On the day of R580's launch, we took a look at the cream of the crop of the Radeon X1900 series - The X1900 XTX, courtesy of Club 3D. Of course, this wasn't the only SKU launched that day - For $100 dollars less, you could grab yourself the X1900 XT, giving you the same number of pixel pipelines and pixel shader units, but at lower clock speeds. Indeed, we commented at the time about the small disparity in clock speeds between the XT and XTX parts (with just 25MHz difference in core speed, and 50MHz discrepancy in RAM clocks), but the official line was that, due to R580's architecture, the benefits of core clock speed increases per MHz would be greater than that seen with other architectures.
Of course, being inquisitive types that we are (as well as tight fisted - Imagine what else you could spend $100 on?!), we've decided to put that theory to the test, and see exactly how much performance you gain with a Radeon X1900 XTX over an X1900 XT part.
Conclusions :
At the end of the day, the numbers speak for themselves - Although how much money an additional boost in framerate is worth is a subjective thing, I really can't imagine that anybody will truly be willing to part with as much as an extra $100 to benefit from only a couple of extra frames per second across the board. Factor in the lack of speed binning of R580 cores and the use of the same memory modules on both X1900 XT and XTX parts, and you really have very little reason to go for an XTX at all. This becomes even more so the case if you don't have a problem with grabbing some software (or simply using ATI's own OVERDRIVE facility) to overclock to XTX speeds, which should be possible in the vast majority of, if not all, cases.
All in all, it feels rather strange that ATI have decided to release two SKUs based around R580 in this fashion at all - It almost seems as though the decision was made before yields of the core were known, and these two parts were subsequently shoehorned into their respective positions even though there was little technical need to do so. Of course, high-end graphics boards mean high margins for both ATI and their AIB partners, but to my mind that still doesn't excuse the feeling that buyers of the Radeon X1900 XTX are being somewhat ripped off, while those who are perhaps more technically astute (or at least better read on their potential video card purchases) are coming away with a much better side of the deal.
So, the advice from us is really quite simple here while prices stand as they currently do - Unless bragging rights are your greatest concern, forget about picking up the Radeon X1900 XTX, and find yourself a Radeon X1900 XT-based part instead. It'll give you just as many gaming thrills and spills as its more expensive brother, and leave you a hefty chunk of change to enjoy on whatever else you please.
For the full review visit Elitebastards
Of course, being inquisitive types that we are (as well as tight fisted - Imagine what else you could spend $100 on?!), we've decided to put that theory to the test, and see exactly how much performance you gain with a Radeon X1900 XTX over an X1900 XT part.
Conclusions :
At the end of the day, the numbers speak for themselves - Although how much money an additional boost in framerate is worth is a subjective thing, I really can't imagine that anybody will truly be willing to part with as much as an extra $100 to benefit from only a couple of extra frames per second across the board. Factor in the lack of speed binning of R580 cores and the use of the same memory modules on both X1900 XT and XTX parts, and you really have very little reason to go for an XTX at all. This becomes even more so the case if you don't have a problem with grabbing some software (or simply using ATI's own OVERDRIVE facility) to overclock to XTX speeds, which should be possible in the vast majority of, if not all, cases.
All in all, it feels rather strange that ATI have decided to release two SKUs based around R580 in this fashion at all - It almost seems as though the decision was made before yields of the core were known, and these two parts were subsequently shoehorned into their respective positions even though there was little technical need to do so. Of course, high-end graphics boards mean high margins for both ATI and their AIB partners, but to my mind that still doesn't excuse the feeling that buyers of the Radeon X1900 XTX are being somewhat ripped off, while those who are perhaps more technically astute (or at least better read on their potential video card purchases) are coming away with a much better side of the deal.
So, the advice from us is really quite simple here while prices stand as they currently do - Unless bragging rights are your greatest concern, forget about picking up the Radeon X1900 XTX, and find yourself a Radeon X1900 XT-based part instead. It'll give you just as many gaming thrills and spills as its more expensive brother, and leave you a hefty chunk of change to enjoy on whatever else you please.
For the full review visit Elitebastards
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