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ATi's Radeon X850 series will initially be released with 3 different varieties. The Lowest is the X850 Pro then the X850 XT and the new flagship product from ATI is the Radeon X850 Platinum Edition or PE version. Derived from the previous set of chips (X800 series) the X850 doesn't bring any new technologies to the table but it has been refined in a few ways to help the speed of the card, and the cooling especially. AGP has now gone, The Radeon X850 will be native PCI express with no AGP version, at least at time of release. This shows the way the market is going in respect to top end graphics cards. PCI express is the way forward for both ATI and Nvidia. Although nothing new has been brought in with the X850, some changes have obviously been made. The most obvious thing is the increase in clock and memory speeds. This is as you would expect with a new flagship card. Then we come to a very interesting point. The Radeon X850 is the most power hungry card on the market to date. However a neat little feature from ATI is the dynamic clock gating. This allows the X850 to disable certain parts of itself in order to save power and keep the card cool. They state that R480 core uses only half the power of the R420 (X800 series) when in desktop 2D mode. This is type of feature you might find on laptop components, but nice to see that ATI are thinking of looking after the life of there product.
The 3 flavours of the X850 don't appear to be too different on the face of the figures above. The platinum edition however does have a performance gain over the others. Its certainly not enough extra of the previous flagship the X800 PE for you to consider upgrading but if you are buying a new graphics card anyway then the small amount extra the X850 PE will cost you will be worth it. After all if your spending £300 on a graphics card anyway then what's an extra 20. The only odd one out of the new X850 series is the Pro version. This has only 12 pixel pipelines instead of the 16 present in the previous cards. It has the same memory clock speed and core speed as the XT version but can push 2.08 Billion LESS pixels per second. Only having 12 pipe though means a greater yield as 16 pipe processes which don't make the grade can be used as 12 pipe cards. Plus the end user will get a top technology card for less money. Compare these cards to the Nvidia Geforce 6800 Ultra and the X850 series looks like a flier. This is true in theory and in many practises but its not all about power. Doom 3 and games based on the Doom 3 engine from ID software run anything up to 20% on the Geforce 6800 Ultra than the X850 platinum. Half life's source engine on the other hand is made light work of by ATI while NVIDIA's offerings find this game more of a challenge.
The X850 is the most power card available to date, extra connector is required to supply the needed power, but as stated earlier it can restrict its use to only what it requires saving power and keeping the core temperature down when the full power is not required. You will need a spare slot next to your PCI express slot in order to get this card into your system as it requires the extra slot for its exhaust fan built in on the side. The fan is temperature reactive and will only increase its speed when the temperature breaks the required level. This keeps the noise level down nicely most of the time. Even at full speed its not as bad as some previous cards that have have had this style of heatsink / fan combination. The cooling solution on the X850 will take in its own air from outside and expel it out the chassis as well, so looking after itself without being too detrimental to the overall case temperature. The X850 it seems is a gap filler series. It is however a very nicely spread filler series. The range of cards will suit many people looking for a new graphics card. The platinum edition is the new leader in theoretical pixel pushing power and most real world test show this. I would suggest reading more in depth about the Geforce 6800 Ultra as well as certain games play better on each card. The X850 Pro will fit the mainstream market offering a 12 pipe solution for the masses. The XT will obviously be in the gap in between. The key will be the availability of these cards as previously the flagship X800 Platinum was incredibly scarce to get hold of from a retailer. For a comparison of the X850 series and other graphics cards of this era visit Graphics Comparison II
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