But for anyone looking for a high-end card, the Radeon X1950 XTX really is the card to get. The performance is here, the noise is gone and for once for a new high-end card, it's actually quite affordable. The PowerColor card should retail for around £351 inc. VAT in the UK, which is really quite amazing considering that the X1900 XTX was priced at around the £470 mark at launch. We're still getting ripped off here in Britain considering the same card is going for closer to £250 in the US, though that's minus local sales tax of course.

There's no doubt that the Radeon X1950 XTX is a great card for the money, but if you already have a high-end card, it's not going to be worth investing in, as it's still the same core as the X1900 series. However, if you're about to put together a new high-end PC, it should be on your list of card options.

Verdict

The Radeon X1950 XTX is a very fast graphics card and the first card to feature GDDR 4 memory. ATI has fixed the noise problem that plagued its previous high-end cards. The launch price is very attractive. ATI is really pushing out the boat to try to win over anyone considering Nvidia's GeForce 7950 GX2. ®