ATI Radeon X1900 XTX Review

Conclusions

From our results we can say that Radeon X1900 XTX seems to be optimized for DirectX 9.0 and 9.0c games running at very high resolutions with image quality enhancements enabled.

On 3DMark2001SE, which simulates DirectX 8.1 games, it reached a lousy performance, so it doesn’t seem to be the right product for older games.

But on 3DMark03 and 3DMark05, which simulate DirectX 9.0 and 9.0c games, respectively, it was faster than all other video cards we reviewed to date, including Radeon X1800 XT and GeForce 7800 GTX. Keep in mind that comparisons between Radeon X1900 XTX and Radeon X1800 XT on our reviews aren’t final, since our GeForce 7800 GTX had 256 MB video memory, while ATI samples came with 512 MB.

On 3DMark03 (DirectX 9.0) Radeon X1900 XTX was between 4.61% and 8.64% faster than Radeon X1800 XT and between 10.26% and 27.72% faster than GeForce 7800 GTX, depending on the resolution and video quality enhancements.

On 3DMark05 (DirectX 9.0c) the results varied depending on the resolution that was used. Radeon X1900 XTX achieved a performance similar to Radeon X1800 XT at 1280×1024 and 1024×768 with image quality enhancements enabled, while it was beaten by Radeon X1800 XT at 1024×768. At this resolution it achieved a performance similar to GeForce 7800 GTX. But on other resolutions and image quality settings, Radeon X1900 XTX was between 8.79% and 18.25% faster than Radeon X1800 XT and between 10.42% and 50.02% faster than GeForce 7800 GTX. We must mention that the higher the resolution, the higher the performance difference.

On Doom 3 Radeon X1900 XTX achieved a performance similar to Radeon X1800 XT at 1024×768 and 1280×1024, and even beaten by a small margin by Radeon X1800 XT at 1024×768 with image quality enhancements enabled (at this resolution it achieved a performance similar to GeForce 7800 GTX). On other resolutions and image quality settings, Radeon X1900 XTX was between 5.10% and 16.62% faster than Radeon X1800 XT and between 3.87% and 10.64% faster than GeForce 7800 GTX.

Far Cry was Radeon X1900 XTX’s Achilles’ Hell, as you can see in the previous page, which is funny since it is a DirectX 9.0c game. The only good result on this game was on 1600×1200 with image quality settings maxed out, where it was 18.11% faster than GeForce 7800 GTX.

One flaw on our review is that we didn’t benchmark resolutions over 1600×1200, such as 1920×1200, 2048×1536 and 2560×1600. We think at these resolutions Radeon X1900 XTX would achieve an even better performance, since Radeon X1900 XTX best results were achieved at 1600×1200.

Based on these results, we can clearly say that Radeon X1900 XTX is targeted to really heavy gamers running DirectX 9.0 and beyond games at a resolution of at least 1600×1200 with all image quality settings at their max. If you won’t run your games at these configurations, buying a Radeon X1900 XTX is pointless, since you can have almost similar performance with “cheaper” products.

In our opinion, paying between USD 590 and USD 650 for a video card is insanity even for the most hardcore gamers, as there are high-end video cards that provide far better cost/benefit ratio available at the market (Radeon X1800 XT and GeForce 7800 GTX are good options with you have the money to buy them and Radeon X1800 XL and GeForce 7800 GT are terrific solutions for those that aren’t crazy enough to pay more than USD 400 on a video card).