What’s up with the X1950 chip shortage, AMD?

There are no X1950s in local stores. I’ve called PCHub and Rising Sun, but no X1950s. Villman? Over my dead body! Offers in TipidPC are out of the question. They are too expensive, even if prices can be matched–or challenged–by retail stores.

 This shortage doesn’t apply to local markets only. Tom’s Hardware Guide confirms the shortage in North American shores and this merits a stalemate in the ~$200 videocard range.

If AMD were holding off the X1950s to promote HD series sales, then it’s not working. The nearest match for an X1950 Pro/XT is an HD2600Pro/XT Crossfire set-up. And everyone knows, and I’m sure AMD knows, that a single X1950Pro will eat an HD2600XT Crossfire set-up alive! The Crossfire HD2600XT is more expensive, too. The gains are simply not worth the extra money. There are benchmarks to prove this, both synthetic and real-world. It’s such a shame that the HD2400 and HD2600 chips did not deliver as expected. And the HD2900, despite being designed and hyped “from the ground up”, just trades blows with the Nvidia 8800GTS.

AMD is coming out with the HD2900 Pro. In an Extreme Tech podcast last October 1, the prices start at $249 and $299 for the 512MB and 1GB models respectively. The HD2900 Pro is the same with the HD2900XT except for its clock rates. Memory bandwidth and everything else are the same. If ever, the next and only hope for a mid-range competitor would be this HD2900 Pro. The $249 512MB model is slightly attractive, but is still above the $200 range. There may be other cards that yield more performance for the money. The $299 1GB model is too close to the competing 8800GTS. Both HD2900 Pros, still do not have benchmarks to prove their worth, so I’m laying off first. Trading X1950 production for HD2900 Pro prospects is questionable. The problem is, the HD2900 Pro won’t ship all over the world until a few months.  The market does not have months, especially with Crysis and other anticipated games looming around the corner.

The X1950 chips are such a vital product because they are one of the best affordable chips. Yes, the X1950 does not have DirectX10, but the gaming community holds its breath with DirectX10 for many reasons. One being DX10 can only be played outside of a slideshow with bleeding edge hardware. Two, the shift to Vista is NOT pleasant. Shifting to Vista entails new hardware, software and wallet problems. Three, there are hardly any DX10 games to justify a confident 100% shift to Vista and DX10.

The X1950 is one of the best cards out there today with its price and performance. There is no real need for DirectX10 right now and it leads the DirectX9 league. I have no plans to shift to Vista, anyway.

Sure, there is always the alternative of going Nvidia, and if that floats your boat, then so be it. I prefer ATI over Nvidia, and this shortage really frustrates me because just when I am prepared to purchase an X1950 Pro, I end up looking at nothing.

 Hope there’s something more in this plight, AMD. You’re having a problem. Hurry up, DAAMIT. I want that X1950 now.