Question for X1950XT owners

asdftt123

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Jul 19, 2007
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Hello, everyone!



I'm planning to build a system early - mid September for primary
college use and gaming on the side. I'm on a budget of $2000 max (need
all components and peripherals including monitor), but it would also be
nice to limit the total cost as much as I can so I can afford some good
upgrades in the future. Similar to other gaming builds, the graphics
card is what's going to kill me. I plan on building a system with
Q6600, x38/P35, 4GB DDR2 1066, sound card, Vista 64-bit, 22" WS LCD,
Logitech G5, etc...



I'm leaning towards either an 8800 GTX or X1950XT for the video
card... I think my options are to either pick up the 8800 GTX and
upgrade in a year at the earliest or get the X1950XT and pick up the
high range card when it comes to the market at the end of the year. If
I get the X1950XT how does it perform on games such as Fear, Stalker,
HL2, Oblivion, Doom 3, Quake 4, etc... Is there anything it can't
handle? I plan on playing Crysis and other main releases as they come
and the GTX seems a bit iffy for the future, IMO. Also, would the 256MB
version of the XT suffice for 1650 x 1050 or do I have to go for the
512 version?



On a side note, is the x38 chipset going to be released in time for
mid-Sept? Is it worth it to get x38 or should I be fine with P35 + new
line of PCI-e 2.0 cards?



Thanks!
 

spuddyt

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Jul 21, 2007
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IMO you should get the 1950xt and wait for the 9 series/8900 whatever or amd equivalent thats if you want to play crysis on max but a gtx should play it on fairly high, and also im not sure about the res and memory question
 

tbiggums

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Dec 12, 2006
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The x1950xt is fine for all the games you listed, but from experience i can only say it will max/near max out those games at 1280x1024. I dont think that the x1950xt (both 256 and 512) has enough power to max out those games (FEAR Stalker and Oblivion) at 1650x1050. You might have to turn some settings down. Check the tom's hardware vga charts for concrete numbers. If it was me id get it and wait till crysis comes out to see how the 8900 or R700's perform and then get a high end card
 

alabama619

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Jul 1, 2007
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Ive got a XT 512MB running all my games on MAX with a res of 1680x1050. Games that I run on max with an FPS over 21:

Battlefield 2
Battlefield 2142
Rainbow 6 Vegas
Test Drive Unlimited
Hitman Bloody Money