ATI Radeon X1950XTX

Gameplay Evaluations - How We Tested:

There are no timedemos used in our evaluations - we're focusing on the real-world gameplay experience. Ultimately, this is what should determine your next video card purchase.

We have split this video card evaluation into two sections, focusing on two different screen sizes that the ATI Radeon X1950XTX is targeted at. To paint a comprehensive picture of how these video cards perform, we have evaluated the performance of a selection of competing video cards across six different game titles on both a 24" widescreen monitor (1920x1200) and a 19" Sony G400 CRT monitor.

Because the benchmarks are done manually, there are slight differences between runs. However, we have run each benchmarking scenario through at least three times to get consistent average and minimum frame rates. Along with the 'highest playable' evaluations, we recorded results for comparison at 1920x1200 and 1600x1200 in three games to compare the cards in an apples to apples format.

In the 'highest playable' section of the evaluation, you will not go far wrong by following the logic that the higher the resolution and in game details, the faster the graphics solution in that particular title.

ATI Radeon X1000-series System Setup

• ATI Radeon X1950XTX - operating at its default clock speeds of 650/2000MHz;
  
• Sapphire Radeon X1900XTX - operating at its default clock speeds of 650/1550MHz.

Intel Core 2 Duo E6700 (operating at 2.67GHz - 10x266MHz); Asus P5W DH Deluxe motherboard (Intel 975X Express); 2 x 1GB Corsair XMS2-6400C3 (operating in dual channel at DDR2-800 with 3-3-3-9 timings); Seagate Barracuda 7200.9 200GB SATA hard drive; OCZ GameXtreme 700W power supply unit; Windows XP Professional Service Pack 2; DirectX 9.0c; Intel inf version 7.22 WHQL; ATI Catalyst 6.8 (modified for Radeon X1950XTX), Catalyst version 8-282-060802a-035384E for Oblivion testing.

NVIDIA GeForce 7-series System Setup

• BFG Tech GeForce 7950 GX2 - operating at its default clock speeds of 500/1200MHz;
  
• BFG Tech GeForce 7900 GTX OC - operating at its default clock speeds of 670/1640MHz.

Intel Core 2 Duo E6700 (operating at 2.67GHz - 10x266MHz); Asus P5N32-SLI SE motherboard (NVIDIA nForce4 SLI X16 Intel Edition); 2 x 1GB Corsair XMS2-6400C3 (operating in dual channel at DDR2-800 with 3-3-3-9-12-1T timings); Seagate Barracuda 7200.9 200GB SATA hard drive; OCZ GameXtreme 700W power supply unit; Windows XP Professional Service Pack 2; DirectX 9.0c; NVIDIA nForce4 SLI X16 Intel Edition standalone drivers version 6.86 WHQL; NVIDIA Forceware version 91.31 WHQL.


Seeing as we've found that ATI's high quality anisotropic filtering mode is a given with the Radeon X1900-series, we felt that NVIDIA's hardware needed to produce an image that was as close as possible to what is achievable when high quality anisotropic filtering is enabled on the Radeon X1900-series cards. We enabled high quality driver settings on NVIDIA hardware to remove the harsh optimisations that are evident in several of today's games.

We feel that if you're spending a lot of money on a video card, you're going to be looking for no-compromises image quality. As we have mentioned in the past, we were disappointed to find out that there were no improvements in filtering quality on GeForce 7900-series, especially when ATI has a quality setting that NVIDIA really can't touch with its current hardware.

With both manufacturers implementing a dual card solution, the platform also forms an important part of the overall buying decision, as it's not possible to run CrossFire in an NVIDIA SLI motherboard or vice versa. Thus, if you have any intention of adding a second card after purchasing one or other, you'll need to make a decision on which platform you'll base your system around.


We use the following abbreviations on our best-playable settings tables:

• QA AA - Quality Adaptive anti-aliasing (ATI Radeon X1000 series);
  
• PA AA - Performance Adaptive anti-aliasing (ATI Radeon X1000 series);
  
• HQ AF - High Quality Anisotropic Filtering (ATI Radeon X1000 series);
  
• TSS AA - Transparency SuperSampled anti-aliasing (NVIDIA GeForce 7 series);
  
• TMS AA - Transparency MultiSampled anti-aliasing (NVIDIA GeForce 7 series);
  
• HQ Driver - High Quality Driver Settings to remove noticeable texture shimmering in certain titles (NVIDIA).