Hardware Secrets -- Radeon X1600 XT, formerly known as RV530, is the fastest graphics chip inside the new mid-range graphics chip family from ATI. We’ve got a reference sample for this model from ATI, so we will compare its performance to other members of the Radeon X1000 series, to previous ATI chips and also with competing products from nVidia. The main issue with this video card is that it will reach the market only in December!

 

Beyond3D -- ATI’s first attempt at the Crossfire platform was a somewhat abortive. The dual graphics solution was beset with delays which, upon its eventual testing, only lent to further highlight it shortcomings, such as being based on a Shader Model 2 platform (when their Shader Model 3.0 solution where expected to be just around the corner) and having a resolution limit of 1600x1200 @ 60Hz. The reality of the launch of the initial Crossfire solution, although it was missed by many, was not really about the graphics solutions, but the platform. However, despite the issues one thing did come out of it – the performance gains for Crossfire were tangible.

Phoronix -- Once again, it is the time of the month when new ATI display drivers are presented and it's now the task of Phoronix to evaluate this latest package. Over the past several months, we have seen a horde of improvements reach the proprietary drivers from the Radeon X1000 support earlier this year to X.Org 7.1 support. Other recent changes include a combined i386/x86_64 installer, new distribution packaging support, Radeon X1000 TV-out support, ATI Events Daemon, dynamic displays, and many aticonfig changes. Today with the release of the 8.29.6 fglrx drivers there have not been many changes that affect the end-user, but still there are some items worth mentioning. After several drivers of heated changes, it looks as if we have now reached a slowdown in their development cycle as ATI prepares for the next arsenal of features and fixes. Hitting this month's 8.29.6 driver is Linux 2.6.18 support, removal of R200 product support, and a few resolved issues.

Legit Reviews -- ATI's CrossFire gets a nice bump in performance with the X1950 and is a blazing fast system, but in our testing is still not enough to lay claim to the fastest multi-GPU system. The X1950 CrossFire builds upon the performance of X1900 CrossFire, adds better cooling, and lowers power consumption. It's a smoking fast solution proving that it's all about hot, nasty, bad ass speed.

HOTHardware -- Today, ATI is adding yet another member to the Radeon X1K family of products, the Radeon X1650 XT. While its name suggests the X1650 XT is nothing more than a higher clocked variation on the barely 2-month old Radeon X1650 Pro, that's actually not the case. The Radeon X1650 Pro is based on a new GPU, formerly code-named RV560, that is much more powerful than anything else in the X16x0 family.

Legit Reviews -- ATI has clocked the core on the X1950 Pro at 575MHz and the 256MB of GDDR3 memory at 1.38GHz, which are aggressive for a card with a $199 price tag. The core on the X1950 PRO is manufactured on an 80nm fabrication process, and is completely different in almost every way imaginable from the existing Radeon X1950 video cards as we will show you later in this article. ATI has been impressed by the cores made on the 80nm process and told Legit Reviews that the average overclock on the core has been 100MHz from what they have seen and been hearing back from those that are lucky enough to have a card already.

Viper Lair -- When reviewing a product like the X600XT, it's important to keep in mind what the product's purpose is - in the case of the X600XT, it is to provide a budget/mid-range PCI-Express solution. In this respect, ATI has definitely succeeded - the X600XT is within the boundaries of mid-range cards, and performs well.

HOTHardware -- Since the RV770 GPU's initial arrival, we have seen the technology used in the GPU creep up and down AMD's product stack. At first, the RV770 powered only the ATI Radeon HD 4850 and 4870, but soon thereafter two RV770's were linked together to form the current flagship Radeon HD 4870 X2, and then the GPU was scaled down to form the Radeon HD 4600, 4500, and 4300 series of products. Ultimately, AMD ended up with competitive offerings at virtually every price point ranging from $39 on up to over $550. But there is an approximate $80 price gap between the $160-ish Radeon HD 4850 and roughly $80 Radeon HD 4670 that AMD plans to fill today with the release of the Radeon HD 4830. As its name suggests, this latest addition to the Radeon HD 4800 series is similar to the Radeon HD 4850. In fact, the reference designs look almost identical. The 4830, however, has had a couple of SIMD arrays disabled, and hence has fewer active stream processors and TMUs.