ATI Radeon X1950 Pro 256MB Mainstream Video Cards Boston MA

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Originally published at Internet.com

Introduction

The mainstream video card market is actually comprised of two different levels, separated by the old price-performance matrix. Cards like the GeForce 7600 and Radeon X1650-based products represent the entry-level section, while the top-end offers video cards with greater performance and a higher price tag. NVIDIA has been a serious powerhouse at the upper range, first with the GeForce 7600 GT 256MB, and when that faded, the GeForce 7900 GS 256MB was quick to take its place. ATI has had a very tough time competing, especially as there was initially a huge gap between the Radeon X1600 XT and Radeon X1900 XT cards. This was bridged with the Radeon X1900 GT, but the subsequent Radeon X1900 Pro is the real deal, and better able to stem the NVIDIA tide.

The Radeon X1950 Pro

The Radeon X1950 Pro is built on the 80nm RV570 graphics core, and sports a similar architecture to the lower-clocked, 90nm Radeon X1900 GT. The RV570 features 12 pixel pipelines, 12 texture units, 8 vertex shaders, and 12 ROPs. This may seem low for a high-end mainstream video card, but the Radeon X1950 Pro includes 3 pixel shaders per pipeline, for a total of 36. This can yield a serious performance edge, especially in SM3.0 games. The Radeon X1950 Pro features 256MB of onboard GDDR3 memory using a 256MB link to the internal ring bus controller. This is the latest generation of 80nm ATI parts, and like the Radeon X1650 XT, the Radeon X1950 Pro supports HDCP and "native" CrossFire using internal connectors.

The base architecture may be similar, but the Radeon X1950 Pro is clocked higher than current Radeon X1900 GT boards, and the RV570 core runs at 575 MHz, while the 256MB of GDDR3 memory is set at 1.38 GHz. This provides theoretical fill rates of 6.9 GPixels/s, 6.9 GTexels/s (standard) and 20.7 GTexels/s (shaded). This last figure helps illustrate just how powerful this type of design can be, given a game or application that really stresses its pixel shading abilities. The memory bandwidth is definitely high-end, as the 1.38 GHz memory clock and its 256-bit link translate into 44.2 GB/s of memory bandwidth - about on par with a GeForce 7950 GT. The Radeon X1950 Pro also includes support for AVIVO, up to 6X AA & 16X AF modes, 3Dc+ texture compression, and native support for CrossFire multi-GPU technology.

The ATI Radeon X1950 Pro 256MB Card

The ATI version of the Radeon X1950 Pro is a standard design without any of the enhancements offered by their 3rd-party vendors. This is both a positive and a negative, as you know the card design is fully tested, compatible and rock solid, but you forgo any higher default clock speeds or nifty cooling apparatus. The card itself is a full-length PCI Express model, with a sleek red heatsink-fan covering virtually the entire PCB. We like this format, especially compared to Radeon X1950 Pro cooling designs with a taller heatsink-fan, as the ATI card offers a seamless install for adjacent peripherals.

The ATI Radeon X1950 Pro 256MB card is clocked at standard speeds, with its core set at 575 MHz, and the onboard memory running at 1.38 GHz. The card offers the standard connectivity options, featuring two dual-link DVI connectors and an S-Video/HDTV-out port. The DVI output offers resolutions up to 2560x1600, VGA maxes out at 2048x1536, and HDTV-out runs up to 1080i. As with all Radeon X1950 Pro cards, the ATI version also requires external power through a single PCI Express connector.

CrossFire is supported in native mode, and the ATI Radeon X1950 Pro retail box includees a CrossFire bridge interconnect for future upgrades. Also included in the bundle are a Driver CD, composite and S-video cables, HDTV-out cable, and DVI to VGA adapters. ATI also offers a 1-year limited warranty and supports operating systems from Windows XP to MCE to Vista.

To give a better idea of the architecture of the various mainstream video cards we see competing directly against the ATI Radeon X1950 Pro 256MB, here is a small chart outlining the key architectural features of each GPU: Graphics Processor Pixel Pipes Pixel Shaders Texture Units Vertex Pipes ROPs Radeon X1600 XT 4 12 4 5 4 Radeon X1650 Pro 4 12 4 5 4 GeForce 7600 GT 12 12 12 5 8 Radeon X1650 XT 8 24 8 8 8

Test Setup

The Radeon X1950 Pro 256MB card is ATI's high-end mainstream video card, and is designed to go head-on against the GeForce 7900 GS 256MB. In this review, our standard system configuration consists of a high-end AMD platform, featuring a 3.0 GHz Athlon 64 X2 6000+, an ASUS 590 SLI motherboard, and 2x512-MB of Corsair CM2X512-8500 memory. This represents a very solid base for performance video card benchmarking, including all the latest features, and ensures that the platform will not be a limited factor.

