X1950 Pro AGP is coming!

[CrystalBay]

This guy has one and is having problems, Bummer

 

[Nightmare225]

Originally posted by: CrystalBay
This guy has one and is having problems, Bummer

Damn, that sucks. My 11 year old brother wanted a good video card for Christmas...

 

[postmortemIA]

Short review here. VisionTek X1950Pro 256MB AGP.

I just got mine @ BB i took that $20 off coupon that paid off the tax.

It is single slot solution, with very loud fan. And heatsink is all of copper. There's large heatsink on backside, that seems to be copper based too, or some mix of two metals.

No issues whatsoever, removed nvidia drivers before putting it in. I've tested it on three games (HL2:EP1, COD2, FEAR EX. Pt. ) that I couldn't run before well on 1600x1200, with AA and AF off. So far, I can run these three games just fine, and I don't see any artifacts, or problems with video driver.

However, I have one complaint, the fan is insanely noisy. I've downloaded ATi Tray Tools and fan settings are disabled, not supported.. It drives me nuts. Anybody has any ideas how to reduce it, at least on 2D?

 

[CrystalBay]

try riva tuner v2.0 RC 16.2

 

[postmortemIA]

Originally posted by: CrystalBay
try riva tuner v2.0 RC 16.2

nope, won't work as it doesn't provide driver-level support like it does for nvidia. Tough luck. only possible thing is to change the BIOS.

The cards is barely warm, and fan runs on too high setting, even on 2D.

 

[BigChiefSmokem]

seems like they've already hit ebay:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=220055079384

 

[Auric]

Check the fan specs. If anyfing like the X800's then it is 12V which means it is EZ to reduce the voltage applied by various means: fixed by hard wiring to 7 or 5V, variable by regulator circuit as with Zalman Fanmate, or variable by software such as SpeedFan given an appropriate mobo header.

You may want to try SpeedFan first anyway and see if the sensor is supported, which also depends upon the mobo. I mean, for several cards I have had an LM75 temp sensor detected but apparently the mobo was the killjoy in not allowing SpeedFan to read it correctly nor regulate it as the same sensor has been reported useable on other mobos.

Hopefully the drivers will catch up and add appropriate fan speed control or 'nutha option would be checking the BIOS with RaBiT or whatever utility is en vogue these days.

 

[postmortemIA]

Thanks for post, Auric.

SpeedFan did recognize GFX temperature, and CPU and NB fan, but no GFX fan. I've already tried RaBiT, and its using 41% for temps up to 70C. That can be changed on BIOS file. However no flash utility works with this chip yet.

3DMark05 score is 6700, compared to 5500 of my 6800ultra.

It is going back to BestBuy tomorrow.

 

[postmortemIA]

3dMark 06, 3638:

IMG

 

[AgonxOC]

Your CPU is probably bottlenecking you. I should be able to achieve close to 5K in 06 or more with my CPU. I am not sure if I want to get the video card until I see more benches. I get 7300 in 05 with an barely OCed X850XT PE (585/600 MHz) and 2500 in 06. I should get around 4800 in 05 with this video card at stock speeds, but 05 it seems slow in your system.....


Alex

 

[postmortemIA]

Originally posted by: AgonxOC
Your CPU is probably bottlenecking you. I should be able to achieve close to 5K in 06 or more with my CPU. I am not sure if I want to get the video card until I see more benches. I get 7300 in 05 with an barely OCed X850XT PE (585/600 MHz) and 2500 in 06. I should get around 4800 in 05 with this video card at stock speeds, but 05 it seems slow in your system.....


Alex

Well I get increase 20% in '05 and 45% in '06. Also frame rate in COD2 and FEAR E.P. has almost doubled. Anything shaders intensive will get biggest improvement.

 

[AgonxOC]

So I might get 9K in 05 and 5K in 06, which is not too bad. I will have to see more benches to get convinced....


Alex

 

[Auric]

Originally posted by: postmortemIA
Thanks for post, Auric.

SpeedFan did recognize GFX temperature, and CPU and NB fan, but no GFX fan. I've already tried RaBiT, and its using 41% for temps up to 70C. That can be changed on BIOS file. However no flash utility works with this chip yet.

3DMark05 score is 6700, compared to 5500 of my 6800ultra.

It is going back to BestBuy tomorrow.

Pity. For that price I wouldn't suffer any problems and return it as well. Then maybe wait a bit for prices to normalize, kinks to be worked out and drivers and utilities to catch up before having another go.

As for SpeedFan, it's good that the GFX temp was recognized and I would not expect the fan to be but rather the idea is to plug the fan (if 12V) into a mobo header which has speed control also supported by SF, then linking the two.

 

[Snakexor]

the fan is sooooo loud. what 3rd party cooler can i put on here? vf-900 or accelero 1 would be great

 

[happy medium]

My 7800gs scores 3300 in 3d mark 06 and 6500 in 3d mark 05. Will this card be a upgrade or a side grade?

