For overclocking, we used the steps that we usually take to overclock video cards. Foremost, we attempted to overclock the video card using ATI Overdrive in the Catalyst driver control panel. If for some reason this utility was disabled, we used the overclocking tool provided by the manufacturer. If the manufacturer had not provided a tool for overclocking, we would then just proceed to overclock the video card using ATI Tool.

With the Sapphire Radeon X1950PRO Ultimate it was possible for us to use ATI Overdrive in order to increase the operating frequencies of the card. While testing, it turned out that the memory frequency the card came set at was already the maximum we could reach, so we were only able to overclock the GPU. Using ATI Overdrive, the maximum operating frequency we could reach was 623 MHz. In order to go beyond this limit, we had to resort to using ATI Tool, which allowed us to reach 648 MHz, the same operating frequency of the ATI reference board.

Overclocked, the Sapphire Radeon X1950PRO Ultimate was able to have the highest overall performance with the reference ATI board right behind it.

Conclusion

The Sapphire Radeon X1950PRO Ultimate created an overall positive picture of itself. The higher memory clock allowed it to achieve high performance out of the box. When we overclocked the board the card was able to have the overall best performance compared to other RV570 based video cards.

The temperature and noise output tests also had rather interesting results. The Zalman cooling system that comes with the card turned out to be very successful in heat dissipation and was able to maintain low operational noise levels.

Currently, the Sapphire Radeon X1950PRO Ultimate can be found around the Internet for a price of around $210, which is a little more than most of the other solutions we analyzed today. The HIS X1950PRO IceQ 3 card, however, comes out to be the most expensive coming in at a price of around $260, $230 with rebates.