Performance

We were provided with benchmark scores (right) by ATI that compared the Radeon X1950 Pro against the GeForce 7900 GS. Both cards were tested on the same testbed at the resolution of 1600x1200 with 4xAA and 16xAF.

These scores have been normalized against the GeForce 7900 GS, so they will show you just how much faster or slower the Radeon X1950 Pro is, compared against the GeForce 7900 GS.

These are official benchmark results from ATI, so we should take them with a pinch of salt until we can personally verify them. Hopefully, we will be able to get hold of a sample soon for our own tests.

But according to their test results, the Radeon X1950 Pro has a 10-35% performance lead over the GeForce 7900 GS in all the games tested, except for Doom 3. In that sole exception, the X1950 Pro was actually 5% slower. If these results are accurate, then yeah, the new X1950 Pro would be a strong challenger to the GeForce 7900 GS, especially if ATI's partners can sell it at the same price point or lower.

Folding@Home

For those who are big into distributed computing (like Chai), you will be glad to know that the new Radeon X1950 Pro supports the new Folding@Home client for ATI GPUs!

Yes, this graphics card will now be able to help you fold more proteins in the name of science (and more bragging rights)!

The new GPU client is currently tailored to the X1900-series since only the RV570/R580/R580+ GPUs have enough pixel shader ALUs to make a real difference. Even the X1800 isn't powerful enough.

But we will certainly hear more about this ability in the near future since NVIDIA cards are currently impotent as far as Folding@Home is concerned. To quote the Folding@Home FAQ, NVIDIA cards "in general have some technical limitations beyond the number of pixel shaders which makes them perform poorly in our calculations."

Bad news for NVIDIA, but unless you are a distributed-computing fan, this wouldn't make much of a difference to most users.