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

• GDDR4 memory
• 512-bit Ring Bus
• 48 Pixel Shader Processors
• 16 ROPs
• 16 Fragment Shader Pipelines
• 8 Vertex Shader Pipelines
• 90 nanometer process
• 384 million transistors
• DirectX 9.0C
• Pixel Shader 3.0
• Vertex Shader 3.0
• HDR
• Up to 6x MSAA
• Temporal AA
• Adaptive Anti-Aliasing
• Crossfire

The major new feature of the X1950XTX over the X1900XT besides the new cooling system is the new memory controller. The X1800 and x1900 cards had DDR3 memory which was introduced to graphics cards a couple of years back. GDDR-4 memory is the replacement for that standard, offering higher operating frequencies. The X1900XTX operated at a clock speed of 1.5GHz effective

The X1950XTX has a memory clock speed of 2 GHz effective, giving the card a 64GB memory bandwidth. This is quite a jump from 1.5GHz, offering 33% more effective memory bandwidth than the previous card. It should affect performance in memory bandwidth situations like high resolution anti-aliasing (1600x1200 4x and above). ATI uses K4U52324QE-BC09 memory from Samsung rated for 1.1GHz (2.2GHz effective).

The other major features of the X1950XTX are the same as the previous high-end card, the X1900XTX including 48 Pixel Shader Pipelines, 16 ROPs (outputted pixels), 8 Vertex Shaders and more. ATI chose to clock the X1950XTX at the same clock speed as the previous X1900XTX card. As the pixel shading power and vertex shading power is the same, the difference in performance should come from the new GDDR-4 memory. I won't rehash the features of the X1K series as they are present in my other X1800 and x1900 reviews.

Pixel Shader performance is gaining in importance as games are released with SM 3.0 in mind. Oblivion is an excellent example of a modern game with lots of Pixel Shader programs meaning the video card is becoming more important. A recent report from Jon Peddie Associates mentions that the Performance segment of the graphics market rakes in over 71% of the revenue, though having much lower unit volume.

ATI also has released a Crossfire Edition of the X1950XTX. To run Crossfire you require a Crossfire Edition card, the X1950XTX, a Crossfire compatible motherboard (ATI or Intel) and the Crossfire dongle. Two X1950XTXs should provide the best image quality, the best performance in the games that are supported by Crossfire. SLI is more mature, having been around for two years instead of one, but ATI is committed to improving their multi-graphics solution.

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