Power Consumption
These are impressive power numbers for the EAX X1950 Pro. I'd probably equate the power usage of the EAX to a GeForce 7950 GT. All of Asus' card seem to use less power than their competitors for some reason.
Conclusion
It was pretty clear where the EAX stood during testing. Although its numbers were consistant in most games, the Asus EAX X1950 Pro was just a step behind. Unless you plan on exclusively playing X3 with this card, there are alternatives that will give you slightly better performance in a much wider array of games. On the flip side though, the EAX can be found on online retailers for a cheaper price than the 7900 GS TOP by about $20. I'd like to the say the difference of performance between the two cards are negligible but in some games the GS TOP gives 20+ FPS over the EAX.
Unless you are content with staying on ATI, the EAX X1950 Pro hasn't shown enough during testing to put itself over its competitors. One thing to keep in mind is that at this price range, the EAX does make itself a viable alternative to the equivalent NVIDIA 7X00 cards which cannot render HDR and AA simultaenously. While the EAX stays within close range of the significantly higher priced X1950 XTX during most benchmarks, the NVIDIA alternative are in the same range as well. All three of Asus' $300 and below cards stagger in the testing according to their price (7950GT at the top, EAX on the bottom). So really in this case, you are getting what you pay for. Spend around $180 for the EAX and you'll get quality performance to match that low, low price. The EAX is really the ground floor, it only goes up from there as you spend more money.
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