ATI launches X1900 family

Written by Geoff Richards

January 24, 2006 | 15:51

Tags: #512mb #call-of-duty #clock-speed #crossfire #launch-date #quake-4 #review #x1900 #x1900xt #x1900-xtx #x1900xtx

Companies: #ati #club-3d #sapphire

In a move which matches NVIDIA's recent performances, ATI has not only announced its new X1900XT and X1900XTX cards, but retailers around the world have them in stock. In the industry, this is known as a 'hard launch' and is the direct opposite of the much maligned 'paper' launches where specifications are announced but no retail stock surfaces for months and months.

The X1900XT is clocked at 625/1450MHz while the flagship X1900XTX is clocked at 650/1550MHz. The X1900 CrossFire will be clocked at the same speeds as the X1900XT when it launches, which curiously is not today.

"All of the Radeon X1900 products raise the bar in so many ways. They deliver the best performance, they offer image quality features unavailable from any other company and they are widely available," said Peter Edinger, Managing Director & Vice President EMEA, ATI Technologies (Europe) GmbH. "ATI committed to delivering the best products with this launch and has definitely followed through."

The MSRP is US$549 for the 512MB X1900 XT and US$649 X1900 XTX. In the UK, the pricing is £349 and £399 respectively, but this is excluding VAT. By the time you add Gordon Brown's 17.5% you're looking at £411.19 and £469.94. With most retailers still gouging consumers on the GeForce 7800 GTX 512MB, ATI have pulled off something of a coup by being both faster overall and cheaper.

Deep-pocketed gamers have the choice of boards from all the usual ATI partners, including Sapphire, Club 3D, Powercolor and GeCube. All retail boards are clocked the same as each other, so the only real differentiating factors are the in-box bundles offered and the warranty / support. Otherwise, we encourage people to shop on price and seek out the best deal possible.

Here are some UK online retailer links:

EBuyer
Komplett
Micro Direct
Overclockers UK

If you want to know the full specifications and performance figures from our own timedemo-free Real World gaming tests, read our full X1900XTX review.

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