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ATI Radeon X1950 Pro 256MB PCI-E Preview
Introduction
The Christmas shopping season is nearly upon us, so it shouldn't come as a surprise that ATI would choose now to launch a new mainstream video card. ATI's Radeon X1950 Pro 256MB PCI-Express video card is being launched today with immediate availability, selling for $199 and competing directly with NVIDIA's 7900 GS 256MB. ATI has made an interesting move with the X1950 Pro by introducing native Crossfire support which, frankly, I was surprised at first to see it on this part before a high-end part. To run in Crossfire, you do not need a "master" card, you simply need two X1950 Pros and then you connect them. And you don't connect them with a dongle anymore; ATI is also introducing hardware bridges. They're similar to NVIDIA's SLI bridge connector, but different. For starters, two bridges are required for Crossfire mode. Rather than bundling the bridges with motherboards, each video card will come with one. Looking into my crystal ball, I can see a time where there will be Quad-Crossfire with bridges going from card to card in an alternating fashion. These bridges are also flexible, which means broad motherboard support. Most, if not all, X1950 Pros should be labelled as Crossfire-ready, but in case any of ATI's add-in-board partners decide to save a bucks and put out a card that isn't Crossfire-ready, don't worry. Crossfire-ready for the X1950 Pro simply means that a bridge connector is included with the card. In this case, you can just buy the bridge(s) from ATI directly and then you will be able to use Crossfire mode. Once again, you will need two bridges to run in Crossfire. While I'm on the topic of bridge connectors, I mentioned that I think it's interesting they didn't wait to introduce it with a flagship model, but it sort of makes sense if you think about it. When I was speaking with ATI about this new card, they mentioned that they want people to get used to the bridge connectors. A simple statement, but with that in mind, it is good logic that they wouldn't want to jump into a totally different Crossfire interface and play guinea pig, so to speak, with an ultra high-end video card. With this approach, ATI is letting the new interface get its foot in the door so consumers have time to warm up to bridged Crossfire (if they had any doubts or concerns) before the next generation of cards rolls along. I couldn't be happier that they got rid of the clunky dongle, myself; this is a much better approach. Worth noting is that ATI still has the advantage of HDR+AA rendering over NVIDIA's current cards which don't support this. They also have WHQL certified drivers for Vista, with the X1950 Pro capable of providing a 'premium' level experience. NVIDIA does not. The Vista drivers aren't all that important to me at the moment, but it does bode well for ATI's driver team. Some people criticize ATI's driver team (particularly for the sluggish Catalyst Control Center), but I personally like that they have a driver release schedule and stick to it. The X1950 Pro sports an Engine Clock of 575 MHz, 256MB of GDDR3 clocked at 690 MHz (1.38 GHz DDR), dual dual-link DVI + VIVO, and HDCP (High bandwidth Digital Copy Protection). Below are a few slides straight from ATI which cover some details about the new native Crossfire, show the product stack (ATI vs NVIDIA), and finally the X1950 Pro's features:    Enough talky talky. Let's take a look at the X1950 Pro. Two of them, actually.
Page 1: Introduction
Page 2: The Cards Page 3: Test Setup Page 4: Testing - Half-Life 2 Episode 1 Page 5: Testing - F.E.A.R. - First Encounter Assault Recon Page 6: Testing - Chronicles of Riddick: Escape From Butcher's Bay Page 7: Testing - Need for Speed: Most Wanted Page 8: Testing - X3: Reunion Demo Page 9: Testing - 3DMark '06 Page 10: Performance Summary & Closing Thoughts 
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