HIS Radeon X1950 Pro IceQ3 Turbo
Performance Summary & Conclusion
Performance Summary: The HIS X1950 Pro Ice3 Turbo performed well against a combination of three GeForce cards powered by GeForce 7 class GPUs, winning a few battles here and there, but ultimately it was a shade slower than the 7950 GT overall. The HIS X950 Pro Ice3 Turbo, however, was a much better performer overall than the previous mid-range X1900 GT.
Priced at nearly $269, the HIS Radeon X1950 Pro Ice3 Turbo is one of the more expensive X1950 Pro cards on the market. The card performed well in DX9 based games, but not better than the slightly cheaper Asus EN7900GS TOP nor the similarly priced EN7950 GT. Also, it's getting increasingly more difficult to recommend shelling out almost $300 on a video card that is not DX10 compliant at this point in time, with Windows Vista looming on the horizon. However, if gaming is not your only bag, the card's AVIVO and HDCP support might make it worthwhile. And it's not like DX10-only games are going to arrive the minute Vista ships.
The X1950 Pro (not just HIS' model) also offers a cleaner way to enable CrossFire without external dongles and the like. Thus, if you're looking forward to maximizing your performance on, let's say, a 975X Express based motherboard, without breaking the bank, then two X1950 Pro cards might be right up your alley. HIS has supplied the potential buyer with a faster and more flamboyant model that those that strictly adhere to ATI's reference design, stocked with cables and two full games. That's more than we can say for many other manufacturers these days.
|
|
|
|
