ATI Radeon X1950XTX 512MB Video Card Review :: X1950XTX Details

ATI RADEON X1950XTX 512MB
Brand	XFX
Model	RADEON X1950XTX 512MB
Graphics Chip	R580
Graphics Memory Type	GDDR4
Memory (MB)	512
Graphics Core Clock (MHz)	650
Memory Clock (MHz)	2000
Memory Speed (ns)	1.0
RAMDAC Frequency (MHz)	Dual 400
Active Cooling on Graphics Chip	Yes
Heatsink on Memory	Yes
Video Capture	Yes
Ports
Dual Monitor Support	Yes
VGA Out	DVI-Ix2
Video In and Out	S-Video Out
Package and Support
Printed Manual	Yes
Driver CD	Yes
Performance Tool Software	OverDrive
Major Games	None
Major Software	None
VR Glasses	No
DVD Player Software	Multimedia Center
Video Recording Software	N/A

One of the big issues that users have had with the X1900XTX cards was the noise of the fan. On startup on an open-air system, the fan is noticeably loud, and is loud when the card is in full 3D mode. In 2D or idle mode, the card noise is barely noticeable. ATI decided to change that with their new card.

Card front

Fan

Top view

Power to fan

The X1950XTX is the same length as ATI's X1900XTX card. While the X1900XTX has a 29-fin fan on the front of the PCB, ATI moved the fan on the X1950XTX to the rear of the cooler. There are 13 much larger fins on the cooling fan that is now behind the graphics chip on the PCB. The X1800XT cooling fan was situated forward of the graphics chip.

Heat Pipe

Front Grill

Rear of card

Bottom of card

Rear of graphics chip

ATI decided to use heat pipe technology on their graphics cards. Other companies like ASUS, XFX and GIGABYTE have experimented with silent graphics cards without a cooling using heat pipes, but this is the first ATI card to use heat pipes in their cooling design. A heat pipe is usually filled with distilled water which boils as the graphics chip gets hot, this is transferred via the heat pipe to be cooled by the fan and heat sinks evaporates into a liquid form then starts the process over again. The entire assembly covers nearly 100% of the front of the card.

Bottom of card

I/O

PCI Express connector

The X1950XTX is a native PCI Express video card. Early NVIDIA PCI Express cards required a bridge chip called HSI (High Speed Interconnect) to run on the new bus. Every ATI PCI Express chip was designed with it in mind, meaning no need for a bridge chip. High-end cards have a tendency to require a lot of power to operate. The X1950XTX has a 6-pin power connector for extra juice to the graphics card that the PCI Express bus can't provide. There are two DVI-I connectors on the card as well as a 9-pin HDTV connection.