The competition in our video card benchmarking covers the spectrum of mainstream video cards, and for basic tests, we have the ATI Radeon X1950 Pro 256MB going up against a range of ATI and NVIDIA models. Mainstream reference cards include the GeForce 7600 GS 256MB, Radeon X1600 XT 256MB, GeForce 7600 GT 256MB, Radeon X1650 XT 256MB, GeForce 7900 GS 256MB, GeForce 7900 GT 256MB, and GeForce 7950 GT 512MB. Our operating system is Windows XP Pro SP2 with the latest DirectX 9.0c.

Our benchmark selection now includes newer SM3.0 game tests such as Company of Heroes, Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory and Prey, which augment existing benchmarks like F.E.A.R., 3DMark06 Advanced, Quake 4, DOOM 3, Chronicles of Riddick, and FarCry. With the influx of new games, and updated patches for existing ones, the majority of these tests now support SM3.0. All testing is performed using standard 1280x1024 and 1600x1200 32-bit settings, along with high-end 4X anti-aliasing and 8X anisotropic filtering results as well. The 4X AA and 8X AF settings are representative of the detail settings many use for their mainstream 3D gaming.

* Please note that unless otherwise stated, all performance graph results equate to the standard "higher is better" format.

Test System

General Settings:
Desktop Resolution: 1024x768
Color Depth: 32-bit
V-Sync: Disabled

AMD Athlon 64 X2 Reference System:
Processor: Athlon 64 X2 6000+
Memory: 2 x 512-MB Corsair CM2X512-8500
Motherboard: Asus M2N32-SLI
Motherboard chip set: nForce 590 SLI
NVIDIA nForce reference drivers: 500 Series 9.35
NVIDIA reference graphics drivers: ForceWare 93.71
ATI reference graphics drivers: Catalyst 7.2
Hard-Drive: Maxtor MaxLine III 250GB
IDE Interface: Serial ATA-150
CD/DVD: AOpen 5232 Combo Drive
Power Supply: Enermax EG651P-VE-24P 550W EPS12V
DirectX 9.0c (February 2007)
Operating System: Windows XP Pro SP2

Video Cards:

ATI Radeon X1950 Pro 256MB
GeForce 7600 GS 256MB
Radeon X1600 XT 256MB
Radeon X1650 XT 256MB
GeForce 7600 GT 256MB
GeForce 7900 GS 256MB
GeForce 7900 GT 256MB
GeForce 7950 GT

DOOM 3 Performance

DOOM 3 is a game that needs no introduction, and continues in a long line of id Software Quake and DOOM first-person shooters. This latest installment is one serious 3D game test, including some of the highest-end graphics yet seen on the PC. It is also a different type of game benchmark, especially compared to Quake 3, and it has an almost total reliance on the 3D video card for high-end framerate results. This limits its use in certain system or CPU testing, but makes DOOM 3 a killer 3D video card benchmark.

DOOM 3 has always been a tough benchmark for ATI cards, and the Radeon X1950 Pro 256MB certainly doesn't have an easy time with it. Instead of facing off against the GeForce 7900 GS 256MB, ATI's mainstream challenger falls well back of its intended adversary, and barely outpaces the GeForce 7600 GT 256MB. This is to be expected, as NVIDIA-based cards have a natural advantage here, and none of the ATI-based models shows any real legs in the DOOM 3 arena.

DOOM 3 AA and AF Performance

The above scenario changes a great deal once we add on the 4X AA and 8X AF details, and now the ATI Radeon X1950 Pro pushes into GeForce 7900 GS territory. The ATI card still falls a bit short, but the framerate differences are minimal.

Quake 4 Performance

Quake 4 is the latest in 3D first-person shooters from id Software and Raven, and while the actual storyline is pretty standard fare and the game itself is based on the DOOM 3 engine, the graphics are exceptional and it is an improvement over previous games. The lighting and shadow effects are excellent, and the overall level design and architecture are a real treat. The overall load on the graphics card can be extreme, which is both a blessing and a curse, depending on the actual hardware you are testing. For this review, we've updated to the latest patch, and use a custom netdemo for testing.

