Mid-Range Graphics Card Warfare - AMD vs. nVidia (Q4 2006)

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[MrWizard6600]

a great in-depth artical, as I've come to expect from this site, small as it may be. A good artical.

Before the launch of the RV 570 and the R580+, the lineup for ATI consisted of the X1800GTO, the X1900GT, and the X1900XT. The X1900GT was often beatin by the All in wonder card, which was going for cheaper, and as such did not make any big waves in the graphics market. The X1900GT has effectivly been scrapped, since then.

It seems to me, around the time the X1900GT was deemed a bummer, X1900XT 256mb cards started popping up, the first one I saw was from Sapphire.

A few months Later, ATi released the R580+, and the RV570. The RV570 closed the gap between the X1600 and the X1900, with the introduction of the X1650 XT and the X1950 PRO, the X1650XT acting as somewhat of a refreash to the now deemed obsolete X1800GTO. ATIs lineup now seemed nearly flawless, starting from top to bottem X1950XTX, X1950XT, X1950PRO, X1650XT, X1650Pro and so on.

The thing is, X1900s can still be found, and the X1900XT 256MB maintained its $200-$250 price tag the whole time. Now, the X1900XT 256MB stands cheaper then the X1950pro, and performs a fair wack better. weather this card is still here by fluke i dont know, but they have been quietly selling, when, imho, these cards are are, and have been, the greatist graphics card deal on the market for a while.

So if your thinking about picking up an X1950pro, take a second to look around for an X1900XT 256mb, or for that matter any of the cards from the quickly removed line of X1900s. There still out there, and they're cheap!

[casecutter]

The 7900GS is still out in force and will easily keep up to any 256MB X1900 card. They overclock extremely well and are a great value for roughly $200 or less. They also output much less heat and require less power than the X1900 series. Spending over $200 on a mid range video card right now is a bad idea with the mid range DX-10 hardware being due out in the next 3-6 months. The 7900GS plays all games well and just gets my vote for the best mid range beast available.