Diamond Multimedia claims to have, in its Viper X1900 XTX, the fastest available graphics card in the market today and says it has run the tests that prove it.
It is widely recognized that in most tests ATIs X1900 XTX compares favorably to rival nVidia's 512MB flagship board, the 7800GTX. If claims that the Geforce 7900 GTX, expected to premiere during CeBIT 2006 this month, will introduce a meek 8-10 per cent performance boost are accurate, then the X1900 XTX becomes an even more attractive option.
Diamond Multimedia announced it has begun shipping the Viper X1900 XTX, which has tested out as the fastest graphics card on the market based on its 90 nm architecture. The X1900 fully supports Shader Model 3.0 architecture and is also equipped with ATI's Avivo video and display platform, which enables a High-Definition visual experience, and allows for universal connectivity to various digital devices, including home theater systems, LCD monitors, HDTVs, projectors and notebooks. With resolution as high as 2560 x 1600 (used in Apple Cinema, for example), the X1900 is powerful enough to drive two LCD displays while maintaining stunning clarity. Avivo offers sharper display for video and photos compared with conventional cards, as well as universal display connectivity - which eliminates the long-standing barrier of being able to display PC graphics on a variety of consumer electronics devices, including big-screen televisions.
The X1900 also supports High Dynamic Range (HDR) with full post-processing capabilities, including anti-aliasing. The Viper X1900 XTX uses the Radeon X1900 GPU, with a 256MB interface using the PCI Express data bus. The Radeon's Ultra-Threaded Shader Engine will handle up to 128 threads at once, as well as up to 48 simultaneous shader processors, featuring a revolutionary 3-to-1 shader-to-texture ratio.
The connectors included are DVI, VGA, TV-Out/HDTV and VIVO. Minimum system requirements for the card are an Intel Pentium 4 of AMD Athlon 64 FX CPU running at a minimum of 2.4 GHz, PCIE slot, 128MB system RAM, 200MB available hard disk space, a CD- or DVD-ROM drive, and an ATX 2.0 420 Watt power supply or higher. Also needed is a Super VGA or DVI-I compatible monitor. The X1900 will run under Windows 2000, Windows 2003, Windows XP, Windows XP 64 and Windows XP Media Center environments.
The X1900 XTX will retail at USD 599. It is available through most North American distributors, such as Ingram Micro, Tech Data and D&H along with most leading computer retailers and e-commerce sites.
For further information on the Diamond Viper X1900 XTX, follow the download tab above.