When will the ATI Radeon 512MB X1950XT-X be released in the UK?

dvdbunny · 14 Aug 2006 at 14:12

Hi guys,

When will the ATI/Sapphire Radeon 512MB X1950XT-X be released in the UK?

How much will it cost?

On release day will we see price drops on the ATI Radeon 512MB X1900XT/and 512MB X1900XT-X? If so by how much?

LoadsaMoney · 14 Aug 2006 at 14:18

HI there

You will be able to order the X1950 XTX real soon from OcUK. We've pulled of quite an impressive deal with ATI which means we will have over 90% of UK allocation and you will be able to get it from OcUK as early as the 23rd August or possibly earlier.

Yes it really is a fast card. We all know how fast an X1900 XTX is so just do the maths, add 500MHz memory speeds that based on faster GDDR4 and you can work it out for yourself that this card will be a serious performer at high resolution with AA/AF+HDR maxed out.

Plus OcUK well be selling for approx £285ish +VAT quite a good price for ATI's latest top of the line product. X1900 XTX will disapear and X1900 XT 512 will remain at current prices of £175-£200+VAT, absolute bargains when you consider how fast the damn things are.

Taken form another thread posted by Gibbo.

Darkwave · 14 Aug 2006 at 14:21

Prices have been updated now though, Gibbo said the X1950XT will be £230 and that the X1950XT-X will be £290.

Previously they were £270 and £370 or so, as said in LoadsaMoney's post.

Edit: Both of those prices are including VAT at 17.5% I think. :cool:

Amazing prices considering we are hearing that these will be 7950GX2 killers so far.

LoadsaMoney · 14 Aug 2006 at 14:22

Úlfhednar said:
Prices have been updated now though, Gibbo said the X1950XT will be £230 and that the X1950XT-X will be £290. Previously they were £270 and £370 or so, as said in LoadsaMoney's post.

Even better. :cool:

Gibbo · 14 Aug 2006 at 14:32

Hi there

First of all I never state including VAT prices.

X1950 XTX was due for release on August 23rd/24th however its now been put back to September 14th. Pricing of the XTX will be in the £275-£300+VAT region.

Darkwave · 14 Aug 2006 at 14:35

Gibbo said:
First of all I never state including VAT prices.

Hissss @ Gibbo. How much can we expect with VAT?

Booo at the delay too.

LoadsaMoney · 14 Aug 2006 at 14:36

Sept. 14th now, we aint got another x1800 on our hands here have we.

Darkwave · 14 Aug 2006 at 14:39

LoadsaMoney said:
Sept. 14th now, we aint got another x1800 on our hands here have we.

Oh God, I hope not. I love ATI's price/performance at the moment, but their paper launches are quite annoying. :rolleyes:

LoadsaMoney · 14 Aug 2006 at 15:00

They are probably gona hard launch on the 14th, and making sure they have enough cards ready.

dvdbunny · 14 Aug 2006 at 15:54

Hey guys

Thanks for the replys,

Just wondering if i was going to buy two 512MB X1900XT cards will those 2 cards running in crossfire be as good as one 512MB X1950XT-X?

Cuchulain · 14 Aug 2006 at 16:00

dvdbunny said:
Hey guys

Thanks for the replys,

Just wondering if i was going to buy two 512MB X1900XT cards will those 2 cards running in crossfire be as good as one 512MB X1950XT-X?

Easily as fast, probably faster, from what I gather the X1950 is pretty much an X1900 with faster memory.

Darkwave · 14 Aug 2006 at 17:00

dvdbunny said:
Just wondering if i was going to buy two 512MB X1900XT cards will those 2 cards running in crossfire be as good as one 512MB X1950XT-X?

Two X1900XTs in Crossfire should be a lot better than a single X1950XT-X, which so far appear to be just a bit better than a 7950GX2.

gary996 · 14 Aug 2006 at 17:05

But are there going to be 1950 master cards? Or have ATI got round this now so no master is needed

Darkwave · 14 Aug 2006 at 17:09

gary996 said:
But are there going to be 1950 master cards? Or have ATI got round this now so no master is needed

A good question, I imagine master cards will be available for them. If not at launch, then not long after.

