X1900 XT/XTX Roundup: A Closer Look at the Performance Leader in Graphics
by Josh Venning on February 15, 2006 4:00 PM EST- Posted in
- GPUs
Introduction
The X1900 took a long time in coming, but now that it's here, it's taken its place squarely on the top in graphics card performance. There's little doubt that it's the most powerful card available now, and while it may currently fall into the too-expensive-to-own category for some, it is our duty here at AnandTech to continue to test and report on the capabilities of this excellent card.
Today, we'll be looking at five different X1900's (XTs and XTXs) to see how well they perform against each other. We have both an XT and an XTX by Sapphire, an XTX from GeCube, and HIS, and finally another XT by PowerColor. These are all quality manufacturers, and we expect to see good performance with each of these cards.
To be clear, the purpose of this review is not to compare these X1900s with other graphics cards, but to compare different versions of the X1900 to each other. We've already taken a look at how the X1900 XT and XTX compare to other cards by ATI and NVIDIA, and you can read the article here.
Because each of these cards come factory clocked at reference speeds (XT: 625/725, and XTX: 650/775), the only differences in performance that we will see out of the box are between the X1900 XTs and X1900 XTXs. However, we will also be looking at how well these cards overclock and other aspects such as their prices. User-overclocking is going to be somewhat important here, as the X1900 XT and XTX are fairly close together in performance already, and we're interested to see if our X1900 XTs will be able to clock up to XTX speeds.
It's a little puzzling to us why the X1900 XT and XTX have such large differences in price (the X1900 XTX costs around $100 more than the XT), given that performance is relatively similar between the two. The notion that an XT can be clocked up to or over XTX speeds makes this seem even stranger, So, it certainly seems clear that ATI is hoping to hook those who just can't settle for anything less than the fastest with the XTX. Our thoughts on this aside, ATI has made the most powerful graphics card to date with the X1900, and we plan on taking a close look at a few of them for you right now.
The X1900 took a long time in coming, but now that it's here, it's taken its place squarely on the top in graphics card performance. There's little doubt that it's the most powerful card available now, and while it may currently fall into the too-expensive-to-own category for some, it is our duty here at AnandTech to continue to test and report on the capabilities of this excellent card.
Today, we'll be looking at five different X1900's (XTs and XTXs) to see how well they perform against each other. We have both an XT and an XTX by Sapphire, an XTX from GeCube, and HIS, and finally another XT by PowerColor. These are all quality manufacturers, and we expect to see good performance with each of these cards.
To be clear, the purpose of this review is not to compare these X1900s with other graphics cards, but to compare different versions of the X1900 to each other. We've already taken a look at how the X1900 XT and XTX compare to other cards by ATI and NVIDIA, and you can read the article here.
Because each of these cards come factory clocked at reference speeds (XT: 625/725, and XTX: 650/775), the only differences in performance that we will see out of the box are between the X1900 XTs and X1900 XTXs. However, we will also be looking at how well these cards overclock and other aspects such as their prices. User-overclocking is going to be somewhat important here, as the X1900 XT and XTX are fairly close together in performance already, and we're interested to see if our X1900 XTs will be able to clock up to XTX speeds.
It's a little puzzling to us why the X1900 XT and XTX have such large differences in price (the X1900 XTX costs around $100 more than the XT), given that performance is relatively similar between the two. The notion that an XT can be clocked up to or over XTX speeds makes this seem even stranger, So, it certainly seems clear that ATI is hoping to hook those who just can't settle for anything less than the fastest with the XTX. Our thoughts on this aside, ATI has made the most powerful graphics card to date with the X1900, and we plan on taking a close look at a few of them for you right now.
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yacoub - Wednesday, February 15, 2006 - link
Sadly I don't think Gigabyte is an ATI partner, but I do hope Sapphire is working on better cooling for the X1900 series. Asus is NVidia but might also make ATI cards? I don't remember. If they try to passively cool it like with their 7800GT they just better do it well enough that it's not roasting itself to death at 70+ degrees Celsius. =/Clauzii - Wednesday, February 15, 2006 - link
In pro music applications 0.1db is considdered inaudioble but 0.7db - everyone can hear that change - Unless there is a louder component overall in the system.yacoub - Wednesday, February 15, 2006 - link
49.x db is still ridiculously loud, no matter how much an exponential change it is from 50.x.The loudest part in my current rig is around 37db. Claiming 49anything is quiet is RUBBISH and it most certainly is NOT a significant improvement over 50.x db. A slight improvement would be 47db instead of 52 db. A significant improvement would be 42db instead of 52db. A worthwhile improvement would be replacing those terrible fan designs with a Zalman/AC style cooler and offering that stock like Sapphire has in the past.
Come talk to me when it's at 45-47db at 100% fan speed and I'll be interested in buying it (because I'll drop it to ~20% fanspeed with ATITool like I do my current stock-Zalman-cooled Sapphire X800XL and that'll be close enough to this curent level of quiet to be acceptable.
Bull Dog - Wednesday, February 15, 2006 - link
<^ Broke owner of a Sapphire X1900XT"The X1900 is one of those cards that is on just about everyone's wish-list. Those who are lucky enough to own one are probably the envy of their friends and also perhaps became broke from the purchase."
:)
Bull Dog - Wednesday, February 15, 2006 - link
yo konw we really need an edit function.....Decent not dedcent.