ATI Technologies?Radeon X1950 XTX, the latest high-end graphics offering from Markham, Ontario-based developer and also the world's first graphics card to use GDDR4 memory, has started to emerge in online stores in the European Union and U.S., while in Japan the new boards are available in retail.

The Radeon X1950 XTX was previously known as code-named R580+ product, which features the same Radeon X1900 XTX chip at 650MHz with 48 pixel shader processors and 8 vertex shader processors, but now equipped with GDDR4 memory at 2.0GHz clock-speeds compared to previous-generation's GDDR3 at 1.55GHz. While the graphics processing unit (GPU) itself is exactly the same as announced in January, 2006, it features a reprogrammed memory controller that is able to work with GDDR4 memory.

When announcing the new Radeon X1950 XTX graphics card and some other graphics solutions in late August, 2006, ATI said that its partners would start selling the novelties on the 14th of September. Nevertheless, many suppliers have managed to start actual sales several days earlier.

In the U.S. the new Radeon X1950 XTX graphics cards can be acquired for $452 - $535 in numerous online stores, according to PriceGrabber search engine. In the UK at least two stores ?Overclockers.co.uk and Scan Computers ?had the Radeon X1950 XTX in stock for ?21 ??28 (€471 ?€481, $599 ?$612) including value added tax. Radeon X1950-series graphics cards that were available at press time in stock of Germany-based Alternate.de online store cost from €419 to €439 ($532 ?$558). In Tokyo, Japan, T-Zone retail store offered the Radeon X1950 XTX graphics card for ?4 800 ($550). All the prices at press time exceeded officially recommended $449 and €399 price tags.

Graphics cards based on the Radeon X1950 XTX graphics chip with 512MB GDDR4 memory are available from various add-in-card suppliers, including Asustek Computer, Sapphire Technology, HIS and others.

While the pricing of the new Radeon X1950 XTX is not that high, considering the fact that the product is just launched and stores put a bit higher price-tag on it, ATI will have to work hard to fight back the market share of high-end DirectX 9.0-compatible desktop discrete graphics cards from its rival Nvidia, who still commands the lion's share of that market, according to analysts.

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