Radeon X1950GT: smells like X1900LE

ATI seems to be OK with yields of the 80nm fabrication process and should release early February a Radeon X1950GT, third declination of the RV570(LE), after the Radeon X1950Pro and the recent Mobility Radeon X1900. With GPU and memory frequencies of 500/600Mhz, 36 PS Pipelines, 12ROPs, 8 VS Pipelines and 256bits memory bus, this card should be quite attractive compared to the X1650XT which is clocked at 575/675Mhz but only 24 PS pipelines, 8ROPs, 8 VS pipelines and a memory bus of 256bits.

The thing is that the Radeon X1900GT and X1900GT v2, even if their name indicates that they will be cheaper than the Radeon X1950GT, have actually the same number of units, an identical memory bus and higher frequencies respectively of 575/600 MHz and 512/660 MHz. In consequence, they will be faster for most of the possible uses. Apparently, the acquisition of ATI by AMD hasn't stopped the Canadian manufacturer to continue to defy all logic for the selection of the product names, just like Nvidia does sporadically.

In Crossfire mode, the performances of the Radeon X1950GT should be closer of superior to the Radeon X1900GT. Indeed, unlike the Radeon X1900GT, the X1950GT has an internal CrossFire connector and doesn't need a master card or the CrossFire software which is less efficient.

The US price announced isn't extraordinarily attractive: $169. This price is between the Radeon X1650XT and the Radeon X1950Pro but closer to the second. The usual partners of ATI aren't really enthusiast about this new product and only Palit confirmed to have the intention to produce cards based on this GPU. Sapphire could also follow Palit.