X1950 Pro AGP is coming!

[honestjohn]

Originally posted by: zcubed
just got my sapphire x1950pro 512mb today. runs like a dream. havent tried overclocking at all(why even try?) but do use ATItool to control the fan. installed the latest omega drivers based on the 7.1 catalysts. ran 3dmark03,05 and 06. in 05 i encountered what was a small artifact taht came back repeatedly. thats when i opened ATItool and noticed the card was going 70C+ when it was running on load. ATItool showed me that the card is setup to run the fan at 41% until it reaches like 65C which is ridiculous! so i adjusted the fans to run in a way that keeps them from reaching 100% but also keeps the gpu temp under 75. and voila no more artifacting even after 2 straight hours of 3dmark06 and company of heroes on full graphic settings. my psu was never an issue to worry about even with my setup. the card idles at 50C. and the fan stays 50% at idle.

3dmark03: 15476
3dmark05: 8794
3dmark06: 4830

oh and just for reference heres the 3dmark scores for my overclocked 7800gs (470/1400).

3dmark03: 15239
3dmark05: 6991
3dmark06: 3651

zcubed, I heard their were issues with the X1950 Pros and Cat 7.1 which your Omega's are based on. People are saying they cause artifacting in certain games and when they go back to Cat 6.12 the issue disappears. You may want to consider changing drivers.

 

[zcubed]

well i just played the original black and white 2 for about 2 hours without a single problem. looks like the problem is embedded in the expansion. so its not the card(praise the lord!). i have had no reboot problems at all. and no artifacting since ive adjusted the fan settings sooooooo im good now. now i jsut need to wait for a more x1950pro friendly ATItool to give overclocking a try. also ive read around and it seems that catalyst 7.1 makes overclocking the x1950pro worse so ill wait to overclock. im happy with the 7.1s otherwise. the expansion is no biggie anyways as long as everything else works without a problem(which it does). my recommendation for anyone who needs an upgrade...get this card only if u know how to work well with tools to tweak the card(such as ATItool) so u can mess with the fans and keep the card under 75C.

PS: i might try going back to the 6.12s if i ever really want to play the expansion. for now itll just be too much of a hassle.

 

[apoppin]

so far, no prob with the 'stock' 7.1

for SURE it's the damn xpack ... doen't matter WHICH drivers ... it NEEDS a patch ...
[damn the devs and/or the publisher]:|

i would have played thru BotG 3 or 4 times if i could.
[even your creature AI gets really buggy]

actually you CAN play it - IF you are patient ... turn down all your settings 'one notch' .... and 'Save often' .

glad to hear you have no probs with the card itself ... as mine is running great ... so far!
:thumbsup:

 

[honestjohn]

Got invloved in an interesting discussion over at Hardforum last night when a poster (Pooty81) commented on how much he like the Gecube X1950 Pro design, which led us also to the Visiontek which uses the same PCB design. He noticed the VRM area of the PCB was really quite different from some of the other cards and went on to ask if this was ATI's reference design at which point I did a little research and came up with something interesting.

It looks like the Gecube/Visiontek PCBs are identical and the end of the PCB was re-designed where the VRMs are located. If you look at the pictures below you can see how different the Gecube/Visiontek VRM area of the PCB is from the other manufacturers who use the ATI Reference Design. Perhaps Visiontek/Gecube varied from the reference design due to the heat issues associated with the VRMs as Pooty81 suggested. Then again, they may have also changed the design of the PCB just to save some money as they did when they left the temp diode off the card. Thought this was interesting none the less.

Visiontek - Front
http://img206.imageshack.us/my.php?image=visiontekx1950pro5mx.jpg

Visontek - Back
http://img262.imageshack.us/my.php?image=visionback2xz.jpg

Sapphire/Diamond/HIS/Powercolor - ATI Reference Design (Card Pictured PCI-E/Same basic design for AGP)
http://img206.imageshack.us/my.php?image=x1950proref6go.jpg

 

[apoppin]

comparing the VisionTek with the Sapphire ....

i had the VisionTek for 3 weeks

the Sapphire x1950p seems *cheap* in every regard ... the VisionTek is *solid* with a nice HS.

glad it has 2 years warranty and i only plan to keep it for one.

