GeCube FZ Cool Radeon X1950 PRO Champion Edition 512MB

Conclusion

Conclusion

Only a month has passed since the ATI Radeon X1950 PRO first made its debut in the market. But what an eventful month it has been for the graphics industry. Top of the headlines has to be NVIDIA stealing the thunder from ATI's 80nm cores with the world's first DirectX 10 cards, the GeForce 8 series. This significant leap in graphics performance has overshadowed practically everything else, so much so that ATI's other 80nm core found on the Radeon X1950 XT has been released with relatively little fanfare.

Of interest to Radeon X1950 PRO owners is that in this short period of time, we have had two releases of ATI's Catalyst drivers, from the previous 6.9 to the new 6.11. And only the latest 6.11 Catalyst has support for the Radeon X1950 PRO. Before this new version, owners had no choice but to use the drivers from the vendors, which may or may not contain extra software (or bloatware). The other alternative was to download a specific driver package for the Radeon X1950 PRO from ATI's website. Obviously, this caused some confusion and we are relieved that ATI has finally managed to sort out this minor driver fracas involving a very promising and price competitive GPU.

We have said it before so there should be no need to repeat our opinion: the Radeon 1950 PRO is one of the best performance graphics card choices if you're looking for a card to tide you over till the DirectX 10 cards and games have settled in. In the meantime, while waiting for ATI's answer to the GeForce 8, the R600, ATI loyalists are likely to go for the newer SKUs using the cooler 80nm cores. One of the more fancy versions available now looks to be the GeCube FZ Cool Radeon X1950 PRO Champion Edition. The FZ Cool heatsink blends thermal electric cooling and heat pipes into a giant concoction with two fans. It produces more noise than the other two Radeon X1950 PRO cards in our comparison and takes up slightly more space due to the large, elevated cooler. Yet, there's something geeky about a heatsink that's as complicated looking as the FZ. It even requires a separate power connector for its thermal electric component. To be fair, we did manage to push the GeCube more than the rest in our overclocking tests, which somewhat validates GeCube's claims of improved overclocking performance.

The default performance of the GeCube was also above average, scoring around 2 - 3% higher than its rivals. This minor boost can be credited to the 512MB memory and while we doubt that these benchmark scores will translate to actual in-game improvements, credit has to be given for doing better than its direct competitors here. GeCube also surprised us with including a DVI-to-HDMI converter, though this seemed like a half baked scheme since there's no way to combine the audio and video through the card's hardware. Regardless, it should be useful to those who won't be caught dead using the HDMI audio component instead of their own home theater speakers. There's no doubt that in more ways than one, this GeCube is very unique but it also comes with a significantly higher price.

Our sources quote us a price tag of around US$300, much more than the standard Radeon X1950 PRO, which hovers around the US$210 mark currently. With such a large price premium, it is highly unlikely that even the prospects of overclocking will be able to attract consumers, as they can easily get a better GPU for that price, like the new Radeon X1950 XT. Already, this special edition is a niche product and the high price makes it inaccessible to even the most hardcore enthusiasts. GeCube may have been too ambitious with this Champion Edition; they could have actually made an impact if it was available in a more affordable 256MB frame buffer option. The moral of the story: adding tons of features that improve the product marginally but adding greatly to its cost may not be the best option in a competitive market. If you still want to equip your system with an outlandish looking gadget despite the hefty asking price, here's one for the collectors.