X1800XT, why not add 150$ --> X1900XT

Well, the X1800XT vs a X1900XT might look the same in performance, but when it comes down to heavy shader games, the gap is horrific in the 1900's favour.

I had a X1800XL, which was just killed in games like COD2/B&W2/AOE3.

But when I got my X1900XTX I saw the difference right away - I know it's a much higher core and mem frequency, but still, those shader units make a massive difference. Benchmarks show these differences very clearly (X1800XT vs X1900XT).

The 1800 was late, too late, and ATi should've bumped it and just brought the 1900 architecture out - but time is money, and for gcard fabs it's even more pronounced.

One should always buy with the future in mind, but with gcards it's so damn hard. It's changes every so often, and with a 1900 you do have some headroom, until 2007....

With DirectX 10 cards just around the corner, I would not recommend anyone buying anything higher than a X1800 now. Save the money for the next genernation and then get a high end card that will last a good long time. Unless you're a professional gamer and money is at stake, you can live quite nicely with a far lessor card than most people think (shhhh, don't tell ATI!).