Quake 4 benchmarking puts us back into the usual dilemma of the Radeon X1950 Pro 256MB fighting it out with the GeForce 7600 GT 256MB at standard detail settings, even though the gap between the GeForce 7900 GS 256MB is quite a bit smaller.

Quake 4 AA and AF Performance

As with DOOM 3, the Radeon X1950 Pro 256MB charges back with 4X AA and 8X AF detail settings enabled, speeding past the GeForce 7600 GT 256MB and coming close to matching the GeForce 7900 GS 256MB.

FarCry Performance

FarCry is a hot first-person shooter that takes in-game graphics to the next level, although in a different direction than DOOM 3. Instead of darkness and confined spaces, FarCry can place you outdoors, on bright sandy beaches, jungles or even on the water itself. This game gives our video cards a different kind of a stress test, and rest assured that FarCry ranks up there with the very toughest 3D game benchmarks. FarCry is an interesting benchmark, as it combines old school performance requirements with hot new features such as support for SM 3.0. For this test, we are using the full retail version updated to version 1.4, along with a new custom demo file.

The updated patches enable SM3.0 support for FarCry, and this makes it an excellent test of current feature sets and performance. This allows the ATI Radeon X1950 Pro to make full use of its resources in FarCry testing, and the card posts much better performance results. The ATI mainstream powerhouse just slips by the GeForce 7900 GS 256MB at standard detail settings, and even takes a run at the GeForce 7900 GT. These are very promising results, and help demonstrate that the Radeon X1950 Pro can certainly make up some ground with SM3.0-enabled games like FarCry.

FarCry AA and AF Performance

The news gets even better once FarCry is upgraded to higher detail 4X AA and 8X AF settings. The ATI Radeon X1950 Pro now easily speeds by the GeForce 7900 GS 256MB, and its performance results at 1600x1200 are higher than the GeForce 7900 GT 256MB.

Prey Performance

Prey is a serious first-person shooter from Human Head Studios and 3D Realms that uses a heavily modified version of the DOOM 3 engine. You take the role of Earth's savior in an all-out war against some very nasty alien invaders, all within a Matrix-like experience, and with some of the best computer game graphics you'll ever see. Our Prey benchmark is also very serious business, with a hardcore demo and shader details set to high.

The Prey benchmark results place the Radeon X1950 Pro 256MB in its expected position, just ahead of the GeForce 7900 GS 256MB, and right behind the GeForce 7900 GT 256MB..

Prey AA and AF Performance

Not much changes with the addition of 4X AA and 8X AF detail settings, and again we find the Radeon X1950 Pro 256MB sliding in right between the GeForce 7900 GS and 7900 GT cards, although the ATI card's performance at 1600x1200 comes extremely close to the latter NVIDIA card.

The Chronicles of Riddick Performance

The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay is based on the movie franchise of the same name, and provides a wild mix of kick-ass action and intriguing game environments. This hybrid game is similar to what Half-Life brought to the table, as you take the role of escaped con Riddick, and fight your way through some exceptionally rendered game levels. The in-game detail levels are also an important consideration, as moving the Shader Model above 2.0 can turn the game into a slide show on older cards, and even at SM 2.0, the game can bring most hardware to its knees.

Chronicles of Riddick is another game benchmark that really pushes our high-end graphics cards to the limit, even at standard detail settings, and should give us a good look at mainstream graphics performance. CoR bucks the current trend, and shows the ATI Radeon X1950 Pro 256MB slightly back of the GeForce 7900 GS 256MB. Chronicles of Riddick might only be a SM2.0 game, and might not play to the ATI strengths, but it's still an extremely demanding one. Hopefully, the addition of anti-aliasing and anisotropic filtering ramps up the game sufficiently to give the Radeon X1950 Pro a good workout.

Chronicles of Riddick AA and AF Performance

Unfortunately, the pattern with 4X AA and 8X AF enabled doesn't change, and we still find the Radeon X1950 Pro 256MB having a very tough time catching the GeForce 7900 GS 256MB.

Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory Performance

Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory is another in a long line of third-person games that rely on stealth and planning, rather than just hammering the fire button repeatedly. This innovative game design also gives our video cards a different kind of test, which is very evident in the standard Ubisoft Lighthouse demo. Better still, the latest patches also enable SM3.0, which we have enabled in all benchmark testing.

Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory is one very demanding game benchmark, especially with SM3.0 enabled, and it can really give any video card a good workout. The results here are very good for the Radeon X1950 Pro 256MB, as it easily outpaces the GeForce 7900 GS, while matching the GeForce 7900 GT at 1600x1200.

Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory AA and AF Performance

Once the anisotropic filtering and anti-aliasing settings are brought into play, the ATI Radeon X1950 Pro explodes out of the gates, and not only rumbles by the GeForce 7900 GS, but the GeForce 7900 GT as well. Only the powerful GeForce 7950 GT 512MB finished ahead of the ATI card, and the Radeon X1950 Pro was never intended to compete at that level.

F.E.A.R. Performance

F.E.A.R. (or First Encounter Assault Recon) is a one of the newer entrants to our game benchmark suite, and it features jaw-dropping graphics, a killer Matrix-like "reflex time" feature, and a physics engine that can bring any system to its knees. This Monolith production includes a wide selection of System and Video settings, along with an in-game testing module to keep things 100% comparable between different graphics cards. In this case, as we are dealing with video card performance, so we have racked the computer and graphics settings to high (max only increases AF and AA) and then testing at the different resolutions.

F.E.A.R. is potentially the most demanding game benchmark in our entire suite, and its overall design rewards both pure graphics performance and an SM 2.0/3.0 feature set. The ATI Radeon X1950 Pro 256MB shows no F.E.A.R. in this benchmark, and handles it in the same way as Splinter Cell, outperforming both the GeForce 7900 GS and GT 256MB cards. These are very impressive scores for a mainstream card, and again, only the GeForce 7950 GT 512MB was able to outpace the ATI Radeon X1950 Pro.

F.E.A.R. AA and AF Performance

The move to 4X AA and 8X AF detail settings does not change the overall card rankings, and the Radeon X1950 Pro 256MB again proves a superior performer to the GeForce 7900 GS and GT 256MB boards.

Company of Heroes Performance

Company of Heroes is yet another new addition to our game benchmark suite, and as a newly-released product, it offers one of the most demanding benchmark environments ever. CoH is a WW2 real-time strategy game, which again provides us with a nice change of pace from the usual FPS benchmark. To give the video cards an even tougher time, we have enabled SM3.0, and set every available graphics option to High.

Company of Heroes is another very demanding part of our game benchmarking suite, and its internal performance test can bring even mainstream video cards to their knees. In this case, the Radeon X1950 Pro 256MB hits a new performance high, and competes directly against the GeForce 7950 GT 512MB for the top score.

Company of Heroes AA and AF Performance

Since Company of Heroes places such a strain on the video hardware, the effect of increasing AA and AF settings doesn't have the same power it does in other games. Even so, the ATI Radeon X1950 Pro cranks it up another notch, and matches the powerful GeForce 7950 GT 512MB at 1600x1200.

3DMark06 Advanced Performance

3DMark06 Advanced is the latest version of this popular 3DMark series of gaming benchmarks from Futuremark, and is the first to showcase new HDR/SM3.0 and SM2.0 graphics tests, as well as offering multi-core tailored CPU tests. The Feature tests have also been enhanced for the newest 3D support, and helps provide reliable measurements for game hardware of today and tomorrow. This is one very serious performance test, which punishes cards that do not fully support HDR/SM3.0 or SM2.0, and really puts video hardware to the next-generation test. In this review, we will be concentrating on the individual benchmark tests covering fill rate, vertex and pixel shading, SM2.0/SM3.0 results, and the individual Shader Particles and Perlin Noise SM3.0 tests.

3DMark06 Advanced Fill Rate and SM2.0/3.0/HDR Performance

The first part of our 3DMark06 Advanced testing utilizes the Feature Test portion of the benchmark (at the standard 1280x1024 resolution), and concentrates on the Fill Rate performance. This chart shows the cards ranked by Fill Rate performance, with the number displayed representing MTexels/second.

The Fill Rate benchmark tests give us a great look at the differences between different video cards. Due to the 12-pipe architecture of the ATI Radeon X1950 Pro 256MB, it doesn't have the same pixel-pushing power of the GeForce 7900-based cards, and this is borne out in the test results.