 

[Cenarius]

Speaking of PCB design, the most striking thing about the X1950 Pros is the almost total lack of capacitors, just 4 small ones on most boards. I haven?t seen this sort of thing on a gaming class graphics card in years.

Looking at that picture, the VisionTek is one of the exceptions. I wonder if it?s based on a 90nm version of the GPU whereas the others are 80nm?

 

[zcubed]

Originally posted by: apoppin
comparing the VisionTek with the Sapphire ....

i had the VisionTek for 3 weeks

the Sapphire x1950p seems *cheap* in every regard ... the VisionTek is *solid* with a nice HS.

glad it has 2 years warranty and i only plan to keep it for one.

completely agree with u apoppin. in a year when i got some big bucks going ill ditch the majority of my setup(maybe keep the HDDs and DVD-RWs) and completely start over. anyways by then Directx10 games might be more plentiful so it might be necessary lol.

 

[postmortemIA]

Originally posted by: apoppin
comparing the VisionTek with the Sapphire ....

i had the VisionTek for 3 weeks

the Sapphire x1950p seems *cheap* in every regard ... the VisionTek is *solid* with a nice HS.

glad it has 2 years warranty and i only plan to keep it for one.

Visiontek has no thermal monitor... enough for me to stay away from it.... and i don't want to repeat about its noise.

Sapphire is super quiet. Heatsink does its job because temp on idle is in mid forties C.

 

[apoppin]

Originally posted by: postmortemIA

Originally posted by: apoppin
comparing the VisionTek with the Sapphire ....

i had the VisionTek for 3 weeks

the Sapphire x1950p seems *cheap* in every regard ... the VisionTek is *solid* with a nice HS.

glad it has 2 years warranty and i only plan to keep it for one.

Visiontek has no thermal monitor... enough for me to stay away from it.... and i don't want to repeat about its noise.

Sapphire is super quiet. Heatsink does its job because temp on idle is in mid forties C.

thanks ... i won't repeat about its quietness

i was *only comparing* the *feel* ... my Sapphire feels like a cheap whor ...

... well, cheap

 

[Canterwood]

The nice thing about the HIS X1950 Pro ICEQ3 is that it just oozes class.

It was well worth the little bit extra imo. :thumbsup:

 

[apoppin]

Originally posted by: Canterwood
The nice thing about the HIS X1950 Pro ICEQ3 is that it just oozes class.

It was well worth the little bit extra imo. :thumbsup:

since my case is *closed* she can look like a cheap brightly-dressed 2-bit hooke ...

well, who cares what goes on inside or how she *looks*
:Q



someone will buy her off me when i am done using her
:evil:

actually ... i treat her pretty well ...

 

[Zebo]

Originally posted by: apoppin

Originally posted by: Canterwood
The nice thing about the HIS X1950 Pro ICEQ3 is that it just oozes class.

It was well worth the little bit extra imo. :thumbsup:

since my case is *closed* she can look like a cheap brightly-dressed 2-bit hooke ...

well, who cares what goes on inside or how she *looks*
:Q



someone will buy her off me when i am done using her
:evil:

actually ... i treat her pretty well ...

Can't beat the Acrtic cooling type cooler on there for venting hot airs to outside and quiet..

What I don't understand about some of you is you can get a mobo and PCIe 1950 pro for the same price these AGP pros are going for. Be Ready for PCIe future and you get more back in exchange selling both your old mobo and your old GPU.


skt 478/462 ddr1 ers excluded...

 

[MustangSVT]

Originally posted by: Zebo

Originally posted by: apoppin

Originally posted by: Canterwood
The nice thing about the HIS X1950 Pro ICEQ3 is that it just oozes class.

It was well worth the little bit extra imo. :thumbsup:

since my case is *closed* she can look like a cheap brightly-dressed 2-bit hooke ...

well, who cares what goes on inside or how she *looks*
:Q



someone will buy her off me when i am done using her
:evil:

actually ... i treat her pretty well ...

Can't beat the Acrtic cooling type cooler on there for venting hot airs to outside and quiet..

