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Hardware ATI Radeon X1900 GT Leaked
Brandon Hill (Blog) - April 10, 2006 5:24 PM
Print 43 comment(s) - last by rrsurfer1.. on Apr 18 at 3:12 PM
ATI adds another SKU to the X1900 series

There is a new Radeon X1900 series graphics card waiting in the wings. According to internal documents, ATI is set to release a single-slot Radeon X1900 GT with 36 pixel shaders. The card is in effect, a cut-down version of the Radeon X1900 XTX and is positioned to go toe-to-toe with NVIDIA's popular GeForce 7900 GT in performance and in price. CrossFire support can be enabled with an external cable connection to a Radeon X1900 512MB CrossFire Edition graphics card. 

Qualification samples of the Radeon X1900 GT are available now with production starting the week of April 14th. According to ATI, support for the X1900 GT will be added in Catalyst driver 6.4 (ver 8.241) -- which ATI expects to release tommorow or the day after. 

Here are the specs for the new card in comparison to the Radeon X1900 XTX:
Radeon X1900 GT
Radeon X1900 XTX
Pixel Shaders
 36 48
Core Clock
575MHz
650MHz
Memory Size
256MB
512MB
Memory Clock
600MHz/1.2GHz
775MHz/1.55GHz

The ATI part number for the X1900GT will be 100-435803.  Samples are already apparently shipping to certain vendors and media.  The X1900GT will only require a single slot cooling solution, but it is up to the AIB partners to specify the exact cooler desired. 

Current GeForce 7900GT cards retail for just over $300.  Vendors tell us pricing has not been officially announced, but that every sign seems to indicate that the X1900 GT will show up priced at or below that $300 magic mark.  Since the Radeon X1900 GT is based on the R580 ASIC, there is already talk that an "unlock" might be in the works to convert an X1900 GT into a full blown X1900 XT.  Coupled with good heat sink solutions, and ATI's new stance on overclocking, the Radeon X1900 GT might be the next killer card this summer.


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RE: ATI cooling is now acceptable ?
By WT on 4/11/2006 10:57:24 AM , Rating: 2
Interesting slam on the 7900GT cooling z3ROCOOL. Rather surprising that the EVGA card is clocked that high but still running well in several reviewers rigs:

Consider the newest CPU magazine with their review of the EVGA cards as well as others from BFG and XFX.
http://www.computerpoweruser.com/editorial/article...

If the link is truncated, I will copy -n- paste the relevant portion below:

It might be tempting to raise an eyebrow at Evga’s super-aggressive overclocking move. After all, the 7900 GT CO Superclocked sports the same tiny cooler as Nvidia’s reference GeForce 7600 GT. But the real value in this card is a confidence-inspiring lifetime warranty that protects against any possibility of failure. And even with higher clock speeds, the fan on our sample never seemed taxed. Overheating shouldn’t be a concern with this jewel.


RE: ATI cooling is now acceptable ?
By Sk1 on 4/11/2006 9:21:36 PM , Rating: 2
I have read that there is a "shimmering" problem with the 7900 series,...is this issue resolved?
I am planning on getting a new m/b and video card in the next 2 weeks or so and I am torn between ATI and NVIDA.
Each time I make up my mind,I read a new article or post that changes my mind!
My current card is an AGP X850XT {on Ebay now}with the Arctic5,and I have had great luck with it,so I am leaning ATI at the moment.
BTW,my first post here so,..HI EVERYONE.


By z3R0C00L on 4/12/2006 9:23:55 PM , Rating: 2
Well.. perhaps I should enlighten you on the issues surrounding the 7900GT.

PC Perspective have an analysis on the cards from XFX, eVGA and BFG. IT's a known issue and each manufacturer's forums are filled with cards that won't boot (DOA), artifacts, display a blank screen when a game is run or burn out.

Yeah a Lifetime warranty it nice.. but when users are already up to there 4th RMA'd card in less then a month... there's a problem don't you think?

nVIDIA is said to be revising a few things to address this issue.. I suppose they didn't think there partners would be so stupid as to overclock these cards by so much and yet still use a reference cooler.


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