Conclusions
Just a month ago, when we reviewed the Radeon X1900 GT, I said that the GT's performance was "virtually on par with the GeForce 7900 GS" and that "You'd be hard pressed to tell the difference between the two in day-to-day use." I thought the ATI card had better image quality but suffered from poor CrossFire options. The X1900 GT also drew more power than the GeForce 7900 GS and cost a little more. Now, with the Radeon X1950 Pro, we have the same basic performance and image quality as the Radeon X1900 GT, but it comes with lower power draw, lower noise levels while gaming, and a much improved CrossFire scheme that works almost exactly like SLI. And the Radeon X1950 Pro now matches the GeForce 7900 GS's $199 price tag.

If forced to choose between the Radeon X1950 Pro and the GeForce 7900 GS, I'd distract you by pointing to the Radeon X1900 XT 256MB selling at Newegg for $259. Forking over the additional 59 bucks is probably worth it, given that card's outstanding performance. You've got to be willing to give up native CrossFire and an adjacent slot in your system, but for most of us, that's probably worth it.

Pinned down and forced to choose strictly between the Radeon X1950 Pro and the GeForce 7900 GS, I'd most likely pick the Radeon X1950 Pro for use in my own system. Nvidia's iffy texture filtering becomes really bothersome in games like Oblivion and Guild Wars, and since the X1950 Pro only pulls about 15W more under load than the 7900 GS, why not grab it instead? Also, we've been down this road half a dozen times in the past month, but it bears repeating that the Radeon X1000 series has some feature advantages that translate into better image quality than what Nvidia's G71 can offer, including smarter, more flexible antialiasing and angle-independent anisotropic filtering. The possibility of running two cards in SLI or CrossFire serves to focus more attention on those image quality issues, too, because a dual-GPU config leaves plentiful headroom for advanced filtering and AA.

Still, the choice between the GeForce 7900 GS and the Radeon X1950 Pro is a tough one. It may come down to brand preference or some minor feature difference for many folks. Take your pick of either card, and you won't go too wrong—unless, of course, you consider buying a DirectX 9 card just weeks or months before the DirectX 10 cards come out "going wrong."

More generally, I'm glad to see ATI get a mid-range GPU right again. After the still-born Radeon X700 XT and the incredible sojourn of the underperforming Radeon X1600 XT from $249 to under $99 in less than a year, I began to get the impression that the red team didn't take the meaty part of the enthusiast market seriously. The RV570 is proof that's not so. Native CrossFire is also a nice step forward, and I'm curious to see what new possibilities it opens up down the road.