DailyTech - Radeon X1900GT For Sale Early

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Hardware Radeon X1900GT For Sale Early
Anh Tuan Huynh (Blog) - May 3, 2006 6:37 PM

17 comment(s) - last by Fnoob.. on May 9 at 10:12 PM

Best Buy stores and AxionTech sell X1900GT's ahead of the May 9th launch date

Digit-Life reports some retailers have started selling X1900GT cards earlier than the expected May 9th launch date. Best Buy (In-store) and AxionTech are among the retailers that are selling X1900GT cards early. The X1900GT cards are clocked at 575 MHz Core and 1188 MHz memory with 36 pixel shader processors. Memory size remains at 256MB, similar to NVIDIA 7900GT based cards.

Pricing is a bit steep on the X1900GT, with AxionTech charging $379.99. NVIDIA 7900GT cards on the other hand only cost around $300. The X1900GT also uses a double slot cooler instead of single slot coolers typically found on 7900GT cards. Supply is short but higher availability is expected after ATI officially unveils the X1900GT on May 9th.

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next gen

By neihrick on 5/3/2006 6:50:43 PM , Rating: 2

think i'll skip the ~900s and wait for dx10

RE: next gen

By Shark Tek on 5/3/2006 6:59:33 PM , Rating: 2

Be prepare to spend a little more for WinVista

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RE: next gen

By Dev17 on 5/3/2006 7:49:02 PM , Rating: 1

I wouldn't put alot of faith into the first Direct X 10 cards. Remember the nVidia Ti 4200 v the new direct x9 cards. The good Direct X 8 cards were actually better in many ways. Because your card didn't produce the first gimmicky dx9 effects you got a better frame rate and could pump up the res+detail which was alot nicer.Get x1900s and then get second batch of DX 10 cards.Unless you are an early adopter this makes sense.

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RE: next gen

By Xavian on 5/3/2006 8:01:48 PM , Rating: 2

i believe a lot of DirectX 10's features are about gaining performance and making the API more efficent (but there are some image quality improving features in there too, but not as much as DirectX 9), so buying a DirectX 10 card might not be such a bad idea after-all, since you are virtually gaurenteed to get the best performing DirectX 9 card included in the price too.

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RE: next gen

By Shark Tek on 5/3/2006 10:16:55 PM , Rating: 2

DX10 has many good features and performance enhancements (well makes less overhead). But remember that DX10 will be available only for Windows Vista.
Many people know here that upgrading to a completely new platform/technology is not a good idea. We have to wait until some glitches are fixed first or for the second generation in the case of a hardware device.

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RE: next gen

By akugami on 5/4/2006 3:05:59 AM , Rating: 2

Which is why I've been saying for the last year to anyone who asks not to wait for DX10. 1) If it's more than 6 months off, don't bother waiting. Especially if you're ready to upgrade in the next couple of months anyways. 2) There is always something better around the corner. If you keep waiting and waiting you will never buy a product. 3) DX10 requires Vista which is delayed till Q1 next year and possibly longer. Vista will also need to be fully bug tested (ty early adopters) before it's ready for prime time so I wouldn't bother with Vista until the first service pack is out. 4) You buy expensive video cards to play games with lots of eye candy. While I'm sure the DX10 generation of cards will be more powerful than the cards out now, any but the most rudimentary of DX10 effects will not be out until late 2007 and possibly 2008 considering the complexity involved in creating today's games.

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RE: next gen

By lucyfek on 5/3/2006 11:54:57 PM , Rating: 2

i had never known ti4200 were dx9 video cards (maybe compatible the way any older are but nothing more). first nvidia dx9 cards - the fx series were - well everybody knows this, but at the same time ati's 9700 made many people happy with their performance in dx9 games.

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RE: next gen

By theprodigalrebel on 5/4/2006 5:02:52 AM , Rating: 2

I believe Microsoft has made some very strict rules whether a GPU can claim to be DX10-compliant or not (ie. support some features but not the others..)

Apparently, a card is either 100% DX10-compliant or NOT - no confusion about alternate rendering paths, what version of Pixel Shaders it supports etc. None of that partial DX9-support (think nV FX-series)...so, I don't think we have to worry about first-generation DX10 cards.

Of course, third-gen>>second-gen>>first-gen anything in the computer world...Its a given that the first $500/300 DX10 card will beat the crap out of todays $500/300 cards.

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RE: next gen

By nexus2905 on 5/4/2006 7:20:58 AM , Rating: 2

What are you talking about the first directx 9 cards were the radeon 9700 and they were far far faster then the ti 4200, even in directx 8. ATI's first pc directx 10 is actually a second generation design based of the xbox 360 gpu.

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RE: next gen

By nexus2905 on 5/4/2006 7:21:25 AM , Rating: 2

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RE: next gen

By blwest on 5/4/2006 9:08:09 AM , Rating: 3

On Sale implys that the price will decrease, For Sale implys that something is now available. Writing is a lost art.

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What a joke

By breethon on 5/3/2006 7:49:24 PM , Rating: 2

I can't believe the price. For $100 or less more you can have the full x1900xt. Way better IMHO. I would rather have the 7900GT that this anyday at this price. Looks like I will be able to use my SLI on my MOBO after all.....