Sapphire X1950 Pro Dual 1GiB

Graphics

Published: Wednesday 25th April, 2007 | Author: Tarinder Sandhu
Products: Sapphire X1950
Companies: Sapphire (All Sapphire content)
External reviews: Sapphire X1950

printer friendly layout discuss this review in the forums

discuss in the forums email this review to a friend

email to a friend

Prev. page: HEXUS.bang4buck

Comment In The Forums

Final thoughts, HEXUS.awards and HEXUS.right2reply

Sapphire has taken the step to introduce a novel SKU before the long-overdue launch of Radeon HD 2000 series take the shine off the current Radeon X1950 series.

The Sapphire X1950 Pro Dual 1GiB, priced at around £200, is, effectively, two Radeon X1950 Pro 512MiB SKUs which are situated on a single PCB and hooked up via an on-board CrossFire bridging chip.

From a practical sense, housing a pre-CrossFired X1950 Pro setup dictates the use of an extra-large PCB that may not fit into a number of chassis, but we still applaud Sapphire's engineers for creating a unique SKU that generally performs well.

CrossFired performance is enough to see the X1950 Pro Dual take top honours in both our D3D tests, although HDR-related problems are hard to ignore. Further, overall performance is determined by just how sensitive the gaming title is to AMD's multi-GPU CrossFire technology. Our results show a best-case scenario, and other titles may not be quite so responsive to dual GPU usage.

Is it worth it? That's a difficult call on a product that will appeal to a small cross-section of our readership. In pure innovation terms, yes, it's something your friends are not likely to have and, as such, will create quite a buzz. Practically, the quad-monitor setup will be perceived as a distinct bonus to folks with multi-screen setups.

The value proposition isn't bad for a high-end card, either, just like the NVIDIA GeForce 7950 GX2, but we'd be inclined to wait and see what the Radeon HD 2000 series brings to the table before committing.

Bottom line: an interesting limited-run product based on sound engineering that offers decent DX9 performance. Much like the GeForce 7950 GX2, it's a performance/features stopgap until the Next Big Thing arrives.

HEXUS.awards

It's easy to see why it fully deserves our innovation award.

Sapphire X1950 Pro Dual 1GiB

HEXUS.where2buy

TBC

HEXUS.right2reply

At HEXUS.net, we invite the companies whose products we test to comment on our articles. If any of Sapphire's representatives choose to do so, we'll publish their commentary here verbatim.

HEXUS.related reading

Prev. page: HEXUS.bang4buck

Comment In The Forums

HEXUS.community :: your right2reply

Posted by Elessar_VPR - Tue 24th Apr 2007, 4:42pm

That thing's huge! Pretty decent as well though I'd imagine it will not sell that well considering R600 series et al should be here in a month or so.Quote

Posted by [jF] - Tue 24th Apr 2007, 9:36pm

Too late to market, shame :(Quote

Posted by Clunk - Tue 24th Apr 2007, 11:34pm

Will it fit in a shuttle?:crazy: :crazy: :crazy:Quote

Posted by Elessar_VPR - Wed 25th Apr 2007, 12:52am

Quote: Clunk
Will it fit in a shuttle?:crazy: :crazy: :crazy:

Sure, you'd have to put it in the cargo bay via the bay doors, but it should just about squeeze in :PQuote

erm

Posted by Karlos007 - Thu 26th Apr 2007, 12:10am

i take it if i drop this in a 939 neforce 4 board its not gonna play the crossfire game with me then??? shame, would have made a nice power boost interim upgrade!!Quote