What I don't understand about some of you is you can get a mobo and PCIe 1950 pro for the same price these AGP pros are going for. Be Ready for PCIe future and you get more back in exchange selling both your old mobo and your old GPU.


skt 478/462 ddr1 ers excluded...

yep yep. I was thinking about getting this when it hits below $200 but then when I upgrade, it will become useless and would need new videocard if I stay with AGP. Like you said, it would be better for me to upgrade and get dual core cpu with pci e on it. (i.e. that e4300).

wonder when multi core will be effective in games ..

 

[Canterwood]

Originally posted by: Zebo
Can't beat the Acrtic cooling type cooler on there for venting hot airs to outside and quiet..

What I don't understand about some of you is you can get a mobo and PCIe 1950 pro for the same price these AGP pros are going for. Be Ready for PCIe future and you get more back in exchange selling both your old mobo and your old GPU.


skt 478/462 ddr1 ers excluded...

Thing is, in the UK, the 512mb HIS ICEQ PCI-E X1950 Pro is £158.61, and the AGP version is £164.49.

A difference of only £5.88

It doesn't make economical sense for me to buy a PCI-E mobo when the price difference is so small.

 

[Zebo]

Yup value will be lower of the AGP cards me thinks too plus you still have same problem again next go around. Theres a few of you from reading sigs who should'nt be buying this since there is a PCIe upgrade path. mainly 754 and 939ers with AGP boards sicne they make PCIe ones cheap. Just an FYI really. I understand many have no alternative and maybe simply dont want to build, wipe and reinstall yet again which comes with new mobo.

 

[postmortemIA]

apoppin, my IC7 crapped badly..I got new AGP rig (see sig)

just a word of warning. what happened is that ICH5 SATA controller is screwed, and pretty much all PCI slots don't seem to be working properly.

Zebo, I have 3.25GB of DDR1... why would I want to spend $300+ for same thing. Yeah there are S939 mobos with DDR1 but they are phasing out too.

 

[apoppin]

Originally posted by: Zebo

Originally posted by: apoppin

Originally posted by: Canterwood
The nice thing about the HIS X1950 Pro ICEQ3 is that it just oozes class.

It was well worth the little bit extra imo. :thumbsup:

since my case is *closed* she can look like a cheap brightly-dressed 2-bit hooke ...

well, who cares what goes on inside or how she *looks*
:Q



someone will buy her off me when i am done using her
:evil:

actually ... i treat her pretty well ...

Can't beat the Acrtic cooling type cooler on there for venting hot airs to outside and quiet..

What I don't understand about some of you is you can get a mobo and PCIe 1950 pro for the same price these AGP pros are going for. Be Ready for PCIe future and you get more back in exchange selling both your old mobo and your old GPU.


skt 478/462 ddr1 ers excluded...

first of all, i don't need better cooling ... i might need warranty service and to change the cooling is to *Void* it . . . and i never plan to o/c her - anyway - other than my 5 minute original test [she O/Cs!].

FInally, i paid $250 for her and sold my old x850xt for $100 ...

what kind of upgrade would you recommend that would give me *better Bang-for-buck* for a NW P4@3.2Ghz/1GBPC3500/x850xt ... for $150 ...

with no *fuss* whatsoever ... just R&R the AGP card

EDIT:

Sorry to hear about your IC7, postmortemIA

it wasn't the NB getting too hot was it?

i HOPE mine makes it another or i am forced to get another AGP MB also ...
fortunately they are really cheap

 

[zcubed]

yea im selling the 7800gs i used to have to make up some of the money i spent on the x1950pro. i feel that spending $300+ on the HIS 512mb version is really way too much especially since the sapphire one does just as well a job and overclocking the x1950pro according to most reviews doesnt yield much of a gain in actual gaming performance.

 

[Canterwood]

Originally posted by: Zebo
Yup value will be lower of the AGP cards me thinks too plus you still have same problem again next go around. Theres a few of you from reading sigs who should'nt be buying this since there is a PCIe upgrade path. mainly 754 and 939ers with AGP boards sicne they make PCIe ones cheap. Just an FYI really. I understand many have no alternative and maybe simply dont want to build, wipe and reinstall yet again which comes with new mobo.

I think that most AGP'ers just want to hang onto their current rig for maybe another year, then go and get a complete new rig. IE: PCI-E 2.0, DDR3 etc etc.

