The mighty R580 core

The X1900 GT is based on R580, which means the same issues associated with this core filter down to the mid range - die size and power consumption. R580 is a 384m transistor chip with a die size of 352mm˛. Compare this to the 7900 GT, a 287m transistor part with a die size of 196mm˛, it's a monster by comparison and a much more expensive chip to produce. Because one quad is disabled it will be less of a power hog than a full blown 48 pixel shader parts, hence why it can lose the dual slot cooler for a much quieter single slot solution.

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X1900 GT	X1900 GT
X1900 GT	X1900 GT

The new cooler for this card is actually a break from tradition for ATI. That's right folks, this card is actually very quiet. It's a strange old world we live in really, ATI launch a competitive part to the 7900GT and it's based on a much larger, hotter running core (R580) yet they manage to create a card that runs very quiet. On the other hand, Nvidia's 7900 GT cards which employs the tiny and heavily optimized G71 core sounds like a vacuum cleaner. The reason? Nvidia's 7900GT reference design disables the normal fan controller you'd find on other Nvidia cards like the 7900 GTX, or 7800 GT. The fan now runs at 100% fan speed all the time, and trust me, its damn annoying. This is unforgivable for such a modern GPU, but I'll vent out more so in our upcoming 7900GT/GTX review.

So, out of nowhere ATI have managed to create a quite card (for once) while Nvidia has not, and we've gained a single slot cooling solution. ATI's card will no doubt consume more power at load, so if power consumption is something that concerns you (SFF owners), the 7900 GT is the better option.

Don't forget that the X1800 XT, a real contender to these cards while its still available, but it uses a dual slot cooling solution. So if that's a problem your out of luck i'm afraid.

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X1900 GT memory

The memory found on the Connect3D X1900 GT was Samsung 1.4ns GDDR3 which is theoretically capable of 700Mhz, so perhaps a little overclocking headroom exists, we'll find out soon enough.

Connect3D's bundles are always bare bones - you get all the necessary cables and converters to make use of AVIVO and those aging analog monitors, a driver CD and a manual, but that's about your lot. Who needs bundled games from 18 months ago anyway?