XXXXXXX 2005 MA XIMUMPC 00
G
ood evening, ladies and
gentlemen! Welcome to
the main event! MaximumPC’s 2005 videocard show-
down, in which 10 of the
world’s most powerful video-
cards will face off in mano-
a-mano contests for cham-
pionship belts in five weight
classes. Each of our contes-
tants will be judged on their
performance in both 3D games
and video processing during
eight-round bouts.
In the red corner, hailing
from Toronto, Canada, is ATI
Technologies! Tonight, ATI
will field five contenders: the
Radeon X800 GT, the X800 XL,
the X850 XT, and the X850 XT
Platinum Edition graphics-
processing units.
And in the green corner,
hailing from Santa Clara,
California, is nVidia! nVidia
will field its GeForce 6600 GT,
6800, 6800 GT, 7800 GT, and
7800 GTX GPUs tonight.
In addition to our blow-by-
blow coverage of tonight’s title
matches, we’re proud to present
an in-depth buyers guide, so
you know exactly what to look
for when you purchase your
next videocard. We’ll also handi-
cap each vendor’s chances in
the future.
ATI, nVidia: Go to your neu-
tral corners. When the bell
rings, come out swingin’!
NOVEMBER 2005 MA XIMUMPC 23
BY MICHAEL BROWN