Best graphics card for £175?
by Tarinder Sandhu
on 16 November 2006, 17:02
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ATI (AMD: it's AMD! - ed) has a history of releasing limited-run SKUs that offer significant value for money if you're able to source them in time. The latest in a long line is the Radeon X1950 XT. It's based on established R580 technology that packs in 48 pixel shader processors, ultra-threaded architecture, SM3.0 support and all the other gubbins that makes X1950 XTX rather good.
What's more, this Radeon SKU features a 625MHz core speed and, like its bigger brother, HDCP support and GDDR4 memory, this time running at a lofty 1800MHz, thereby offering plenty of bandwidth via the 256-bit bus. The catch is that it supports 'only' 256MiB of onboard memory and uses the dual-slot, noisier cooler found on Radeon X1900 XTX.
On paper, then, and run at most settings, it will be faster than Radeon X1900 XTX. The deal is further sweetened by an online price of just £175 from a wide range of U.K. etailers and $270 (£145) for our transatlantic cousins. The specification alone puts it a clear division above GeForce 7950 GT, which retails at a higher price.
Being pragmatic, it's DX9 tech. and it won't trouble NVIDIA's GeForce 8800 GTX/GTS SKUs, but the attractive price is sure to tempt punters whose budgets don't stretch to nearly £500.
Be quick; it's sure to sell out soon!
Check out the full specs. here.