x1950pro 256 vs. x1950pro 512

[yh125d]

Anyone got some benchmarks? Is it worth the extra $30-40 to get the 512mb version?

 

[tvdang7]

depends on the games you play. mostly games like quake4 and cod2 benifit from it.

 

[apoppin]

i think it is worth it ... even though the very slight FPS increase is not dramatic whatsoever ... try barely noticeable

however

some games *require* it for highest details

and when you sell the card ... it may be more important 'then'

 

[Auric]

The FPS thing is a bit of a red herring. As with system RAM, VRAM capacity does not increase performance but rather simply having 'nuff prevents performance degradation from cascading paging. Major titles increasingly require more and as said some prevent a bad user-experience by limiting the highest quality modes to adequate hardware (sufficient VRAM capacity). I would definitely go for 512 in this class of card. Indeed, 1024 + 512 is prolly preferable to 2048 + 256. At least the system capacity can always be increased, in contrast to the viddy card which would require replacing.

 

[apoppin]

Originally posted by: Auric
The FPS thing is a bit of a red herring. As with system RAM, VRAM capacity does not increase performance but rather simply having 'nuff prevents performance degradation from cascading paging. Major titles increasingly require more and as said some prevent a bad user-experience by limiting the highest quality modes to adequate hardware (sufficient VRAM capacity). I would definitely go for 512 in this class of card. Indeed, 1024 + 512 is prolly preferable to 2048 + 256. At least the system capacity can always be increased, in contrast to the viddy card which would require replacing.

what are you referring to [in bold]?

 

[SilentRunning]

Originally posted by: apoppin

Originally posted by: Auric
The FPS thing is a bit of a red herring. As with system RAM, VRAM capacity does not increase performance but rather simply having 'nuff prevents performance degradation from cascading paging. Major titles increasingly require more and as said some prevent a bad user-experience by limiting the highest quality modes to adequate hardware (sufficient VRAM capacity). I would definitely go for 512 in this class of card. Indeed, 1024 + 512 is prolly preferable to 2048 + 256. At least the system capacity can always be increased, in contrast to the viddy card which would require replacing.

what are you referring to [in bold]?

Pretty sure he means 1GB system ram + 512MB video ram is preferable to 2GB sytem ram + 256 video ram.

 

[apoppin]

for games

thanks, SR ... i missed it completely

 

[Summitdrinker]

question for you guys,
when I play UT 2004 at 1600x1200 max game setting and max card setting except AA is off, I get a lttle jerking the first minute to a minute and half, after that the game runs smooth and fast enough, this in death match with 32 bots, not on the net

so what is the limiting facture causing the jerking/shutturing? is it lack of Vram or main system ram?

system specs:
P4 2.8, not overclocked
visiontek x1950 pro 256 Mb, not overclocked
1024 Mb main ram
WIN XP home SP2

 

[Moose1309]

Originally posted by: Summitdrinker
question for you guys,
when I play UT 2004 at 1600x1200 max game setting and max card setting except AA is off, I get a lttle jerking the first minute to a minute and half, after that the game runs smooth and fast enough, this in death match with 32 bots, not on the net

so what is the limiting facture causing the jerking/shutturing? is it lack of Vram or main system ram?

system specs:
P4 2.8, not overclocked
visiontek x1950 pro 256 Mb, not overclocked
1024 Mb main ram
WIN XP home SP2

I'd say neither. Unless Windows is still swapping out other tasks to make room for the game, but it should do that pretty quickly. Just open Taskman and see how high your peak RAM usage was - if commit charge routinely goes over, say 1.5 GB (~1,572,864 KB) than I'd say you want more RAM.

 

[apoppin]

try OverClocking your CPU --get at least 3.2Ghz and i bet it disappears


--easy to test
--also watch you HD light to see if your system RAM is insufficient

i don't have experience with your specific game

 

[Summitdrinker]

I just ran the game, peak was 787412 K only about half

also I note that there is no mouse lad when i have the jerkyness, to me mouse lag is cpu falling behind

I have a dell, overclocking CPU is hard to do

 

[apoppin]

actually ... you can do it under windows, i believe

i think you need a faster CPU

my old 2.80c 'hesitated' - especially in FEAR ... and it was not the RAM or X1950p

 

