Introduction

Honestly, if AMD and ATI stopped concentrating on launching new graphics cards using the aging RV570 core, we would probably have our eagerly awaited R600 (Radeon X2800) by now.

Instead of giving us the new upcoming competitor to the monstrous GeForce 8800GTX, AMD instead announce that the new Radeon X1950GT is released. We’re all for new graphics cards but what happened when the Radeon X1950GT was announced? nVidia’s brand new line up of GeForce 8300, 8600 and 8900 got all leaked and instantly everyone was thinking of the green team.

We would probably go as far to say that if it wasn’t for AMD releasing monthly Catalyst drivers, we might have forgotten about them by now - R600 to all appears as if it is quickly becoming vaporware and looks like it should be hanging out with Duke Nukem Forever.

OK! We are being a little harsh and a little inaccurate but let’s have a look at what exactly the Radeon X1950GT is before we continue to criticize. It’s a about the same price as a regular nVidia GeForce 7900GS 256MB but cheaper than the Radeon X1950PRO with 256MB and 512MB of memory. It makes it somewhat of a questionable release since it’s only marginally cheaper than the 256MB PRO.

Let’s get into and find out what the new Radeon X1950GT from the folks at Palit has to offer against its competitors and if it’s actually worth buying or if it’s just an excuse for AMD and ATI to kill over supply problems of the RV570 chip.