The ATI video card thread

[admin]

In the tradition of the NVIDIA video cards thread, here's the ATI one.


Radeon X1950 Pro
Product page: http://ati.amd.com/products/RadeonX1...pro/index.html
Review: http://www.hexus.net/content/item.php?item=7016
Summary: Slightly better choice than GeForce 7900 GS


Radeon X1950 XTX
Product page: http://ati.amd.com/products/RadeonX1...XTX/index.html
Review: http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ATI/X1950XTX
Summary: Slightly faster than the GeForce 7900 GTX, but it is now an older card that is no longer in the same league as the GeForce 8800 GTS


Radeon HD 2400
Product page: http://ati.amd.com/products/Radeonhd2400/index.html


Radeon HD 2600
Product page: http://ati.amd.com/products/Radeonhd2600/index.html
Review (2600 XT): http://enthusiast.hardocp.com/articl...50aHVzaWFzdA==
Summary: UVD accelerates HD DVD and Blu-ray playback quite effectively, better than NVIDIA PureVideo HD, but gaming performance is disappointing, not even comparable to the GeForce 8600 GT


Radeon HD 2900
Product page: http://ati.amd.com/products/Radeonhd2900/index.html
Review (2900 XT): http://www.tweaktown.com/articles/11...ves/index.html
Summary: Cheaper, but only comparable to the GeForce 8800 GTX (and slower in higher res gaming). Limited HD DVD/Blu-ray acceleration compared to HD 2600 XT and the NVIDIA 8600 range


Radeon HD 3850/3870
Product page: http://ati.amd.com/products/Radeonhd3800/index.html
Review: http://www.hothardware.com/articles/...50_55nm_RV670/
Summary: Excellent video performance, but lower 3D performance compared to the likes of the 8800 GT/GTS/GTX. Still, the price is quite attractive though and comes with HDMI output. The newly available 3870 X2 (basically two GPUs on the same board) does provide excellent 3D performance at a good price, although the card is quite huge

In the tradition of the NVIDIA video cards thread, here's the ATI one.


Radeon X1950 Pro
Product page: http://ati.amd.com/products/RadeonX1...pro/index.html
Review: http://www.hexus.net/content/item.php?item=7016
Summary: Slightly better choice than GeForce 7900 GS


Radeon X1950 XTX
Product page: http://ati.amd.com/products/RadeonX1...XTX/index.html
Review: http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ATI/X1950XTX
Summary: Slightly faster than the GeForce 7900 GTX, but it is now an older card that is no longer in the same league as the GeForce 8800 GTS


Radeon HD 2400
Product page: http://ati.amd.com/products/Radeonhd2400/index.html


Radeon HD 2600
Product page: http://ati.amd.com/products/Radeonhd2600/index.html
Review (2600 XT): http://enthusiast.hardocp.com/articl...50aHVzaWFzdA==
Summary: UVD accelerates HD DVD and Blu-ray playback quite effectively, better than NVIDIA PureVideo HD, but gaming performance is disappointing, not even comparable to the GeForce 8600 GT


Radeon HD 2900
Product page: http://ati.amd.com/products/Radeonhd2900/index.html
Review (2900 XT): http://www.tweaktown.com/articles/11...ves/index.html
Summary: Cheaper, but only comparable to the GeForce 8800 GTX (and slower in higher res gaming). Limited HD DVD/Blu-ray acceleration compared to HD 2600 XT and the NVIDIA 8600 range

Radeon HD 4650/4670
Product page: http://ati.amd.com/products/Radeonhd4600/index.html
Review: http://www.pcgameshardware.com/aid,6...0_and_HD_4650/
Summary: Excellent video performance, but similarly priced cards from Nvidia and even ATi have better 3D performance. Perhaps a choice for home theatre systems.

Radeon HD 4850/4870
Product page: http://ati.amd.com/products/radeonhd4800/specs.html
Review: http://www.guru3d.com/article/radeon...eview-force3d/
Summary: Excellent video performance, comparable to the GTX 260/280 in certain types of 3D games (that benefit from the increased stream processor), but for much less money. A good budget choice, especially the 4850, that comes close and occasionally beats a card that's twice more expensive.


HDCP Support: Check the manufacturer of the card to see if it supports HDCP, and if this support extends to dual-link DVI. All of the cards listed should have HDCP support, the HD series has dual-link HDCP support and HDMI output too. More information about HDCP in this FAQ entry.

AVIVO HD/UVD: Hardware based H.264/VC-1 decoding is another must have for Blu-ray and HD DVD playback. The HD series of cards have AVIVO HD support, but only the 2400/2600/38xx range have UVD - see here. Note that UVD better accelerates H.264, and in particular, VC-1 when compared to NVIDIA PureVideo HD (which does not feature full hardware VC-1 acceleration). UVD 2 is an update on the technology and is found in the 4600/4800 range. It features full bitstream decoding of H.264/VC-1 and supports dual video stream decoding and PiP used on Blu-ray 1.1 titles.

[admin]

Note that the 2900 XT does not feature UVD, which is an essential element of AVIVO HD. UVD offloads even more processing from the CPU to the GPU, and can dramatically improve decoding performance. The 2900 XT only features previous generation acceleration, which is strange since it carries both the "Radeon HD" and "AVIVO HD" moniker. Your best bet is the 2400/2600 that do have UVD, but at the cost of 3D performance.

[admin]

The new reviews out for the 2600 XT suggest that it is a great card for HD DVD/Blu-ray playback, but severely lacking for gaming.

If you want the best of both worlds, best to wait until the next generation when cards come out that combine the performance of a 8800 GTX with the acceleration functions of the 2600 XT.

[dxman_62]

hola

[kafuka2002]

agree with admin
ati 2600 play games not well
sometimes the picture can hold on
when i run big capacity game ,not fluent
it's my circumstance i meet

[admin]

The best value card at the moment is the 4850. It features full HD video decoding including full Blu-ray 1.1+ support, plus decent gaming with current titles and incredible performance (given the price) for future titles that can take advantage of the card's 800 stream processors.