HI there
Looks like reviewers are really liking the performance of the X1950 Pro and the new crossfire modes.
Have a read of these reviews and summaries:-
http://www.techreport.com/reviews/2006q4/radeon-x1950-pro/index.x?pg=1
“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.”
http://www.thetechlounge.com/article/304/ATI+Radeon+X1950+Pro+256MB+PCIE+Preview/
“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.
http://www.firingsquad.com/hardware/ati_radeon_x1950_pro/
“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.”
http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1697,2032012,00.asp
“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.”
http://www.pcper.com/article.php?aid=312
“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.”
http://enthusiast.hardocp.com/article.html?art=MTE5OCwxLCxoZW50aHVzaWFzdA==
“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.”
http://www.*****.net/content/item.php?item=7016
“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.”
http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=2858
“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.”
http://www.legitreviews.com/article/406/1/
“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.”
Neoseeker - http://www.neoseeker.com/news/story/6217/
CrunchGear - http://crunchgear.com/2006/10/17/death-of-a-dongle-atis-radeon-x1950-pro/
Bit-tech.net - http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/2006/10/17/sapphire_radeon_x1950_pro/1.html
CNET - http://reviews.cnet.com/ATI_Radeon_X1950_Pro/4505-8902_7-32114240.html
Hot Hardware - http://www.hothardware.com/viewarticle.aspx?articleid=886&cid=2
PC Perspectives - http://www.pcper.com/article.php?aid=312
TG Daily - http://www.tgdaily.com/2006/10/17/ati_x1950_pro/
Hardware Zone - http://www.hardwarezone.com/articles/view.php?cid=3&id=2090
Hot Hardware - http://www.hothardware.com/viewarticle.aspx?articleid=886&cid=2
There you go lots of good reading and the X1950 Pro seems to be a winner.
Looks like reviewers are really liking the performance of the X1950 Pro and the new crossfire modes.
Have a read of these reviews and summaries:-
http://www.techreport.com/reviews/2006q4/radeon-x1950-pro/index.x?pg=1
“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.”
http://www.thetechlounge.com/article/304/ATI+Radeon+X1950+Pro+256MB+PCIE+Preview/
“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.
http://www.firingsquad.com/hardware/ati_radeon_x1950_pro/
“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.”
http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1697,2032012,00.asp
“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.”
http://www.pcper.com/article.php?aid=312
“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.”
http://enthusiast.hardocp.com/article.html?art=MTE5OCwxLCxoZW50aHVzaWFzdA==
“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.”
http://www.*****.net/content/item.php?item=7016
“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.”
http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=2858
“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.”
http://www.legitreviews.com/article/406/1/
“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.”
Neoseeker - http://www.neoseeker.com/news/story/6217/
CrunchGear - http://crunchgear.com/2006/10/17/death-of-a-dongle-atis-radeon-x1950-pro/
Bit-tech.net - http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/2006/10/17/sapphire_radeon_x1950_pro/1.html
CNET - http://reviews.cnet.com/ATI_Radeon_X1950_Pro/4505-8902_7-32114240.html
Hot Hardware - http://www.hothardware.com/viewarticle.aspx?articleid=886&cid=2
PC Perspectives - http://www.pcper.com/article.php?aid=312
TG Daily - http://www.tgdaily.com/2006/10/17/ati_x1950_pro/
Hardware Zone - http://www.hardwarezone.com/articles/view.php?cid=3&id=2090
Hot Hardware - http://www.hothardware.com/viewarticle.aspx?articleid=886&cid=2
There you go lots of good reading and the X1950 Pro seems to be a winner.
and (b) affordable crossfire.
(though part of a new rig, I don't think my current one can go much further with latest games