ATI unveiled its new videocard series today. The new competitor of NVIDIA's GeForce 6800 Ultra is the Radeon X800 XT!
After reading through the tests, it looks like the Radeon X800 XT is the new performance king, just barely gliding past the GeForce 6800 Ultra. ATI introduced two cards today, however: the Radeon X800 Pro and XT. As ATI fans know, Pro is the upgraded version of a Radeon, and XT being the "ultimate" version. The X800 Pro is performing somewhere between a Radeon 9800 XT and a GeForce FX 6800 Ultra. It's also $100 less than the XT!
NVIDIA plans to launch the GeForce 6800 GT soon. This card will be the Radeon X800 Pro's competition (price and performance).
To confuse matters even more (I love the videocard market), ATI has decided to release a Platinum Edition XT, which is faster than "regular" Radeon X800 XTs. NVIDIA plans to combat this with a GeForce 6800 Ultra Extreme which will probably be well over $500.
So now, gamers have these new cards to look forward to:
ATI Radeon X800 Pro and NVIDIA GeForce 6 6800 GT
ATI Radeon X800 XT and NVIDIA GeForce 6 6800 Ultra
ATI Radeon X800 XT Platinum Edition and NVIDIA GeForce 6 6800 Ultra Extreme
I'm sure there will be X800 and 6800 regulars out as well. It'll be interesting to see how they perform against the GeForce FX 5950 Ultra and the Radeon 9800 XT.
Another interesting point: the Radeon X800 (both) use smaller heatsinks than a Radeon 9800 XT, and only use one power connector without the need of a bigger PSU. ATI sure knows how to condense technology!
Well, ATI's news is over, and now we have a new generation of videocards debuting very soon. I can't wait! I figured ATI would pull slightly ahead with a new videocard soon, and they did. ATI by no means "owns" the market now (as many ATI fanboys will believe); it's mainly due to driver optimizations that ATI is in the lead. NVIDIA's newer drivers actually decreased performance in some games with the 6800 Ultra. When the drivers are good to go for both companies, it's gonna get really, really close.
-Lasereth