Paul87 writes:
> Im gonna probably buy a X1950 AGP 512MB graphics card for my system whic at
> the moment is
That's what I bought, Sapphire version in my case. Very nice card. Get the 512MB
version, it'll handle higher resolutions & higher quality settings better, and you'll get
more out of it if you up the CPU in the future.
Oh, and even more importantly, if you get a Sapphire, replace the stock cooler with
an ACCELERO X2. For all the rave reviews of the Arctic solution, I was nonetheless
amazed at the huge decrease in GPU temperature. The card used to idle at 50C, shoot
over 75C under load. Now it idles at 35C or less, never goes over 55C under load,
even with Oblivion/Stalker. This should sound even more impressive when I say I've
overclocked it from 580/703 to 641/783; was not remotely expecting to be able to
push it that high once the new cooler was fitted. Has anyone seen oc'd numbers for
an X1950 AGP higher than that? Was I just lucky? I bought the same model for my
brother's system, same new cooler, but can't get his one to go over 627/735 reliably.
Overclocking tip: install Catalyst Control Center and ATI Tray Tools (ATT). Use Catalyst
to unlock the overclocking feature, then use Tray Tools with Driver Level overclocking
to speed up the card. Increase the clocks in steps of 6.75 _only_ (rounded up to 7
if the Apply button doesn't pick up the requested change). Test on each change,
focus more on the core clock than the RAM clock. Works great!
> 3200+ AMD64 Socket 754
> 1.5GB Ram 3200
> x800Pro
> Abit Kv8Pro
Very interesting, kinda similar to my brother's original system that I was upgrading
for him as a present (I bought him the X1950 for xmas
) His PC had an ASUS mbd
with AthlonXP 2GHz 2400+ which I overclocked to 2.24GHz (outperforms a 3200+
easily), but through a wierd quirk of parts trading (swapped the system's original
GF4 MX-440 for a complete base unit with a guy who wanted a simple gfx card
for use with Gentoo Linux
), I was able to replace the system with an Asrock mbd
and Athlon64 3400+ 2.4GHz which overclocked easily to 2.64GHz with a better
cooler.
Anyway, point is, my old system was a dual-XEON P4/2.66 2GB RAM, in theory
much more crunch power than the Athlon64, but in practice the XEON's older
& slower RAM (PC2100 ECC) holds it back, ie. RAM speed is important for games.
In tests, the oc'd 3400+ setup is 50% to 100% faster for running 3D games,
3DMark, Cinebench95, etc., with the same gfx card, mostly because it has PC3200
RAM (running at DDR440 with the overclock).
So, you have a system that can make good use of the X1950, if specced accordingly.
Are you running the CPU at default 2.2GHz speed? With better coolers, I was able to
o.c. the 2GHz 2400+ to 2.24GHz, and the 2.4GHz 3400+ to 2.64GHz. Thus, you
should be able to up your 2.2GHz 3200+ to around 2.45GHz reliably, which will also
make the RAM go faster - every bit helps! 8) Best part is, a better cooler doesn't
cost much, and the fan is quieter too (orig AMD cooler on the 3400+ sucked dead
bunnies through a bent straw). I bought a Thermaltake TR2-M3 SE for the AthlonXP
Socket-A, and a Thermaltake TR2-M6 SE(K8) for the Athlon64 Socket 754, with
of course Arctic Silver 5 (though I didn't have the Silver5 when I did the SocketA
cooler swap, so maybe I should redo it, see if I can get even higher o.c. numbers,
though it matters not as I'll likely sell the AthlonXP setup soon).
Also, I see your RAM is 1.5GB. Is that set up to enable dual-channel? If not, but
the feature is available, change the RAM to enable it, eg. 2 x 1GB or whatever is
appropriate. Note that the better speeds with my brother's system were done with
only a single DIMM! Am now awaiting delivery of a 2GB (2 x 1GB) OCZ kit which
should be another speed bost, and the final part of the upgrade for his system. After
seeing the results I was getting with the 3400+, I decided to replace my XEON
system, and so have just bought an Athlon64 X 6000+ which has only become
viable because of the recent huge price drops (the CPU cost 156, less than half
the cost of a Core 2 Duo E6700), along with an Asrock AM2NF3-VSTA nForce3
mbd, 4GB of OCZ Platinum DDR2-800 RAM, new Asus TA861 black case and
Atrix 700W PSU.
If you get the X1950 and later decide to replace the system & keep the gfx, feel free
to email me and I'll fill you in on the speedups obtained with the newer setup, ie.
compared to my brother's Athlon64 with the same card (for fair testing, I can make
both systems run at stock speeds). Heh, and my brother is a lucky git, because the
new mbd is an Asrock K8Upgrade-1689, which can be upgraded to take Socket 939
or AM2 CPUs if required, so if he needs more speed then he can upgrade all the
way up to the same 6000+, and double the max RAM aswell.
Oh!! And here's something I've not seen mentioned anywhere: during my mbd
hunting, while I was still pondering a Core 2 Duo (the E6600 price is more reasonable),
I could not find a _single_ LGA775 DDR2 AGP mbd that supportedthe DDR2 RAM
running at full 800 speed! Every one I looked at had its RAM crippled to no more than
667 or 533. Why?? Maybe there is a mbd out there that can run at 800, but I couldn't
find one, and since RAM speed is important, well, that was it, Core2Duo was out the
window. So, if you have a good AGP card and want a better DDR2 system to put it in,
an AMD setup makes far more sense as you get to run the RAM at max speed.
> I was wondering is there large proformance increase between the 256MB
> x1950Pro or 512MB and would i get any bottlenecks putting such a card in
Not at lower resolutions and/or with fewer visual quality features enabled, but
if you want to run a game at a decent res with AA, AF, etc. then having the
512MB version will definitely help. Would you like me to post some FPS
results for Oblivion for my brother's system once the new RAM arrives? Where
should I post the data? Note that I find the X1950 is able to have various
quality features turned on without affecting frame rates much at all, something
which numerous reviews have shown aswell.
Anyway, all I can say is, you should get good results with an X1950Pro AGP.
Oblivion is glorious, though I think Stalker looks even better.
What model is your mbd btw?
> the system. Or should wait 8 months until a total upgrade. Any advice would
> be appreciated.
Even with my XEON system I was getting very decent results for Oblivion
and Stalker, so I don't think there's any need to wait.
The only thing I would say though, and I'm sure others might agree, is that
there's now at least one company which offers the X1950Pro AGP already fitted
with the ACCELERO X2 cooler, so that might be a better option than the
Sapphire version, unless Sapphire has started to offer the same thing. And
that's another point: the Sapphire stock cooler is loud, whereas the ACCELERO X2
is so quite I can't hear anything at all even with the fan at 100% and card under
heavy load. 8)
Lastly, for reference, my dual-XEON (Dell Precision 650) with the X1950 gives
3DMark06 = 4605, and PCMark2005 = 5419. I should get much better numbers
with the 6000+ though. Can't run these with the Athlon64 until the new RAM
arrives, but I was able to run 3DMark2003: XEON/X1950 gives 14250,
3400+/X1950 gives 15521; at high-res/detail this changes to 7984 and 8904
respectively. The CPU scores in each case were 50% higher on the Athlon. For
3DMark2001, XEON/X1950 = 14250, 3400+/X1950 = 24282. For PCMark2002,
dual-XEON = 6511, 3400+ = 8536 (see what I mean?)
Cheers!
Ian.