Would be nice if Gibbo would answer this for us.

In fact, I think a couple of questions need answering specifically.

Will the X1950 series require a master card for Crossfire?
Will the X1950XT and X1950XT-X require seperate master cards (if at all)?
Will master cards be available for the X1950 series on launch?

LoadsaMoney · 14 Aug 2006 at 18:37

I think there will be master cards for the x1950's as the motherboards can't cope without, and if there wasnt going to be, then why is the x1900 master still getting produced, if its not needed then when they get to the end of the production line then they should just drop straight into a bin, and that would be a total waste of money.

Darkwave · 14 Aug 2006 at 18:39

LoadsaMoney said:
I think there will be master cards for the x1950's as the motherboards can't cope without, and if there wasnt going to be, then why is the x1900 master still getting produced, if its not needed then when they get to the end of the production line they should just drop straight into a bin.

Keep in mind that Crossfire only needs a master card because it has a specialist composite chip on it, you never know if they might have sussed out how to do Crossfire without it using new tech on the X1950 series.

STUPIDLY unlikely though, not even worth thinking about. I imagine there will be master cards, but I would like to hear from Gibbo if possible.

dvdbunny · 14 Aug 2006 at 18:49

As far as my knowledge goes Nvidia cards don't need master cards right? you just plug any two of the same nvidia cards together, connect cables and your all set.

Does the X1950 series support DX10?

If i buy two X1900XT 512MB then i will be getting 1 slave and 1 master card, does that mean if i was to upgrade i would have to buy another master card as the X1950 won't be compatible with my X1900XT master card, is that right?

If so that's a real pain and quite a money spinner for ATI. I don't see Nvidia making you have to have that.

maddness · 14 Aug 2006 at 18:53

they will need a mastercard, i saw the link posted on ocuk for a mastercard version

Darkwave · 14 Aug 2006 at 18:54

dvdbunny said:
As far as my knowledge goes Nvidia cards don't need master cards right? you just plug any two of the same nvidia cards together, connect cables and your all set.

Yup, but SLi only works properly in games with a proper driver profile, whereas Crossfire is true hardware multi-card.

dvdbunny said:
Does the X1950 series support DX10?

Nope, you will have to wait for Nvidia's G80 or ATI's R600 for that, but keep in mind that very few games utilising DirectX 10 will actually be available until this time next year or even later.

dvdbunny said:
If i buy two X1900XT 512MB then i will be getting 1 slave and 1 master card, does that mean if i was to upgrade i would have to buy another master card as the X1950 won't be compatible with my X1900XT master card, is that right?

Correct, same would go for getting SLi though as you need two of the same model. SLi and Crossfire are both a waste of time IMO.

dvdbunny said:
If so that's a real pain and quite a money spinner for ATI. I don't see Nvidia making you have to have that.

Wrong.

You need two of the same model Nvidia cards to work, you can mix-and-match brands (ie. BFG and XFX), but you would need (for example) two 7900GTs or whatever card or it won't work.

<maddness> said:
they will need a mastercard, i saw the link posted on ocuk for a mastercard version

Thanks for letting us know.

Gibbo · 14 Aug 2006 at 19:54

Úlfhednar said:
A good question, I imagine master cards will be available for them. If not at launch, then not long after.

Would be nice if Gibbo would answer this for us. In fact, I think a couple of questions need answering specifically.

Will the X1950 series require a master card for Crossfire?

Will the X1950XT and X1950XT-X require seperate master cards (if at all)?

Will master cards be available for the X1950 series on launch?

1. Yes and they will be availabe around day of launch for same price.

2. No as they are both GDDR4, just the master cards will all be 512MB, ATI may release a 256MB master card at a later date. But R600 removed the requirement for a master card, its done internally like SLi.
3. Yes and again will be similar price to the XTX (£280-£300+VAT)