Sapphire Radeon X1950 PRO AGP video card review

To quote Austin Powers - "Why won't you die?!"  Such is the question being asked by many of us when it comes to the market for AGP graphics boards.  It's safe to say that even the most legacy-friendly of us out there have been more than a little surprised at the continuing buoyancy of sales when it comes to discrete AGP graphics cards, despite the fact that PCI Express is now a very well entrenched platform, and has been for several years.

Although neither ATI nor NVIDIA have been breaking the bank to bring their flagship boards to this ageing interface, they certainly haven't forgotten it either, with both IHVs targeting users with mid-range boards that have been bridged from their native PCI Express to the AGP interface.  Those looking for a high-end AGP upgrade have had slightly less choice on this front, with NVIDIA's GeForce 7800 GS the pinnacle when it came to an easily available AGP gaming experience... Until now.

While ATI may be trailing on the DirectX 10 graphics front right now, many people have been very impressed indeed with their Radeon X1950 PRO offering released at the tail end of last year, which offers great performance and functionality for its price.  Just imagine if that SKU was brought across to AGP users - Surely it would dominate the market for anyone chasing one last major graphics performance boost using this interface?

Well, Sapphire, thanks to ATI's RIALTO bridge chip, have done just that, offering up an AGP variant of the Radeon X1950 PRO for our delectation.  Are we about to witness a new (and perhaps even final) king of the hill for older systems?  Today we find out.