3DMark06 Advanced Vertex and Pixel Shader Performance

The 3DMark06 Advanced Pixel and Vertex Shader benchmark chart has the cards ranked by shader performance, with the number displayed representing MVertices/second. While the fill rate tests failed show the Radeon X1950 Pro in the best light, the 3DMark06 Advanced Pixel and Vertex Shader benchmarks certainly do. The Vertex Shader score ranks between the GeForce 7900 GS and GT 256MB cards, while its Pixel Shader ranking is just a hair short of the GeForce 7950 GT 512MB.

3DMark06 Advanced SM2.0 & SM3.0/HDR Performance

The SM2.0 & SM3.0/HDR testing gives us another piece of the puzzle, and the Radeon X1950 Pro 256MB again posts some impressive scores, finishing between the GeForce 7900 GT and 7950 GT cards.

3DMark06 Advanced Shader Particles & Perlin Noise SM3.0 Performance

The final 3DMark section includes the Shader Particles and Perlin Noise benchmarks, which are both SM3.0 shader tests. Unfortunately, the current-generation ATI cards do not include texture fetch, and the Radeon X1950 Pro cannot produce a result in the Shader Particles test. Fortunately, the Perlin Noise score is off the chart, and more than makes up for it.

Benchmark Analysis

The ATI Radeon X1950 Pro 256MB displayed many of the characteristics of the Radeon X1000 line of video cards. The differences in relative performance between a Radeon X1950 Pro and a GeForce 7900 GS or GT come down to the base architecture, with NVIDIA promoting a more well-rounded solution compared to the forward-thinking ATI design. With older games, or those that do not support SM3.0, the ATI Radeon X1950 Pro falters a bit and is outperformed by its NVIDIA counterpart. Of course, the reverse is also true, as the Radeon X1950 Pro and its 36 pixel shaders can perform well above its class in hardcore SM3.0 games.

Overclock Testing

In any video card review, the question of overclocking potential is an important one, as any extra juice you scan squeeze from a purchase represents cash back in your pocket. ATI video cards aren't as renowned for overclocking as NVIDIA boards, but since the ATI Radeon X1950 Pro 256MB does support OverDrive, the opportunity is definitely there. We utilized the standard ATI Catalyst drivers with OverDrive, and ran the Radeon X1950 Pro 256MB through a host of overclocking and stability testing.

ATI clocks their Radeon X1950 Pro card at the default speeds of 575 MHz core and 1380 MHz memory, so that is our starting point. The first step is to unlock the OverDrive utility and use its configuration routine to automatically determine the optimal clock speeds. In previous reviews, we have found that using this technique has yielded excellent results, and the ATI drivers regularly hit the maximum overclock, or extremely close to it. In this case, the ATI Radeon X1950 Pro managed to hit a core speed of 621 MHz and a memory speed of 1592 MHz, with both representing very nice overclocks. We were able to move the memory slider up a few notches to just over 1600 MHz, but the core was not totally stable at greater than 621 MHz.

Value

The retail price of an ATI Radeon X1950 Pro 256MB card sits in the $180-$200 range, or slightly higher than a standard, non-ATI model, which can sell at the $170-$185 level. This compares to video cards like the GeForce 7600 GT 256MB ($125-$135), Radeon X1650 XT 256MB ($135-$150), GeForce 7900 GS 256MB ($165-$180), Radeon X1900 GT 256MB ($170-$180), and GeForce 7950 GT 512MB ($220-$250). In the mainstream market, the ATI Radeon X1950 Pro offers an average value, and would do much better if priced in line with the GeForce 7900 GS 256MB.

* Please note that online prices reflect Retail models when possible, only OEM where noted. Prices are taken at the time of review, and are not intended to reflect long-term trends.

Conclusion

The Radeon X1950 Pro is one of the best mainstream entries from ATI, and it does a great job of competing directly against the GeForce 7900 GS 256MB. In terms of game benchmarks, the ATI Radeon X1950 Pro 256MB is one mean contender, and it keeps it close with older tests, while surpassing the GeForce 7900 GS and GT cards in high-end SM3.0 games. After all, newer SM3.0 games is where you need the extra power anyway, and ATI has certainly delivered on mainstream performance with their Radeon X1950 Pro.

Pros: * Powerful RV570 Core * Above-class SM3.0 Performance * Native CrossFire

Cons: * ATI Price Premium

Ratings: