Last Monday, I bought an X1900GTO with ratings published as:Core Speed of: 575 MHzMemory Speed of: 600 MHz.This card was supposed to replace my X800XT which has:Core Speed of: 500 MHzMemory Speed of: 500 MHz.My X800XT indeed is running with those specs.I installed my brand new X1900GTO card in good faith that it will be a part that is running at 575/600 MHz.When installing it, I could not understand why it gave no better FPS performance then my X800XT part?!?!? Here's why...and it isn't a nice picture....ATI is shipping out all their 580 chips that have failed their full specification test no **matter what their speed**. On my part where again, I should have had a card (X1900GTO) with PUBLISHED and SHIPPED performance specs of 575 MHz CORE and 600 MHz MEMORY, I called up the card via a number of reporting software, and this BRAND NEW card was running at:Core: 497 MHz *** 78 MHz *** less than its published spec.Memory 594 *** 6 MHz *** less than its published spec.This card was performing at less speed than a card many series redundant!!!!On some tech sites, this has been detected and already reported!!! This is not just (my card) a bad one!!!This is a willful act and business decision by ATI to 'ship out' any 580 series core rather than write it off. I have no problem if a company finds that chips won't run to full parameters, SO LONG as they will ship them out on a board with a stated and advertised performance spec wherein the card delivers as advertised! I then make a faithful and INFORMED decision to buy a card with those performance specs.I suggest that all ATI owners of an X1900 GTO (256 MB) immediately poll their card and see what the chip speeds are running at. At anything grossly less than published spec, I suggest you return it to your place of purchase no matter if out of the exchange time limit. You were played by ATI. This is outrageous!A FORMER and long-time ATI supporter.

Check the speed when a 3d application is running. Most newer ATI parts operate in a separate 2D and 3D modes. My x1900xt card runs at 500 MHz core and 600 MHz memory at 2D, and throttles up to 621 MHz core 725 MHz memory when a 3D app is detected.Kylehttp://www.precisionmanuals.com/images/forum/ng_driver.jpg

Yes, that could be, but any card in 2D should run at the published MHz or greater. My post wasn't an in-situ performance issue as the main. It is that the actual chips are NOT running nominally at the published (advertised) and 'paid-for' MHz rate. That of course THEN affected the cards total performance. The performance of this card lagged because of the chip set installed and shipped from the factory at less than what it should be!Anything you might get BEYOND those base-line MHz figures is 'gravy'.This is the first card that has never poled (at idle) to report what the published MHz figures for that chip set and series was. Like I said in the original post. It is not just this card. It is an issue with a lot of late-shipping X1900GTO's.They are discontinuing this card, and are apparently getting rid of any chip set sitting in a factory bin.... no matter if it runs less than 575 (advertised and published figure) MHz. Thanks for the reply,Mitch R.