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The graphics wars: ATI takes the lead

Rich Brown CNET

Published: 05 May 2004

The graphics and gaming communities have received some significant news from both ATI and Nvidia, with each graphics-chip manufacturer making major announcements recently. ATI's revelation is the release of the 128MB Radeon X800 Pro, which sells for $399 (~£222), and the announcement of the higher-end 256MB Radeon X800 XT Platinum Edition, which will be available for $499 (~£278) when it launches on 21 May. Nvidia has already unveiled its next-generation GeForce 6800 and GeForce 6800 Ultra chips, but it follows ATI with the announcement of two more cards in the GeForce 6800 family: the GeForce 6800 Ultra Extreme and the GeForce 6800 GT.

ATI has wrestled the graphics performance crown away from Nvidia with its new Radeon X800 XT Platinum Edition. Although these developments are of primary interest to gamers, they showcase technologies that will, in time, filter through to more mundane applications.

If you demand the absolute best performance, you may want to wait until the GeForce 6800 Ultra Extreme cards ship. The price and the ship dates of the Extreme cards have yet to be determined, but these cards will be factory-overclocked, squeezing as much performance as they can out of the silicon. At the moderate high end, the GeForce 6800 GT, scheduled to ship in the middle of June, should compete with the Radeon X800 Pro card at the $399 (~£222) price point. Finally, the simply named GeForce 6800 card should sell for $299 (~£167) and is expected at the end of May.

Although retail versions of the GeForce 6800 Ultra aren't available today, Nvidia sent us a reference card for our tests. This sample card is virtually identical to what you'll find at retail, which allows us to report its benchmark results and compare them to those of the ATI Radeon X800 XT Platinum Edition. We will update our preview of the GeForce 6800 Ultra with a full review once we are able to test a shipping version of the card.

Looking at the performance figures, you can see that this go-round has a very different result than last generation's inconclusive head-to-head between ATI's Radeon 9800 XT and Nvidia's GeForce FX 5950 Ultra. We finally have a clear winner in the form of the ATI Radeon X800 XT Platinum Edition, which not only bested Nvidia's new GeForce 6800 Ultra on our benchmarks, but also features a much more efficient design. Nvidia has some catching up to do, and the performance crown still could change hands with driver maturation and as we test Nvidia's factory-overclocked Extreme boards. For now though, the ATI Radeon X800 XT Platinum Edition has a leg up in terms of both design and performance, making it our Editors' Choice award winner.

Nvidia GeForce 6800 Ultra: a first look

Preview Nvidia's GeForce 6800 series kicks off this year's round of the graphics accelerator wars. We have a preview with preliminary benchmarks. [14 Apr 2004]

8 Talkbacks

ATI Radeon X800 XT Platinum Edition

Review Unequivocally the most powerful graphics card on the market, ATI's Radeon X800 XT Platinum Edition hands Nvidia's new card a stunning defeat. [05 May 2004]

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