[Summitdrinker]

so how can overclock my CPU? I heard once that I could do a BIOS change from a 3 party, but it is risky

well I lowered the card settings some, it helped, I then maxed the card out with AA max, it made it worse, I guess i could overclock the card and see if that helps, but I want the card to last, I don't want a burned out card 2 months from now

I am not worried about this all as for my game play, it's not that bad and and still is very playable even with AA maxed in most maps, just wondering were my bottle neck is. I really don't have to play the game all maxed out anyhow

 

[Moose1309]

I think most people use this

http://www.cpuid.com/clockgen.php

edit, yeah your CPU is probably the skinniest resource
Your card probably doesn't notice it's running anything under ut2k4 But your CPU's also fast enough for the game - rather than overclock, you might want to live with it until you upgrade.

To the OP: I vote for the cheaper 256 MB card

 

[apoppin]

Originally posted by: Summitdrinker
so how can overclock my CPU? I heard once that I could do a BIOS change from a 3 party, but it is risky

well I lowered the card settings some, it helped, I then maxed the card out with AA max, it made it worse, I guess i could overclock the card and see if that helps, but I want the card to last, I don't want a burned out card 2 months from now

I am not worried about this all as for my game play, it's not that bad and and still is very playable even with AA maxed in most maps, just wondering were my bottle neck is. I really don't have to play the game all maxed out anyhow

yep, clockgen or uilities like them are "safe" - you system will reset if you go too high ... and since you can't manipulate the voltage, you should be fine
--they are OK for "testing" but not so practical for every day [or it seemed to be, years ago] ... make sure your MB supports it - also!

just try for 3.2Ghz and re run your game ... if that is too high, the 3.15G for the 'worst' P4 2.80c

that'll tell you that you could use an upgrade to the fastest P4 that your MB supports

the Frame rate is capped pretty much by your CPU ... that hesitation might be it struggling with the minimum ... ooh, your card can do *max* details and AA/AF at the fastest your CPU can run

crank the details if you don't upgrade your CPU .... go for max AA/AF the card can do

BUT lower the resolution if the game's frame rate is too low to help out your old and slow CPU

 

[Summitdrinker]

I am unsure what motherboard I have? what thePLL is etc?????????????

 

[apoppin]

i think you can just run ClockGen ... READ the directions

carefully

you don't need to know your MB ... you have a little "workaround"

it sounds complicated with the PLLS but isn't ... all you are doing is using ClockGen to raise the FSB ...

 

[apoppin]

If your PLL model is not in ClockGen list, or you just know the family of your PLL, you still can use it because most PLLs in a same family use the same registers to set the Front Side Bus. Only GSB/PCI may vary, and you can ignore them :

* Select a PLL in the list that belongs to the same family.
* Check "Ignore GSB/PCI".

Only the FSB will be reported and modified.

Once you get your PLL model selected, click on "Read Clocks", then open the "PLL Control" window. Notice that the number of sliders depends on the PLL model features. Some models also only support a predefined set of frequencies, and therefore may show a "step-by-step" slider.
Once your new clocks are choosen, clock on "Apply Selection" to make them effective. If you want to come back to current values, click on "Reset Selection".

AND ...

The "Clocks" window shows the current clocks in real time. It is independant from the selection window, so it will tell you if the new clocks were really applied.


*** you also want to watch your temps - HW doc or MB monitor ... maybe just go for 3.0Ghz ... should make enough of a difference to give you an idea****

also if you run SiSoft Sandra you can find the details of your MB chipset
[i think]

 

[Summitdrinker]

i looked at my mother board I have a
ICS 952601ef

I did this once for a old dell xps p3 system it worked

 

[apoppin]

that's the last time i used it also

let us know your results ... you DO know how to OC

 

[Summitdrinker]

can't get it work, doesn't do anything, no adjustment

the sliders are there but don't read or adjust anything

 

[apoppin]

maybe the wrong PLL

i had to spend a lot of time with it ... way back when

don't remember

head over to CPU/OC forum ... someone will know for sure

and be patient as it is a small forum

 

[Summitdrinker]

ok, I will work on it
thanks for the info people

 

[apoppin]

please ... let us know how it goes


and good luck!

 

[Summitdrinker]

well I keep playing around, haven't gotten it to work thou,

more system info:
cpu: northwood , socket 478, step 9

motherboard: dell model 0G0729
chipset i875P rev2
southbridge: 820801EB (ich5)
sensor SMSc 1404