ATI Radeon X850 XT Platinum Edition
Conclusion:
 Well, ATI Radeon X850XT Platinum Edition is the new king of the hill, which was expectable since the previous X800XT itself looked well enough, and today's novelty has added even more score points. NVIDIA may object to that, saying they have the SLI technology the results for which give a sure lead. NVIDIA's argument is simple - the consumer who is able to pay 700$ for a novelty (let's ignore the "recommended prices" to be realists) can easily pay even 900$ enough to buy two 6800GTs. At that, NVIDIA is a bit boggling - for a start, the user will have to wait till two PCI-Express 12 sockets have been released, pay extra 200$ for the novelty and get a very powerful PSU (or two of 500W each). But formally NVIDIA is right. The system will prove more powerful.
There is a thin seam of consumers codenamed "crazy millionaires" who are very popular with sales people. To their deep regret, until the recent times, when asked the question "what is the most expensive that can be assembled?" they had nothing to answer :-( The most you would have to fit in was at about 2500$ with maximum efforts no all assembly operators would be able coping with.
With the release of i925XE Express (of the system bus speed 1066 MHz) and the only processor that supports the bus, Pentium 4 Extreme Edition 3.46 GHz, things changed to the better.
So, calculating it:
- Processor Pentium 4 Extreme Edition 3.46 GHz - 1000$
- Motherboard Intel D925XECV2 - 250$
- Memory Kingmax DDR2-533 2GB DDR2 - 400$
- RAID made up of 4 300GB SATA II disks - 800$
- ASUS Radeon X800XT Platinum Edition PCI-Ex - 800$
- External audio - 200$
- Omni-format DVD writer -merely 100$
- 520W PSU - 150$
- Luxurious PC housing - 300$
Total: 4000$
Today's maximum price bar for the CPU unit is 4000$, and the price for a cooler like Zalman 7700Cu will be dissolved in the configuration - to be more precise, the assembly operator dancing with joy would simply give it to you as a gift. Now you get something really worth showing to VIPs - a thing of the Versace suit class to make you look part of the high society.
This information is just for owners of small oil wells. But if you agree to find for a couple of months more, then the price favorite will be the "AthlonFX + nForce4 SLI + two 6800GTs" configuration. According to information from assembly operators, the starting price starts with 4000$, and the maximum - about 5000$. It's better to order now. To Alienware, a many miles long queue is already there.
But what to do to advanced gamers? They can resort to ATI Radeon X850XT Platinum Edition.
The year 2004 has raised the graphic subsystem performance bar by over than two times. The situation was rescued by Far Cry, Doom 3, and Half-Life 2. Without release of such games, modern top-end cards would have been left undemanded. They are too cool. What is the forthcoming year bringing to us?
Transition to the next process technology in the manufacture of chips has been planned for 2006, and until it is adapted, the increase in the number of pipelines in graphic cores is out of the question. We expect a scheduled polishing of existing cores for the whole year 2005 with projected transition to the GDDR4, as well as emergence of cards with 512 MB onboard.
The announcement of DirectX 10 is expected in Longhorn (2006), which is going to be introduced in stages. Following MS' system of nomination, the current DX9 will be referred to as Windows Graphics Foundation (WGF) 1.0 and provide the basic graphics level, with the advanced driver model DX10 - WGF 2.0 will be available in Longhorn SP1 (after 6-18 months after the original release of Longhorn). That time is scheduled for a complete migration to the PCI-E bus for graphic cards.
Longhorn's graphic interfaces - AERO Express, AERO Glass, and Diamond will push down modern high-end cards to the level of childish pranks, and the industry will acquire more chances for further races. Hopefully, the process is endless.
 |
Top Stories: |
 |
 |
|
MoBo:
| |
|
|
VGA Card:
|
|
|
|
CPU & Memory:
|
|
