Affordable ATI Radeon X1950 GT

Sapphire presents its latest Sapphire X1950 GT graphics card based on the AMD/ATI Radeon X1950 GT graphics processor. The Sapphire X1950 GT is built to compete with NVIDIA's previously released GeForce 7900GS, with an MSRP price of $179. According to NVIDIA, their GeForce 7900GS based graphics cards sell for as low as $169.99 or $149.99 after mail-in rebate.

The new Sapphire X1950 GT includes similar features as the ATI Radeon X1950 Pro previously released cards. Thus, the GT model integrates 36 pixel shaders, 12 pixel pipelines, 256-bit memory interface and a CrossFire connector. However, core and memory clock speeds got reduced to 500 MHz core and 1200 Mhz respectively, compared to 575 MHz core and 1380 MHz memory on ATI Radeon X1950 Pro-based graphics cards.

According to Sapphire, the Radeon X1950 GT brings next generation performance where games are no longer chained to the limited capabilities of PC hardware to the affordable mainstream market! Tomorrow's evolving in-game demands for feature rich environments now find themselves as a reality with hardware features such as: the industry acclaimed X1950 GPU, 256MB of onboard memory, and increased performance via CrossFire� support. When you couple impressive hardware advancements with next generation software support for Windows Vista� 3D environment, Direct X and OpenGL, the journey to a graphically enhanced tomorrow is accelerated with the tools of tomorrow made available today by SAPPHIRE and the SAPPHIRE X1950 GT.

Sapphire's GT version will only be available with 256MB of GDDR3 instead of the 256MB and 512MB offerings for ATI Radeon X1950 Pro. Notable features of the Sapphire X1950 GT also include dual dual-link DVI outputs with HDCP support and TV-out. The Sapphire X1950 GT is only available in PCIe x16. This model is expected to hit retail later this week with price-tags set at around $179.