Noise
For noise measurements we isolate just the
video card's cooler from the rest of system noise. Our measurements are done using an OMEGA HHSL-1 sound meter and we took a reading of the fan from a meter away, without the case - this means that these cards will sound quieter when actually installed in a case, but our measurements will give you a good idea of relative noise of each card.
Our X1900 XT 256 MB uses an identical cooler to its bigger brother without any form of RPM or physical fan tweaks, therefore resulting in numbers we're used to seeing. It should be noted that our testing setup in its current form does not allow for variable speed noise measurements and as such, the number seen here does not represent real world use but instead gives an idea of how the fan scales relative other cards when spinning at a medium speed. We are working towards a new noise measurement setup and hope to have this implemented soon.
Power
To test power consumption we measured total power draw of the entire benchmark system using each of the video cards. This doesn't give an absolute value for the actual draw of each card, but it does give an accurate idea of the differences in each card's power consumption relative to one another.
The 256 MB version of the card scores less in this regard due to the lower memory configuration, though the numbers are still indicative of a high end card. ATI have not tweaked the core of this card in any way from its predecessors and we're not expecting any better a situation come the next generation of high products either.
Conclusion
ATI have not done anything that we haven't already seen with the X1900 XT 256 MB, which is partially why it should be such a strong seller when it hits shelves this Thursday. ATI have had more than six months to establish how solid a GPU the X1900 XT is and the cut price for a fully fledged chip is going to attract a good number of people.
Our numbers show that the 256 MB of memory on the X1900 XT doesn't severely cripple the GPU in most tests, however most benchmarks do reveal slightly lower scores with the lower memory. The only major exception to this is in Call of Duty 2 at 1600 x 1200 with maximum filtering on where performance drops almost in half with the 256 MB card. This could be revealing of how some future games will scale at the higher resolutions, however this is also quite dependent on the game and its specific memory handling tendencies. We wouldn't expect purchasers of a sub-$300 card to expect massive resolution and filtering options, and while it will hold its own very well at higher settings, it won't match a dedicated high-resolution SLI or Crossfire setup after 1600 +AA.
How this card performs against the recently announced (and soon to be benchmarked) GeForce 7950 GT remains to be seen but we're expecting the two cards to run very close to one another. The 7950 does feature 512 MB of memory which again, depending on the game, may prove to launch the 7950 ahead at higher resolutions with filtering. NVIDIA have also included HDCP support in all of their 7950 cards which may be important to some, however shouldn't be looked at as a major feature seeing as the chip won't be utilized until copy protected disks hit shelves in late 2007. The X1900 XT does have an MSRP that's $20 less than the 7950, and assuming good availability could prove to be a noteworthy advantage for ATI in the overall scheme of things.
As a replacement for the X1900 GT at that price point, this card serves fantastically, beating it in all scenarios. The extra texturing units are a boon for the R580 core and the X1900 XT 256 MB puts them to full use. It should be noted however that the X1900 GT does hold an advantage in a dual GPU situation as the cards do not require the famed Crossfire cable to run in multi-GPU rendering mode (see here for our look at X1900GT cards in cable-less Crossfire). This is convenient and also eschews many of the setup issues that plague master-slave Crossfire configurations. An X1900 XT 256 MB can be run in Crossfire with an X1900 XT master card, however the master card will disable half its memory to match the configuration of the lesser card. We're guessing that the prices of X1900 GT cards should fall quite quickly with the XT on the market, making an inexpensive, cable-free Crossfire setup quite feasible, while todays card brings the step above that setup (two X1900 XT's) within closer reach for the performance buyer.
ATI have put together a very attractive package for the performance segment, and we would not hesitate to recommend this as an upgrade option for anyone running a lesser card than an X1900 GT. Expect full availability of this card, as well as the X1950 XTX, on Thursday the 14th.
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