X1950 XT - 256MB

[Assassin_Panda]

Ok then, get right to the point. I need a new graphics card for Oblivion,BF2, and other games of this nature. I pretty much have my mind set on a X1950 XT - 256MB simply for it's price/preformance ratio. I looked at the Tom's Hardware VGA Performance Charts but this card was not on it. My question is what kind of framerates am I looking at on a 1280-1024 res monitor on at least mid quailty game graphics settings.

Also I know I have to upgrade my power supply to be able to use this card. But I need to know if my computer can handle this video card and these games.
Dual Intel Pentium 4 processors 640 with HT
One gig Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM
16X CD/DVD burner(DVD+/-RW)
160GB Serial ATA hard drive.
Any comments are appreciated.

 

[djplanet]

Welcome to THGC!!!

Your comp will handle this card, if it's dual.

The X1950XT should be between an X1900XT 512MB (discontinued) and an X1900XTX. Put those two in the VGA charts and you can ballpark it pretty well.

With two Netburst processors and that XT, you're looking at a major heat generator. Be sure you have adequate cooling.

 

[pauldh]

Your specs are fine for that card. You will want about a 450W name brand power supply with 30A on the 12v rail. Given your system has just one optical drive and 1 HDD, you should be fine if you are a bit under that spec though as they list it for a loaded system.

Anyway, as far as framerates, you can max out BF2 at 12x10, even with fsaa and HQAF. It will look amazing. Your shortfall in BF2 is the 1GB of RAM, so it will not be completely smooth. Oblivion on the other hand you can run things pretty high but not max at 12x10. But that said, you would have to spend $400 to beat your card in Oblivion, as it's one of the best single cards with only the X1950XTX, 8800GTS, and 8800GTX beating it in that game.

Anyway, enjoy the card. I just got one a couple days ago but have not installed it yet as I want time to do before/after performance testing.

 

[Assassin_Panda]

Thank you for replying so fast. I will look into making sure that I have enough cooling to make sure my computer wont go up in flames. Also thank you for recommending a power supply, I was not sure how many W's I should be looking for in one. I was thinking about upping my RAM. But anyway, thank you both for the advice and I will make sure follow it.