ATI DDR 4 Radeon X1950 XTX takes on Leadtek Geforce 7950 GX2

WE MANAGED to benchmark the latest Radeon X1950 XTX card and compared it against the fastest Geforce 7950 GX2.

We know that 7950 GX 2 ends up close to $100 more expensive but we are comparing two of the fastest cards around.

You can read our review of the Radeon X1950 XTX here and so we won't get into many details. The card is clocked at 650MHz core and 2000MHz GDDR4 memory. But was this enough to beat Leadtek's PX7950GX2 TDH card clocked at 500MHz core and 1200MHz memory powered with two cores?

Benchmarketing
We used :
Foxconn C51XE M2aa Nforce 590 SLI motherboard Athlon FX 62 2800 MHz 90 nanometre Windsor core
2x1024 MB DDR2 Corsair CM2X1024-6400C3 memory
Seagate Barracuda 7200.8 400GB SATA NCQ hard drive
Thermaltake Mini Typhoon Athlon 64/X2/FX cooler and Intel CPU's
Silverstone Strider ST60F, 600W ATX 2.0 SATA

Doom 3	1024x768	1280x1024	1600x1200	2048x1536
ATI X1950XTX 650/2000 MHz	134.7	126.8	110.3	73.1
Leadtek PX7950GX2 TDH 500/1200 MHz	127.3	127.2	126.6	116.9
?	?	?	?	?
Doom 3 High Quality FSAA 4X + Aniso 8X	1024x768	1280x1024	1600x1200	2048x1536
ATI X1950XTX 650/2000 MHz	121.6	99.1	75.9	48.4
Leadtek PX7950GX2 TDH 500/1200 MHz	126.9	120.8	103.4	71.5
?	?	?	?	?
Far Cry High Quality FSAA 4X + Aniso 8X	1024x768	1280x1024	1600x1200	2048x1536
ATI X1950XTX 650/2000 MHz	93.78	93.29	92.81	74.04
Leadtek PX7950GX2 TDH 500/1200 MHz	95.35	95.26	94.02	76.40
?	?	?	?	?
Quake 4	OK 1024x768	1280x1024	1600x1200	2048x1536
ATI X1950XTX 650/2000 MHz	149.1	144.5	137.6	117.0
Leadtek PX7950GX2 TDH 500/1200 MHz	168.6	167.7	163.3	151.5
?	?	?	?	?
Quake 4 High Quality FSAA 4X + Aniso 8X	1024x768	1280x1024	1600x1200	2048x1536
ATI X1900XTX 650/1550 MHz	140.0	131.8	114.2	90.2
Leadtek PX7950GX2 TDH 500/1200 MHz	164.2	155.6	146.8	121.1
?	?	?	?	?
FEAR High Quality FSAA 4X + Aniso 16X	1024x768	1280x1024	1600x1200	2048x1536
ATI X1950XTX 650/2000 MHz	105	79	57	36
Leadtek PX7950GX2 TDH 500/1200 MHz	121	98	69	46
?	?	?	?	?
Serious Sam High Quality FSAA 4X + Aniso 16X	1024x768	1280x1024	1600x1200	2048x1536
ATI X1950XTX 650/2000 MHz	140.5	120.2	99.1	70.9
Leadtek PX7950GX2 TDH 500/1200 MHz	150.4	128.3	106.9	77.3
?	?	?	?	?
Composite Figures 3Dmark 03	3DMark 03	Game2	Game3	Nature
ATI X1950XTX 650/2000 MHz	19656	159.2	116.7	126.1
Leadtek PX7950GX2 TDH 500/1200 MHz	30114	262.2	213.3	181.7
?	?	?	?	?
Composite Figures 3Dmark 03	Single Texturinng	Multi Textur.	Vertex Shader	Pixel Shader 2.0
ATI X1950XTX 650/2000 MHz	5346.0	10005.9	67.7	219.7
Leadtek PX7950GX2 TDH 500/1200 MHz	8247.7	22438.4	88.7	410.4
?	?	?	?	?
Composite Figures 3Dmark 05	3DMark 05	Game1	Game2	Game3
ATI X1950XTX 650/2000 MHz	12348	52.9	35.1	65.0
Leadtek PX7950GX2 TDH 500/1200 MHz	13797	53.3	42.8	73.7
?	?	?	?	?
Composite Figures 3Dmark 05	Single Texturinng	Multi Textur.	Pixel Shader	VS /VS complex
ATI X1950XTX 650/2000 MHz	6307.2	10209.2	456.6	147.9/61.9
Leadtek PX7950GX2 TDH 500/1200 MHz	9456.7	22763.2	638.0	129.9/95.2
?	?	?	?	?
Composite Figures 3Dmark 06	3DMark 06	?	?
ATI X1950XTX 650/2000 MHz	6283	?	?	?
Leadtek PX7950GX2 TDH 500/1200 MHz	8083	?	?
?	?	?	?	?
SM2.0 Test	Score	GT1	GT2
ATI X1950XTX 650/2000 MHz	2457	19.281	21.669
Leadtek PX7950GX2 TDH 500/1200 MHz	3626	28.955	31.477
?	?	?	?	?
HDR/SM3.0 Test	Score	HDR1	HDR2
ATI X1950XTX 650/2000 MHz	2722	26.317	28.118
Leadtek PX7950GX2 TDH 500/1200 MHz	3484	31.044	38.632
?	?	?	?	?
CPU Test	Score	CPU1	CPU2
ATI X1950XTX 650/2000 MHz	2153	0.679	1.093
Leadtek PX7950GX2 TDH 500/1200 MHz	2138	0.670	1.091	?

