Conclusions
At the end of the day, the Radeon X1900 GT performs virtually on par with the GeForce 7900 GS. The performance parity is really quite remarkable considering how different the two products are in many ways. You'd be hard pressed to tell the difference between the two in day-to-day use. I prefer ATI's texture filtering algorithms to Nvidia's, as I've noted, and ATI has an edge on a number of other picky image quality-related things, like the ability to do 16-bit floating-point texture filtering in combination with antialiasing. However, I would consider those features more consequential in a more expensive graphics solution, where turning up the image quality features in newer games exacts less of a performance penalty.

Unfortunately, we know less than we'd like to about the X1900 GT's ability to serve as a component of a more expensive graphics solution, because we don't have a second Radeon X1900 GT on hand to test "connectorless" CrossFire. We do know that the X1900 GT can work in a faster, cable-based CrossFire config alongside the much pricier Radeon X1900 CrossFire board, but that board would have to limit itself severely in order to operate in CrossFire with the X1900 GT. Practically any mid-range or better GeForce can operate with a peer in connector-based SLI mode with good performance scaling, but ATI's current offerings on this front are more limited.

Beyond that, the X1900 GT has few drawbacks. It does draw more power when running a game than the 7900 GS, but that additional power didn't directly translate into additional noise from the card's cooler on our open test bench. In fact, the Radeon X1900 GT proved to be the quieter of the two cards under load.

Of course, all of these considerations lead us, inexorably, to the issue of price. The GeForce 7900 GS is selling now for between 199 and 229 bucks, give or take. The prevailing price of an X1900 GT is still about $269 at most online retailers. That's too expensive. However, at least a few small vendors have the X1900 GT listed for closer to $229, and they may be showing us a glimpse of things to come. At least now, if prices do drop, you'll know what kind of performance to expect for your money out of the Radeon X1900 GT.