The beauty of these cards (at least in the UK) is that there's no major price gouge on them compared to the PCI-E version.

It makes absolute economical sense for most to just upgrade their AGP system with one of these cards, as going PCI-E (ie: mobo and video card) would actually cost more.

Nvidia were the ones who priced the AGP 7800GS stupidly high, and yes, it was cheaper then to buy a PCI-E motherboard and video card.

Happily however, thats not the case with the AGP X1950 Pro.

 

[Zebo]

Originally posted by: apoppin

FInally, i paid $250 for her and sold my old x850xt for $100 ...

what kind of upgrade would you recommend that would give me *better Bang-for-buck* for a NW P4@3.2Ghz/1GBPC3500/x850xt ... for $150 ...

No problem.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813186048 $74

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814102061 $170

totalling out at $245, less than you paid.

But wait there more. Instead of only getting $100 for your card you'd get that *and* about $50-$80 for your mobo depending on make and model. Now take mom to dinner at Outback or something with the money I saved you..

Not done yet because you're not shackled to whatever agp card ATI is kind enough to trickle out either next time and can choose from literally tens of high performing PCIe cards out there..

 

[Canterwood]

Originally posted by: Zebo

Originally posted by: apoppin

FInally, i paid $250 for her and sold my old x850xt for $100 ...

what kind of upgrade would you recommend that would give me *better Bang-for-buck* for a NW P4@3.2Ghz/1GBPC3500/x850xt ... for $150 ...

No problem.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813186048 $74

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814102061 $170

totalling out at $245, less than you paid.

But wait there more. Instead of only getting $100 for your card you'd get that *and* about $50-$80 for your mobo depending on make and model. Now take mom to dinner at Outback or something with the money I saved you..

Not done yet because you're not shackled to whatever agp card ATI is kind enough to trickle out either next time and can choose from literally tens of high performing PCIe cards out there..

So he has to buy a new 775 cpu as well, lol.

Real value for money!

You're digging yourself into a hole here.

 

[apoppin]

did you miss the part of me NOT losing a weekend with the *simple R&R*, Zebo ?

that is worth $200 to me

i don't want another *dead end* system

and didn't we have a very similar conversation before i got my x1950p?
:Q

i expect it to be my last AGP card and my last upgrade before i do the complete *makeover* next year [core2 or Quad/PCIe2/DDR3or4/x-fire/bluRay or HD-DVD/new monitor!-or two!!]

EDIT: what are you gonna get to replace it, postmortemIA?

 

[postmortemIA]

Originally posted by: apoppin

EDIT:

Sorry to hear about your IC7, postmortemIA

it wasn't the NB getting too hot was it?

i HOPE mine makes it another or i am forced to get another AGP MB also ...
fortunately they are really cheap

No, I had NB fan replaced with Zalman VGA cooler that has identical sized fan to original troublesome ABIT fan. I think something is wrong with southbridge or perhaps capacitors. Board is running now, but with single PCI device and single SATA drive... I had RAID0 raptors prior to that.

 

[postmortemIA]

Originally posted by: Zebo

Originally posted by: apoppin

FInally, i paid $250 for her and sold my old x850xt for $100 ...

what kind of upgrade would you recommend that would give me *better Bang-for-buck* for a NW P4@3.2Ghz/1GBPC3500/x850xt ... for $150 ...

No problem.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813186048 $74

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814102061 $170

totalling out at $245, less than you paid.

But wait there more. Instead of only getting $100 for your card you'd get that *and* about $50-$80 for your mobo depending on make and model. Now take mom to dinner at Outback or something with the money I saved you..

Not done yet because you're not shackled to whatever agp card ATI is kind enough to trickle out either next time and can choose from literally tens of high performing PCIe cards out there..

Does that 915P board support C2D? It doesn't look like that... I don't see what you have accomplished, you joined phased out train.

 

[Zebo]

Originally posted by: apoppin
did you miss the part of me NOT losing a weekend with the *simple R&R* ?

that is worth $200 to me

i don't want another *dead end* system

Hardly dead end Poppy. How many times I got to show y'all the benchmarks of a celeron hanging with FX's at high res high details before it sinks in that any processor sold the last three years will keep you over 60FPS, with the right GFX card of course which is everything.