The X1950XTX managed to beat the 7900GX2 at 10x7 in Doom 3 by some seven frames but at 12x10 the Leadtek card is slightly faster. At 16x12, the Leadtek 7950 GX2 is already 16 frames faster and at 20x15 there is an astonishing 43.1 MHz difference. We are talking about 37.5 percent difference where Nvidia really keeps the distance.

Once you turn on the FSAA and Aniso, Nvidia takes the lead from the first. At 10x7 it is five frames faster, at 12x10 it is already 21 frames faster, at 16x12 or 27.5 FPS faster and at the last 20x15 resolution or 32 percent faster.

Far Cry 4X FSAA and 8X Aniso is tight where Nvidia leads with just a couple of FPS. We have to wait for Crysis to see the difference I guess but we reached the top of this game.

Quake 4 loves the Leadtek/Nvidia card. Even at 10x7, the 7950 GX2 is nineteen frames faster, at 12x10 its 23 frames faster, at 16x12 its a massive 27 frames faster and at 20x15 massive 34 frames faster. At 20x15 Nvidia wins by 33 percent faster.

Quake 4 FSAA 4X and 8X Aniso shows even bigger difference. It starts with 24 frames advantage for Leadtek 7950 GX2 at 10x7, it continues with twenty four frames advantage, thirty two frames difference at 16x12 and almost thirty frames difference at 20x15. At last two resolutions Leadtek card is around 25 percent faster.

Nvidia owns the FEAR stores, it has sixteen frames advantage at 10x7, nineteen frames 12x10, twelve frames faster at 16x12 and ten faster at 20x15.

Serious Sam 2 High quality settings with FSAA 4X and 8X Aniso runs ten frames faster at 10x7 on Nvidia, eight at 12x10, almost eight frames faster at 16x12 and less then seven frames faster at 20x15.

Leadtek card owns the 3Dmark03 score. It runs 10500 marks faster and is faster in every single game and test. In 3Dmark05 the difference narrows to 1450 marks only but still runs better on Nvidia GX2 card. 3Dmark06 is 1800 marks faster on Leadtek 7950 GX2 card and the card dominates all the scores. It is 1200 marks faster in Shader model 2.0 testes, seven hundred marks faster at Shader model 3.0 and HDR set of testes and almost identical on CPU tests.

In Short
We have to admit that Leadtek 7950 GX2 card did much better than we expected. It runs at least twenty five percent faster at the higher resolutions.

If you have a display that supports 16x12 or higher resolutions, you want to get 7950 GX2 card. Even at 1280x1024, the most common display resolution around, Nvidia wins in every single time. The dual-chip 7950 GX2 is still the fastest card around. The only problem is that once you plug two 7950 GX2s together it won't run that fast.

Geforce 7950 GX2 is the fastest single card around but I would not bet on it when it comes to Quad SLI, at least not for the few weeks until the alleged new driver comes. If you want more than one card, Crossfire X1900 or X1950 is a better way. ?

Reviewed and tested by Sanjin Rados and Fuad Abazovic