 

[apoppin]

Originally posted by: happy medium
My 7800gs scores 3300 in 3d mark 06 and 6500 in 3d mark 05. Will this card be a upgrade or a side grade?

depends what you consider an upgrade....expect 8K for 3dM'05

My x850xt scores 6300 in 3DMark05 and i get 7850 with my x1950p.... same rig [otherwise] ... stock GPU speeds.

Not a lot of difference performancewise playing Gothic 3 - it is pretty unoptimized ...
BUT Oblivion looks MUCH better [SM 3.0 +HDR] and plays much faster even with Grass now maxed whereas before it was completely off.

a cautious thumbsup ... so far

depends how much you pay for it ... i guess ... it does give you more visuals plus a 'notch' more performance ... i'd now say +25-40% faster --over my x850xt after playing with my x1950pro for a couple of hours.

 

[postmortemIA]

apoppin, did you get VisionTek too ?

Do you find it loud (in case if that does matter to you)

To me it seems that it doe not have any HW monitoring and control -temperature and fan speed), which I don't like.

 

[apoppin]

Originally posted by: postmortemIA
apoppin, did you get VisionTek too ?

Do you find it loud (in case if that does matter to you)

To me it seems that it doe not have any HW monitoring and control -temperature and fan speed), which I don't like.

yep

i didn't want to wait
:Q

and no, it is VERY quiet ... even playing Oblivion or G3 ...

and damn, this card is HEAVY ... copper [or lead ] i guess ... at least twice my x850xt's weight

and there is no o/c'ing utility in CCC anylonger ... i guess i will wait for ATi tray Tools to update if i keep this card.

EDIT: when i say "very quiet" ... i mean it is quieter than my x850xt
:Q



and i am off to actually 'use' this card ... Gothic3 awaits.

 

[dreddfunk]

apoppin - can you give me more information on the difference between the x850xt and the x1950pro in Oblivion. I upgraded to the x850xt from a 9700pro to run Oblivion and, while I've been generally pleased with it, I'm trying to take the opportunity of Christmas to get a significant update to make Oblivion really shine.

 

[postmortemIA]

it is copper on both sides, as you can see (you HAD to see when you were putting it in). I don't get it, my card was way louder than anything else in my case. Might been defective. I have returned it.

for OC, there's low-level tool from ATi called winclk522 (google will find it)

 

[apoppin]

Originally posted by: dreddfunk
apoppin - can you give me more information on the difference between the x850xt and the x1950pro in Oblivion. I upgraded to the x850xt from a 9700pro to run Oblivion and, while I've been generally pleased with it, I'm trying to take the opportunity of Christmas to get a significant update to make Oblivion really shine.

naturally, it's gonna depend on your resolution.

i generally run at 11x8 ... as low as 10x7 [high as 12x9 practically]

Oblivion - i just got Knights of the Nine expansion also today - looked really nice on my x850xt ... but i needed to turn DOWN 'Grass' completely to get decent frames. Generally, everything 'on' and 'max' --except self shadows [and no shadows on grass].

With my x1950p, i get slightly better FPS but NOW with Grass completely UP and i also now have HDR which is much nicer than bloom.

Gothic 3 makes very little difference ... i just get better textures and SM 3.0 [and post processing] ... i think it is badly UNoptimized compared to Oblivion.

finally, i think it is about 1/3rd faster than my x850xt ... with SM3.0 and HDR

solid copper HS ... very heavy ... [kidding about the lead] ...
...as to noise ... much quietier than my x850xt
[it was loud on heavy 3d scenes]

 

[dreddfunk]

apoppin - thanks for the information. I generally run Oblivion at 12x9 (I prefer a resolution that's closer to my native 12x10) without the grass but with most other settings on high (except for the shadow settings). I get pretty decent performance at these settings if AA is off. The trouble is, I'm one of those folks that really notice the lack of AA at 12x9 (or 12x10), as a result, I haven't been quite as happy with the x850xt as I could be. It just doesn't quite have the legs to do AA in Oblivion at that resolution.

As a result, I find myself considering an 8800gts as a big, big Christmas gift, to get the same 'wow' factor out of Oblivion that I got out of Morrowind when I upgraded to a 9700pro (which I kept for five years until getting this x850xt).

Cheers.

 

[apoppin]

skip the x1950p and go for the gold



:thumbsup:

i would if i was gonna do the BIG upgrade ... as it is, i might still get the 512MB vRAM version instead.

 

[Nightmare225]

Originally posted by: apoppin
skip the x1950p and go for the gold



:thumbsup:

i would if i was gonna do the BIG upgrade ... as it is, i might still get the 512MB vRAM version instead.

Damn apoppin, they just keep releasing agp cards that let you hold on just a few months longer. Congrats on keeping that system for so long. :thumbsup:

 

[Paratus]

Congrats Apoppin!


How's your PSU holding up?