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Final Words

It is hard to believe how much performance $150 can buy nowadays. Or else, how much performance $300 can buy in a crossfire configuration. AMD/ATI is still in the unique situation that their dual card solution is functional across all platforms whereas everybody is still waiting for the unlocked nVidia drivers. Likewise, ATI has functional Vista drivers – only in this case, the GTs are not supported yet. Supposedly the next driver revision (7.3?) will have the update and it will come probably within the next week or two so there is hope.

On the bright side of things, the transition to Vista is still in its infancy, the majority of end-users interested in the X1950 GT is most likely still on an XP-based platform and as such will enjoy all the benefits of the latest drivers including Crossfire and, as mentioned, $300 has never bought that much performance before.

On the strong side of the Sapphire offering is the extensive bundle with support for HD Avivo, HDTV, even HDCP (High Definition Content Protection) – in case that one ever becomes necessary and dual link DVI-I necessary to drive the latest high resolution flat panel displays. The addition of “Just Cause” to the bundle is another nice touch and we can only commend Sapphire for moving away from the “Sapphire Download” solution to a real game with an actual retail value of about $45,-.

On the negative side of things is primarily the cooling solution with its wind-tunnel noise somewhere in the 60 dBa range (estimated) and the annoying high pitch grinding of the fan motor. It would appear that just a tad more effort on the cooling would increase the value of the card tremendously – but then there is still the aftermarket.

All in all, the RADEON X1950 GT is a superb solution for the money and Sapphire is ATI’s strongest partner with a generous value added bundle, in other words, you can’t go wrong with it.

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