Radeon X1900-series roundup

Overclocking:

We overclocked all four video cards with a tool called 'Overclocker' as no other tool worked with these Radeon X1900-series cards. The tool was supplied to us by ATI and it was rather primitive. However, it worked reasonably well for getting an idea of how far the Radeon X1900XTXs overclock and a rough idea of what to expect from the Radeon X1900XT.

Both Connect3D and Sapphire's X1900XTXs overclocked to the same clock speeds of 688/1584MHz from the default 650/1550MHz frequencies, while Club 3D's XTX managed to overclock to a slightly higher 702/1602MHz. We've not removed the coolers from the cards, so they're in their out of the box condition. Meanwhile, PowerColor's Radeon X1900XT managed to overclock 650/1550MHz - the reference clock speeds for the Radeon X1900XTX. It wouldn't overclock any further, but it's good to see that there's a chance you may be able to reach the default XTX clockspeeds.

It's good to see that there's some extra headroom on the XTX cards, although your particular cards may vary. We were also pleased that users hoping to save a bit of cash on the XT can get a bit of extra value out of overclocking it to XTX speeds. However, we'd like to emphasise that we did find the overclocking tools we had a little unreliable on these new boards: we're really hoping that a new version of RivaTuner will give us some more flexibility and some more overclocking options.

Value:

We found all of the Radeon X1900-series cards pretty widely available across several retailers in the UK. However, we couldn't find the All-In-Wonder X1900 in stock in the UK yet. We've listed the cheapest price for the four X1900 cards, but you'll be able to find them in other stores if these aren't to your preference.

We found Club 3D's Radeon X1900XTX 512MB available at Tekheads for £417.13 including VAT. Connect3D's X1900XTX 512MB was available at Overclockers UK for £393.57 on this week only, but it's normally priced at just under £400 if you don't choose to buy that card this before that offer runs out.

PowerColor's Radeon X1900XT 512MB is available on Scan for under £365. That's not a bad price, but it doesn't seem all that attractive when you consider that the Connect3D Radeon X1900XTX is available for £30 more. It depends whether you're happy to settle for £30 in your pocket, an overclocking lottery or slightly lower in-game details.

Sapphire's Radeon X1900XTX 512MB for £418.22 including VAT on Dabs.com - this makes it the most expensive card in the roundup, but it's also got the best bundle. Sapphire's Global Marketing Director, Adrian Thompson, stated that, "Sapphire Select gives a true added value to our products because customers can actually choose what they want after they get the product home." We totally agree with that and it's great to find that you've got an element of choice in what games you get with your £420 video card purchase.

The All-In-Wonder X1900:

As much as we love the All-In-Wonder X1900's bundle, and its price coupled with performance, the feature set is not all that it could be with the industry uniting behind the likes of Windows XP Media Center Edition and Viiv. Having used Media Center quite a lot, I'd say that it really benefits from dual TV tuners, as you're able to record one program while watching another. It's simply not possible to install two All-In-Wonder X1900's to enjoy the fruits of dual TV tuner goodness.

However, there is likely to be a small niche of users who would want to put this product in a system limited by space while delivering a decent gaming experience at the same time. That's where this product fits in. The question is whether ATI actually has a large enough niche to sell to.

If we disregard the feature set and look at this card with only gaming performance in mind, the All-In-Wonder X1900 performs pretty damn well for the price. Unfortunately we didn't have a GeForce 7800 GTX 256MB available to test head to head with this card, but we estimate that the gaming performance of this card will be very close to it. The benefit of the All-In-Wonder X1900 is that high quality anisotropic filtering is a given in all titles except Quake 4.

It's a good gaming card with an additional feature set that some consumers might use. It'll be interesting to see how this card performs against the similarly priced Radeon X1800XT 512MB - we've got a retail Radeon X1800XT in house and we'll be looking at it in due course.

Final Thoughts...

So, which one do you buy? Ultimately, it depends on what you're looking for, and whether you're looking for a video card with a games bundle. If you're looking for something with a bundle of games, the Sapphire Radeon X1900XTX looks to be the best choice out there. The extra £1 asking price over Club 3D's Radeon X1900XTX well worth it if you're after a good solid bundle. Having said that, Club 3D's bundle is pretty good too and it was the best-packed card of the bunch with its foam cutout protection.

Connect3D's card is also tremendous value (for a high-end card) at £400, especially when you consider that NVIDIA's GeForce 7800 GTX 512 costs well over £500 if you can find it available in the UK. Overclockers are selling BFG Tech's card at a whopping £646.19 including VAT. At least it's available, though. There's nothing to write home about when it comes to Connect3D's bundle, but it's adequate and has everything that you're going to need to get the card up and running in the latest and greatest games.

PowerColor's Radeon X1900XT is also pretty good value and the performance is generally very close to the performance delivered by the Radeon X1900XTX cards. Our sample overclocked to Radeon X1900XTX speeds, but it didn't go any further than that. Of course, overclocking is a lottery, so we can't guarantee that every Radeon X1900XT will overclock to XTX clock speeds. By the same token, other Radeon X1900XTs might overclock even further than the one we've got here. The bundle doesn't come with any games, but it does come with a decent amount of multimedia software.

The one reason not to get a Radeon X1900XTX at the moment would be ATI's CrossFire technology. It seems a little strange that ATI chose to use the Radeon X1900XT clock speeds on the CrossFire Edition card, as it means that the Radeon X1900XTX will be clocked down to the same 625/1450MHz, rendering the additional cost for an XTX a little pointless if you've got the vision of moving towards CrossFire later down the line.

With that said, if you're looking for the best video card out there at the moment, we'd say that Sapphire's Radeon X1900XTX is it. The performance of the card is fantastic, and there's one hell of a bundle included with Sapphire Select. The option to choose two out of four games as part of your bundle means that you're not likely to be given titles that are already in your games collection.