The whole concept of a new generation graphics card is to deliver unseen performance that will take current game play to the next level. In the past there have been many solutions that have achieved this, bringing users the ultimate gaming experience. Of course there have also been those that have failed, leaving users disappointed. This of course does not just concern the flagship products of each new generation. There is much more glory in producing a low-cost solution that can out gun previous high-end products. The latest generation of graphics cards from NVIDIA and ATi, delivered what I would call perfect flagship products.

Take even the Radeon X800 Pro or GeForce 6800 GT for example, these high-end solutions are capable of out performing previous flag ship products by 50%, in some instances even 100% performance is gained. They offer extreme quality allowing users to utilize visual settings and features that would make previous solutions simply unusable. These products also have much more potential to offer as even todays high-end systems are limiting their performance. This is what makes a new generation flag-ship product a success. When a gamer purchases the latest graphics card they want to know that its the strongest component driving their gaming experience. There is nothing worse than having a computer with a monster processor, loads of memory, latest motherboard/chipset only to find that the graphics card would perform no worse on a system with much lower specs.

The Radeon X800 series has been such a success I was keen to check out the new mid-range ATi products. This latest generation of graphics cards has been a little different from the past few given the introduction of PCI-Express. Both NVIDIA and ATi have been forced to develop support for two system buses. NVIDIA chose a number of quick fixes; the first was to implement a bridge chip solution allowing them to use the same GPU for either the AGP or PCIe bus. On the other hand ATi took a more long term approach which I saw far more potential in. However, as it turns out, ATi may have also opted for a quick fix, to a certain degree.

I was hoping to find NVIDIA and ATi quickly phasing out their previous generations of mainstream graphics products. However, both manufacturers appear to be doing quite the opposite, offering much of what is already available again! NVIDIA achieved this by re-labeling the GeForceFX 5900XT as the GeForce PCX 5900. Marketed to be a new solution, the GeForce PCX 5900 is simply an old GeForceFX 5900XT with PCI-Express support. ATi on the other hand made the Radeon X600 series sound like a cut down version of the Radeon X800 series. Allowing myself to be naive, I began to expect much more of the Radeon X600 series. Who can blame me for hoping for Radeon 9800 performance?

After all, if the Radeon X800 series can almost double the performance of the Radeon 9800, why cant I expect to see the Radeon X600 series match the Radeon 9800? Unfortunately, after recently reviewing the ASUS Radeon X600XT, I discovered it was nothing more than a slightly overclocked Radeon 9600XT. If the Radeon X600XT is nothing more than the Radeon 9600XT, why does it exist? Because of the PCI-Express support of course, but now ATi plans to release an AGP version. So why does the Radeon X600XT exist? I dont know, like I said its a quick fix for ATi. They get to keep their product lines fresh with very little development costs.

Unfortunately, I have struggled to find many if any positive aspects of the Radeon X600XT. Hopefully, Gigabyte can change all this with their Gigabyte GV-RX60X128V graphics card which is of course based on the Radeon X600XT core. Personally, I feel the only way this new solution can impress is if the pricing is more competitive. The real killer of the ASUS Radeon X600XT was the fact that their own brand Radeon 9600XT was roughly $60 US cheaper. The Radeon X600XT is around one or two frames per second faster than the Radeon 9600XT yet it carries a 35% higher price tag!