Sapphire X1950XTX

More confusion and debateable value in the high-end, almost obsolete quarter.

The best thing about this card isn’t the fact that it uses the brand spanking new GDDR4 memory, or that it hits an effective 2GHz clock speed. Nor is it the fact that it’s the single fastest GPU on the planet at the moment (disregarding the presence of the 7950GX2 anomaly).

When you pull 2037 and 2602 in the SM2.0 and SM3.0 tests in 3DMark06 respectively at 1280x1024, it’s not a bad haul. Neither is 92.9fps in Quake 4, or 121.75fps in Half-Life 2. Bump the res up to 1600x1200 and it still does well, at 1792, 2143, 75.8fps and 108.03fps. All this was using the Catalyst 6.10 beta drivers, as the 6.9s don’t recognise the card.

It’s not even the redesigned, funky translucent red cooler – which we suspect is partly based on HIS’ IceQ3. Although it has the potential to get almost as painfully loud as its predecessor, for the most part remains it’s just a smidgen louder than the uber quiet 7900GTX, making us all sigh in relief.

In fact the number one remarkable grace of the X1950XTX is that it’s so bloody close in price to its predecessor the X1900XTX (on the street, anyway), despite the new memory and funky cooler.

For comparison we yanked a X1900XT from the labs (650MHz/775MHz) shelves and subjected it to the same tests, which yielded 1934, 2509, 87.6fps and 119.96fps at 1280x1024, and 1692, 2065, 73.7fps and 103.87fps at 1600x1200 – revealing the X1950XTX as really not that much faster than the X1900XT. This is unsurprising considering the lack of core speed change.

We must admit we don’t quite understand the need for this card, considering the performance is so close to the previous one – in fact all the current refreshes are questionable considering the onset of DirectX 10.

But if you’re tossing up between an X1900 and an X1950, get this one. The lower fan volume will save your sanity.