http://ati.amd.com/products/RadeonX1950/reviews.html
Scott Wasson, The Tech Report:
“I'd most likely pick the
Radeon X1950 Pro for use in my own system. Nvidia's iffy texture filtering
becomes really bothersome in games like Oblivion and Guild Wars, and since the
X1950 Pro only pulls about 15W more under load than the 7900 GS, why not grab it
instead? Also, we've been down this road half a dozen times in the past month,
but it bears repeating that the Radeon X1000 series has some feature advantages
that translate into better image quality than what Nvidia's G71 can offer,
including smarter, more flexible antialiasing and angle-independent anisotropic
filtering.”
Kurtis Kronk, Tech Lounge:
“Worth noting is that ATI
still has the advantage of HDR+AA rendering over NVIDIA's current cards which
don't support this. They also have WHQL certified drivers for Vista, with the
X1950 Pro capable of providing a 'premium' level experience. NVIDIA does not.
The Vista drivers aren't all that important to me at the moment, but it does
bode well for ATI's driver team. Some people criticize ATI's driver team
(particularly for the sluggish Catalyst Control Center), but I personally like
that they have a driver release schedule and stick to it.”
Brandon Bell, FiringSquad:
““Connectivity options on
ATI’s Radeon X1950 Pro are quite robust, particularly for a mainstream card at
the $200 price point. Not only do you get two dual-link DVI connectors, ATI’s
X1950 Pro also includes VIVO (video-in/video-out) support. Even NVIDIA’s $400
GeForce 7900 GTX doesn’t support VIVO.”
“With the Radeon X1950 Pro, ATI has essentially taken the basic ingredients
found in the base Radeon X1900 GT, namely its 36 pixel shader/8 vertex shader
architecture and spiced the package up a little further with faster memory
speeds, a better cooler that runs very quiet, and for dual-GPU enthusiasts,
integrated CrossFire support.”
Jason Cross, ExtremeTech:
“Today, ATI makes available a
new midrange graphics card based on a new graphics chip dubbed R570. The Radeon
X1950 Pro, targeted at a $199 retail price, is meant to offer better
price/performance than anything else in its class, naturally. That's good news
for budget-minded gamers, but the really exciting part is this: The Radeon X1950
Pro is the first GPU from ATI to incorporate a whole new CrossFire solution,
with no more master cards, no more awkward external connectors, and an eye
toward future scalability.”
“As a single card, the X1950 Pro is a real winner. It's a single slot card
with plenty of DX9 shading power and performance, easily besting the GeForce
7900 GS in practically all our benchmarks—typically by 15% to 25%. If you're
only interested in buying a single $200 graphics card, the X1950 Pro is the way
to go. Note also, that it will support the GPU-accelerated Folding@Home
project.”
Ryan Shrout, PC Perspective:
“If there is one place
where ATI's CrossFire has had the advantage over NVIDIA's SLI multi-GPU
technology, it is in platform support. CrossFire will run on any of the
CrossFire-ready ATI chipsets for AMD or Intel platforms, as well as the Intel
975X chipset (and recently the P965 chipset).”
“The Radeon X1950 Pro was definitely the best performing card for under $200;
the majority our gaming tests showed that the X1950 Pro had the power to out
perform the only a few months old NVIDIA 7900 GS card, even in the overclocked
card we had from XFX. In the pair of games where the X1950 Pro didn't win out
right, the NVIDIA and ATI GPUs were neck and neck in performance at both
1600x1200 and 1920x1200.”
Brent Justice, HardOCP:
“ATI has come with a flurry of
punches lately trying to take back the “video card crown” at very affordable
price points. They started by introducing the Radeon X1950 XTX (the fastest
single-GPU video card you can get) at only $450 MSRP. With today’s announcement
ATI is poised to take the $199 pricing segment as well. The Radeon X1950 Pro
performs exceptionally well for the price; it competes easily with NVIDIA’s
GeForce 7900 GS providing a better experience in most games.”
Tarinder Sandhu, Hexus:
“The release of X1950 Pro
changes the playing field in the crucial £125-£150 sector. It's priced at X1900
GT levels but augments the already decent specification with 'proper' CrossFire,
HDCP support*, a quieter cooler, and, ultimately, better performance derived
from greater memory bandwidth. If you liked the X1900 GT, the X1950 Pro offers
more in every department for the same financial outlay, so what's already good
is now better.”
Derek Wilson, AnandTech:
“There haven't been any changes
to the way CrossFire works from an internal technical standpoint, but a handful
of changes have totally revolutionized the way end users see CrossFire.”
“The bridge solution is much easier to work with than the external dongle,
and while the 2 bridge solution is a little more cumbersome than a single bridge
as with SLI, we can't argue with ATI's bridge distribution method or the fact
that a 2 channel over the top connection offers greater flexibility in a more
than 2 card multi-GPU solution. We also like the fact that ATI is distributing
only flexible bridges as opposed to the more common PCB style bridges we often
see on SLI systems.”
Brian Wallace, Legit Reviews:
“It's been a long hard
road for CrossFire but ATI has finally released a GPU solution designed from the
ground up to be used in Multi-GPU solutions and it shows. The X1950 Pro is a
terrific introduction of what's to come from the red team in the near future.
It's very encouraging to see such a polished product being launched because
CrossFire is now one big step closer to SLI.”
“ATI delivers a well polished product, and most importantly, a great
CrossFire experience to the mainstream market. With lower power usage, low heat
output, and virtually no noise the X1950 Pro is the card many have been longing
for.”