiguous enough. I stand by my opinion that having multiple versions of a product with the exact same name is a bad thing.
I'm sorry if I wasn't clear on this in the article. Please let me know if there's anything I can reword to help get my point across.
Zoomer - Thursday, October 19, 2006 - link
This is very common. Many vendors in the past have passed off 8500s that run at 250/250 instead of the stock 275/275, and don't label them as such.There are some Asus SKUs that have this same handicap, but I can't recall what models that were.
xsilver - Tuesday, October 17, 2006 - link
any word on what the new price for the x1900gt's will be now that the x1950pros are out?or are they being phased out and no price drop is being considered?
Wellsoul2 - Monday, November 6, 2006 - link
You guys are such cheerleaders..For a single card buy why would you get this?
Why would you buy the 1900GT even after the
1900XT 256MB came out?
I got my 1900XT 256MB for $240 shipped..
Except for power consumption it's a much better card.
You get to run Oblivion great with one card.
Two cards is such a scam. More expensive motherboard..power consumption etc.
This is progress? CPU's have evolved..
It's hard to even find a motherboard with 3 PCI slots..
What a scam! Where's my ultra-fast HDTV board for PCI Express?
Seriously..Why buy into SLI/Crossfire? Why not 2 GPU's on one card?
Too late..You all bought into it.
Sorry I am just so sick of the praise for this money-grab of SLI/Crossfire.
jcromano - Tuesday, October 17, 2006 - link
Are the power consumption numbers (98W idle, 181W load) for just the graphics card or are they total system power?Thanks in advance,
Jim