Sapphire x1950 Pro Get our reviews RSS feed here  |
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Author: Whoopty | ||
| Posted: 23:00, May 22nd 2007 | |||
| Link: http://www.sapphiretech.com/ | |||
| Score: 9 out of 10 [?] | |||
| Price: £110 | |||
Introduction
Although many have been a bit disappointed that the latest hardware renditions that ATI released didn't take the GTX performance crown, they tend to forget that the money is in the mid to low range cards, not the top end. This is a market that is still held pretty firmly by ATI with their x1950 Pro cards. Today I have Sapphire's version of the series which has proved itself time and time again; let's see how this one fairs against new challengers from the 8600 series.
Specifications
- ATI RADEON™ X1950 PRO core (580MHz)
- 256MB GDDR3 onboard memory (1400MHz)
- 36 pixel shader processors
- 256-bit Memory Bus
- PCI Express x16 / CrossFire support
Features
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- 36 pixel shader processors
- 8 vertex shader processors
- Up to 256-bit 8 channel GDDR3 memory interface
- Native PCI Express® x16 bus interface
- Plug-and-play (native) CrossFire™
- Shader Technology
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- Support for Microsoft® DirectX® 9.0 programmable vertex and pixel shaders in hardware.
- Shader Model 3.0 vertex and pixel shader support:
- Full speed 32-bit floating point processing
- High dynamic range rendering with floating point blending and anti-aliasing support
- High performance dynamic branching and flow control
- Complete feature set also supported in OpenGL® 2.0
- Anti-Aliasing and Anisotropic Filtering
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- 2x/4x/6x Anti-Aliasing modes:
- Sparse multi-sample algorithm with gamma correction, programmable sample patterns, and centroid sampling
- New Adaptive Anti-Aliasing mode
- Temporal Anti-Aliasing
- Lossless Color Compression (up to 6:1) at all resolutions, up to and including widescreen HDTV
- 2x/4x/8x/16x Anisotropic Filtering modes:
- Up to 128-tap texture filtering
- Adaptive algorithm with performance and quality options
- Improved rendering with higher subpixel precision and LOD computation levels
- New rotational high quality rendering mode
- 2x/4x/6x Anti-Aliasing modes:
- 3Dc+™ — Advanced Texture Compression
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- High quality 4:1 compression for normal maps and luminance maps
- Works with any single-channel or two-channel data format
- Ring Bus Memory Controller
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- Programmable arbitration logic maximizes memory efficiency, software upgradeable
- New fully associative texture, color, and Z cache design
- Hierarchical Z-Buffer with Early Z Test
- Lossless Z-Buffer Compression (up to 48:1)
- Fast Z-Buffer Clear
- Z Cache optimized for real-time shadow rendering
- Optimized for performance at high display resolutions, up to and including widescreen HDTV
- Avivo™ Video and Display Engine
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- New advanced video capabilities, including high fidelity gamma, color correction and scaling
- Dual independent display controllers that support true 30 bits per pixel throughout the display pipe
- Full symmetry on both heads
- Each display interface supports display resolutions beyond 2560x1600
- Advanced DVI capabilities, including 10-bit, 16-bit HDR output
- YPrPb component output for direct drive of HDTV displays
- Seamless integration of pixel shaders with video in real time
- MPEG1/2/4 decode and encode acceleration:
- DXVA support
- Hardware motion compensation, iDCT, DCT and color space conversion
- All-format DTV/HDTV decoding
- Adaptive per-pixel de-interlacing and frame rate conversion (temporal filtering)
- CrossFire™
-
- Multi-GPU technology
- Four modes of operation:
- Alternate frame rendering for maximum performance
- Supertiling for optimal load-balancing
- Scissoring for compatibility
- Super AA for maximum image quality
- Native CrossFire support simplifies setup by requiring no dedicated slave or master hardware
- 24-bit CrossFire connection enables high resolutions and refresh rates
- Supports the broadest range of platforms for both Intel and AMD
- Multi-GPU technology
Buy now
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