Introducing the Radeon X1650 XT: A New Mainstream GPU from ATI

Final Words

We mentioned in the intro that ATI seems to be having some problems with paper launching cards and not having parts available to consumers at their suggested price (e.g. the X1950 Pro). The X1950 Pro is a good competitor to NVIDIA's 7900 GS, but we advise potential buyers to stay away from this card if it's over $220. Just pay very close attention to the price when buying one of these cards and you should be alright. We also want to reiterate that the X1900 GT is no longer the same card so stay away from it. Again, it's just poor on ATI's part to bump down the clock speed of a card that has already been on shelves for a while now, without bothering to change its name in order for consumers to distinguish it from its faster predecessor. This is a move that is sure to confuse and frustrate consumers.

The performance of the X1650 XT is just what you would expect from a mainstream graphics card of this type. With the 7600 GT being on the market for so long without any competition from ATI, the X1650 XT was overdue. With the release of this card, we now see performance from ATI that is very similar to the popular 7600 GT. This card handles a wide variety of games with ease at flexible resolutions. It still has trouble running some of the games at 1600x1200 and above, but getting smooth frame rates at 1280x1024 in nearly all the games we tested is a nice achievement in a card projected to be in the <$150 price range. Those with 1280x1024 monitors can easily shun more expensive GPUs without sacrificing that much in the way of gaming enjoyment.

With regards to the issue of the card's price, because of what we are seeing with the X1950 Pro, we can't be sure of what the X1650 XT will sell for once it actually becomes available. Perhaps the fact that this is a paper launch (as opposed to the X1950 Pro's hard launch) will mean prices will be closer to ATI's mark when the X1650 XT finally hits the market. Unfortunately, one current indicator is in a price we saw on an X1650 XT from Gigabyte, available for pre-order at $200. This might be a feasible target for some vendors when they start hitting shelves, but it still wouldn't be a good price for consumers, as it's not quite as fast as other cards currently in the $200 price range. The X1650 XT only really shines when pitted against the 7600 GT at $150.

All said the Radeon X1650 XT looks to be a good option for a lower-midrange card, depending on what it will sell for. We think this will be a decent buy if it makes it out in November at its projected $150 price tag, but honestly we aren't getting our hopes up too high about this happening. As it gets closer to the holidays, we will hopefully see some deals on this card and others, but right now there's really no point in waiting to fork over the money for this card instead of the 7600 GT. A 7600 GT can currently be found for under $140, with mail-in rebates dropping some prices to under $120, which makes it pretty much a no-brainer as to which one to go with.

We are definitely interested to see what direction ATI is headed in now that AMD appears to be at the helm. Hopefully this paper launch will be only a one-time slip on ATI's way to providing consumers with products the day of launch in much the same way NVIDIA does. There's never much debate that ATI consistently provides quality products to computer users; we would just like to see the kind of competitive prices and hard launches with their products that we see from NVIDIA.