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CNET Editors' Take
October 4, 2005 6:03 PM PDT
ATI's Radeon X1800 series of PCI Express 3D graphics cards is designed for demanding gamers who want the latest, greatest products. These cards all support modern 3D graphics features, such as Shader Model 3 pixel treatments and high dynamic range lighting, and they also lend benefits from ATI's Avivo video processing technology. If the test results from the two cards we tested are representative of the whole line, you can expect blazing performance in 3D games that use the Direct3D programming API, but only so-so frame rates in games such as Doom 3 that use OpenGL.
A potentially exciting feature of this series is its CrossFire capability, which is ATI's technology for linking two cards together in the same PC. It's unknown when ATI will release the requisite CrossFire Edition card though, beyond "sometime in Q4 2005." As for the other cards, the $449 Radeon X1800 XL will be in stores on October 5, 2005, with the two Radeon X1800 XT variants available a month later on November 5.
