X1950 XTX Previews

[DMA]

http://www.vr-zone.com/?i=3885&s=1
http://www.hardwarezone.com/articles/view.php?id=2020&cid=3&pg=1

[Xion X2]

Yep, saw those. Looks like you can expect anywhere from a 15-25% jump from the 7900GTX/1900XT, which is about what ATi claimed.

[Edit: Wait--LOL! I hadn't seen the VRzone benchies. Those are some #'s alright! The 1900XT outperforms the GX2 on half the tests? Heheh!]

nvidia better get their @sses in gear on this driver issue. It's killing the rep of the GX2.

[Xion X2]

From vrzone--

Unlike in 3D Mark results, in all 6 games tested, the X1950XTX leads, with the smallest difference observed in Oblivion which seemed rather CPU limited even with the X6800 Core 2 Duo. The largest difference was observed in Serious Sam 2 where the X1950XTX performs 37% faster than the 7950GX2. Overall, the X1950XTX is about 20% faster than the 7950GX2 at 1600x1200 with 16xAF and no AA. It is also about 20% faster than an X1900XTX generally pulling a bigger win in some games and smaller in some.

Alright, even though I'm probably getting the 1950 when it comes out, I tend to believe this guy had some kind of bug in his nvidia CP that's been plaguing users around this place. That has to be the reason for these results unless the X6800 has a significant advantage when paired with the GDDR4? He said he was using the ForceWare 91.45's, though.

Interesting 3dMark scores here:

http://resources.vr-zone.com.sg/Shamino/1950/36.jpg
We see that the X1950XTX is 24% faster than the X1900XTX in 3D Mark 05 and 33% faster in 3D Mark 06. However, compared against the 7950GX2, the X1950XTX is 11% slower in 3D Mark 05 and 20% slower in 3D Mark 06.

[Lfctony]

Woa, nice job with the crappy scores. Both sites directly clash with each other on the results... I don't know which of the 2 faked the scores... But I'm sure one of them did. :)

VrZone - FEAR - 16xAF/4xAA
x1950xtx - 33
7950gx2 - 26

Hardwarezone - FEAR - 8xAF/4xAA
x1950xtx - 33
7950gx2 - 40

Hm...

Also, the Vrzone x1950xtx wins all tests vs the 7950gx2, while the hardwarezone 1950xtx loses all tests vs the 7950gx2... Ain't that strange matey?

[pharma]

We really need more previews/reviews since the Hardwarezone review results are somewhat different:

Like we thought, a mere increase in memory clock speeds, DDR4 or not, doesn't really help the Radeon X1950 XTX too much in performance. As the overclocked HIS Radeon X1900 XTX showed, the best Radeon X1900 XTX can pose a serious threat to this new product. At the moment, it seems like present owners of a Radeon X1900 XTX can forget about making a minor upgrade to the X1950 XTX, as there is no significant performance advantage from doing so.


The good news is that just like AMD, ATI seems to be competing on price now, with a surprising US$399 price tag announced for this new card. With NVIDIA's dual GPU GeForce 7950 GX2 hardly threatened by the newcomer performance-wise, the Radeon X1950 XTX may yet have the last laugh with its highly competitive pricing. Going by present retail prices, this new card will have the lowest price among the high-end contenders with the exception of the lesser Radeon X1900 XT. That's music to the ears of enthusiasts.

[Xion X2]

http://resources.vr-zone.com.sg/Shamino/1950/38.jpg

Those #'s are just--wow. Is anyone else believing this?

[Xion X2]

What I wanna know is what the hell kind of computers are these guys running these games on? 26FPS in FEAR at 1600 res? 36FPS on Quake 4 at 1600 res???

I get 40-45 FPS on my GTX on FEAR at 1600 resolution with all settings maxed. I haven't played Quake4 at 1600 res, but I get over 60FPS at 1280!

[weeds]

those vr-zone numbers for the 7950 dont match any other reviews, since when does the x1900xtx match the 7950. Hell even the 7900GTX wins in most cases against the x1900xtx.

http://www.rage3d.com/reviews/video/nvidia7950gx2/

[zer0]

these are badly done previews... lets just wait for the official reviews.

[DarkJedi664]

They still didn't test above 16x12, which is where the 7950GX2 really shines. Shame really. Plus, who would be dumb enough to buy this car when DX10 cards are coming out in a month or two? :\

[Xion X2]

Another gem from vr-zone:

Even though the advantage of the high memory bandwidth available on the X1950XTX was not seen clearly at the default 3D Mark benchmarking resolutions below 1600x1200 without AA or AF, this advantage was much more visible as we ran our games at 1600x1200 with eye candy turned on. It seems that the large amount of textures need to move and need to move fast and that's where the fast GDDR4 on the board comes in. I was quite surprised at the edge the X1950XTX seems to be offering with just a bump in Memory clock speeds.

