SUMMARY: In the past we've taken a look at various modern day high-end graphics cards based on both top of the model ATI and nVidia chips. On the menu today is Gigabyte's GV-R98X256D graphics card based on the Radeon 9800 XT. We put it directly against Gigabyte's GeForce FX 5950 Ultra for comparison sakes.
The battle for 3D supremacy has never been as fast and furious as it is now. We have seen the rise of nVidia from ashes to amazing. We have seen the fall of the 3D giants S3 and 3DFX and the emergence of the newest players on the block, ATI and XGI.
Today we have two of the greatest high-end GPUs on the market - ATI has its 9800 XT and nVidia has its 5950. So far we have had nVidia’s reference 5950 and Gigabyte’s 5950 in our labs along with the ASUS variety.
Now we come to Gigabyte. By now most of you would know we have been avid followers of Gigabyte’s products, simply because they have shown great promise and variety. Gigabyte is one of the most versatile manufacturers out there, not every company would take on every chipset and give them a go on their products, in fact there is only one or two others that have done so or are able to even attempt it due to manufacturing limitations.
Gigabyte has been one of ATI’s biggest supporters since the 8500 was released. And to this date are still pushing their ATI based cards. However, Gigabyte has accommodated for nVidia fans with 5700, 5700 Ultra and 5900 and 5950 based cards, designed to give not only an nVidia point of view but to have the best high-end cards available, be it from ATI or nVidia, Gigabyte is set to have one of the fastest cards out no matter what card you draw from the pack.
Today we take a look at the Gigabyte Radeon 9800 XT based graphics card and compared it directly against Gigabyte’s other giant, the nVidia GeForce FX 5950 Ultra which we reviewed here earlier this year.
