Enter GDDR4
While a new cooler may not in itself be enough to herald a new SKU, the addition of newer memory running at significantly faster speeds evidently is. The X1950 XTX uses 512 MB of brand new GDDR4 memory and is the first graphics card yet to ship with this new memory. The focus of GDDR4 is increased bandwidth (at the expense of latency however) and lower power consumption and has been tested running at speeds up to 3.2 GHz DDR . Being the first product to market with the new technology, ATI have not pushed the envelope that far but still manage a whopping 2.0 GHz representing the fastest memory clocks of any shipping graphics card yet. The 775 MHz speed of the memory on the X1900 XTX meant a peak memory bandwidth figure of 49.6 GB/s while this figure jumps to 64 GB/s on the X1950 XTX.
All this extra bandwidth could have negative implications on the memory controller of an ordinary graphics architecture, however this is where the power of ATI's ringbus controller comes in. ATI designed the bus with GDDR4 memory in mind so all that was needed were a number of minor tweaks to the system already in place to handle the extra bandwidth. Essentially, the X1950 XTX is the ultimate culmination of X1000 series innovations in what we expect to be a very cool, quiet, powerful package.
Aside from some minor memory related adjustments, there is nothing new or changed about the GPU in the X1950 XTX. It does carry the R580+ badge, however the 650 MHz core from the X1900 XTX remains unchanged. Anyone unfamiliar with the X1000 core architecture or the X1900 XTX should read both
our X1800 launch article covering the X1000 series' features, and
our X1900XT review. It should be noted that all 'Built By ATI' boards will come with HDCP support enabled out of the box however it's not guaranteed with AIB partners so be sure to check the spec sheets carefully.
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