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Best graphics card for £175?

by Tarinder Sandhu on 16 November 2006, 17:02

Tags: Sapphire

Quick Link: HEXUS.net/qahcx

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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.


HEXUS Forums :: 22 Comments

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Agreed. I want one!

But I think I'll wait until the mid-priced next G80 or R600s come out in a few months. Pointless getting a dx9 card when I will be wanting to play Crysis!
Be careful Hexus.
I like (and use) Scan as much as the next, but you run a serious risk of becoming one big advert, and losing all credibility.
Reviewing something you've been sent - fair enough.
Simply saying “oh what a good price” cheapens you.
MSIC,

I've purposely not alluded to Scan by name or made any overt references to them in the short article. It's a hyperlink that you can choose to click on to. The purpose of the piece was to highlight the value for money offered by the competitve pricing of that SKU.

You're absolutely free to shop wherever you'd like to. The same SKU is available from other online vendors for roughly the same price, so it's no ‘special’ or time-limited (other than finite supply by ATI/AMD) offer from Scan.

We're planning on getting a sample in, so this, effectively, was a precursor to that.
Further, it was a well-judged price/perf statement based on understood and already available performance data, from R580 SKUs we've looked at in extreme depth already. Pointing out a price/perf bargain for our readers if we know what we're talking about is probably a good thing on balance, right? :D
MSIC
Be careful Hexus.
I like (and use) Scan as much as the next, but you run a serious risk of becoming one big advert, and losing all credibility.
Reviewing something you've been sent - fair enough.
Simply saying “oh what a good price” cheapens you.
lol… who wouldn't want to advertise a good price like that? Would you prefer not to be told?