[Xion X2]

Plus, who would be dumb enough to buy this car when DX10 cards are coming out in a month or two? :\

Who says DX10 cards will be out in a month or two? Nothing's been guaranteed about that. Even if they were, Vista won't be out until 1st quarter of next year. DX10 won't be up and running until then. You may not see DX10 until 6 months from now.

[Marvel_us]

You can still use Directx 10 cards with Directx 9 so......

[Xion X2]

True, but what's the use of having one if it will only run DX9? You basically bought yourself a very, very expensive DX9 card. I usually upgrade graphics cards every 6-12 months, anyway.

[Marvel_us]

Yea but don't forget G80/R600 will be faster cards overall. Both will most likely out perform this one, as well as current cards, in Directx 9 mode with current games.

[Xion X2]

Marvel--you could be right, and probably are, but with no guarantee when we'll see these cards I'm not just going to sit around and wait and hope they come out in the next few months. No release dates have been set yet, and my thinking is that if Vista is delayed that the DX10 cards will be, too.

[Marvel_us]

Fair enough.

As for my thoughts on this card I think it looks damn nice. One thing these previews are definately good for are the pics!:D

[ArturNOW]

VR-zone benchmarks are odd look here at oblivion test http://www.tomshardware.com/2006/06/05/geforce_7950_gx2/page11.html

7950GX is much faster then 1900XTX.

[Mr_LoL]

This card is fast but with the next gen cards around the corner, I dont see the point in spending £400 for one tbh.

[BioHazZarD]

This card is fast but with the next gen cards around the corner, I dont see the point in spending £400 for one tbh.

yeah like 6 months and until some games get sout expect a long wait.. rofl

[Mr_LoL]

yeah like 6 months and until some games get sout expect a long wait.. rofl

Yes but I think the next gen cards will run current dx9 games faster so I am going to wait.

[Knot3D]

So... the latency settings for that GDDR4 are actually a bit less tight.....

It seems tempting to buy one, but i'll hold off since i've got the 1900XTX already.

[Xion X2]

VR-Zone took their benchmarks down. Now the link to the 1950 says this:

From Vr-Zone:
Testing in progress...

http://www.vr-zone.com/?i=3884

LOL. :D

[Xion X2]

And hardwarezone takes down their benchmarks. Who knows what this card can really do?

http://forums.hardwarezone.com/showthread.php?t=1372582&page=3&pp=15

Posted by administrator Dr. Vijay:

Hi guys, just came back from a midnight outing and am here to address some of your concerns.

We've taken down the review because ATI personally got in touch with us with regards to the ongoing product embargo. Thus we gladly obliged, as we would like to maintain the best interests of all manufacturers. Though there have been rumors prior to this of the probable launch dates, ATI hasn't conveyed this to us, nor have we been under any NDA. Thus when the opportunity came upon us, we went ahead.

With regards to the results, both set of results from HWZ and VR could be perfectly fine. Why? We've seen through testing thousands of products over the 8 years we've been operating and we know the fine details that affect these scores. First and above all, the test systems are of a completely different grade where ours is more of an upper-midrange class but VR's system is totally top-end. When we transitioned our testbeds previously, we observed these shift in results, thus the outcome you see is everything that you will see on various test systems. There's nothing wrong or right in either set. Secondly, the drivers are beta and although it looks like a modified version of the existing catalyst drivers, we cannot say for certain what it affects. Thirdly, the drivers sets on both sites are a tad different.

There's probably no mistake in results, it's just the way things are - for now
We did mention before that the Radeon X1950XTX might not be much better than the overclocked HIS Radeon X1900XTX and the results are about there.
We'll re-look at this card once again when its time is right once more and by that time, perhaps better drivers could be available

Goodnight folks and just hope ATI delivers on the price point as they have rectified the thermal and noise portions really well. stay tuned!

Wow. So it sounds like he believes that vr-zone's numbers were legit? Everyone over there was saying that the guy who did the benchmarks, whose name was "Sham," I believe, was pretty reputable.

So maybe the X6800 gets along much better with the GDDR4 on the 1950 than the GX2? Still hard to believe even the 1900XT performs better in some tests, though.

I still smell something fishy. This is pissing me off; I might be getting this card and I'd just like to see one legit benchmark before I go out and buy it.

Why is it that these new products like this always seem to be shipped first to the three stooges to test?

[ShiningArcanine]

I cannot find VR-Zone's article. I think that they took it down.

Hardware Zone appears to have taken down its article too.