x1950pro Question

I think powercolor has one with a Big fan on it and its silent

They *should* all be the same. You can pay extra money for one with a better cooler, or an overclocked model. All x1950pros should have 12 pixel pipelines, with 3 shaders attached to each one. They should all run on a 256bit memory bus. They should all be clocked the same. (I'm not sure what that speed is, probably around 575MHz.) In short, it shouldn't make any difference if you buy an X model, or a Y model.

Actually, i ahve worked for all the manufacturers, some companies use what ATI calls "defective" chipset.
As it stands,if you want the fastest of cards, ATI is first, original makers of the chipset, then Sapphire uses the next "fastest" (what ATI consider slower then what their specs are). Then MSI + ASUS are next (comparable speeds) then MSI followed in the end by powercolor and all the other "no name brands". So if youare looking for best company with best cooling and fastest speed it's true ATI, then Sapphire, etc....

Thanks for the help

Nice theory, to bad its bull crap. Time to start linking...

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

Here is a nice "real" ATI card, an x1650XT. 256MBs of memory on a 128bit memory bus. 575/1350MHz Core/mem clocks. Comes with several adaptors, and costs $186.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

This is actually the cheapest x1650XT that newegg sells. Its a HIS video card, with 256MBs of memory on a 128bit memory bus. It has clocks of 630/1460. Also comes with the same adapters, but costs $76 after rebate. (before rebate its only $116.) Seeing as you said ATI cards should be faster seeing as they sell "defective" "chipset" to the others, should it have the higher clocks? Let try again.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

This one is from Asus. It to comes with 256MBs of ram on the same 128bit memory bus. It has clocks of 574/1350. (I doubt that a single mhz would make a difference in these cards.) This one does however come with a bigger bundle, and appears to come with a game. (the description just says "game disk") It costs $117, still less then the "real" ATI card.

No offense, but again, what you wrote is crap. As I said, cards are cards. They should all have the same speeds. Double check the cheapest ones to make sure you aren't getting an underclocked card, but they should be all the same. The biggest differences will be in bundles, coolers, and warranties. BTW, why would Powercooler or any other AMD partner knowingly buy defective cards? (they are also called GPUs, not chipsets.)

I have the Asus 1950Pro in this system that i just built ( I know its not a core 2 Duo but i was on a budget and Amd has never done me wrong ) and so far the card is great have had it for 2 weeks , and im playing farcry and Bioshock with no problems , I choose this card cause of the extended warranty by asus (all other ati cards only carry 1 year warranty) Im in MTL Canada and at the local Pc chain website it says the card has 3 years , but when i checked on new egg it said it had 1 !!

http://www.microbytes.com/computer/ordinateur/product_i...

Oh and make sure you have a serious case cause the card is really Big compared to my X800Pro that I have in my Antec 1040B and it takes up 2 slots so I lost a pci-x 1 slot but the temps are super low cause of the extra cooling , mind you this model was 30 more expensive then the Saphire model but i went with it cause of the 3 year warranty from Asus.

anywaz this is my build if you want some benchmarks let me know

Antec 1050B
500 watt smart Power PSU
Asus M2N-E N-force 570 Ultra Chipset
AMD X2 AM2 4800+ (stock) 65watts Brisbane core
2 Gigs of Kingston Value Ram 667Mhz
Asus ATI 1950Pro
LG GSAH62L SATA DL LS 18/18 Burner
Pioneer Ide DVR 110D Burner
Segate St3320620AS 2x320 Gig (Thinking about doing raid)
SoundBlaster Audigiy

Thanks for all the great info, and help. Sorry if the post made some people mad.

Avoid any x1950 pro using the reference cooler, it sucks crap. Noisy thing, and doesn't really do a good job of cooling the VRM chips.

If you see this or this run for cover.

I dunno...i got the sapphire one witht hat cooler, and it works like a charm. I cant hear anything..not at 40-50% speed any way. Only realise the fan is actually working when it crosses 80 degrees and the fan speed goes higher than 70%. But thats quite rare as my card idles at 40 Degrees and the highest it gets while gaming is 65 (and this is in the summer when my room is boiling).


But yes, if you do manage to hit 100% fan speed, it is a jet engine  

And I always run 100% on my powercolor coz I have no choice. No temp monitoring and no fan control  

thats useless then.

Have you tried all the fan monitoring softwares available? no luck on all of them?

I set my card on 100% and now my temps barely go over 45 while gaming lol, so im quite happy with the sapphire card even if its a bit loud at 100 (dont really notice as i always have my headphones on)

There is no hardware support on my card for temp monitoring or fan control, its even disabled in the cards BIOS, and when flashed with a BIOS that has it enabled, the sensors still can't be read.

Another difference in cards will be the type of memory they use. If a good one uses GDDR3, a cheaper one might have GDDR2. Read Cleeve's comments about the differences in his Best Gaming Video Card thread, and in the monthly articles.

Wow thanks for all the help. Didn't think I would get this much help. One more question. If this was any of you, which one would you pick?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814241050
or
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102071

If the links don't work let me know. Thanks again!!

This ones easy. One is PCIe, and the other is AGP. Buy whichever one fits your motherboard.

Trust me, I've been running it for months sans problems. Get the HIS 1950 Pro Version 2. It is indeed a wonderful thing. Running older Cats with it and haven't had a hiccup or CTD since I've been running it. Great card for older AGP systems.

Da Worfster

Thank you!!!=)

I have the visiontek AGP version. The one without the temperature sensor. I've had no problems with it at all. Although, i'm much more reserved about what i will attempt to overclock. ATI based cards have had very little overclocking capability in the last year or two, so overclocking this card was not a consideration, and the temperature sensor missing is therefore meaningless to me.

...Well, here's my only input, as I finally have a benchmark to prove it with, here you go:



This is my HD2600XT, stock clocks. I'm trying out overclocking it today, but my point is this. The X1950PRO performs noticeably better in Shader Model 2, but on the exact same level in Shader Model 3.

Catalyst 7.9 drivers, 4AA, 8AF, 1280x1024x32 res, e4300 processor.

and the HD2900 out performs even the 8800GTX in 3dmarks, but is not as good in game.

3dmarks are pretty useless. If you want to compare, I suggest you get some games and do it.

I am using HIS 1950 Pro 512 Meg AGP version and absolutely love this card. Great choice for older agp boards. One warning it takes up alot of space. Has larger fan on card to allow for overclocking. I did have to install ati tray tools and increase my fan speed. My average gaming temps run 43C-45C. I believe the highest I have seen when it was warmer outside was 49C.

I would lean toward one with larger fan and check your core speed.

BTW whoever posted that line about Ati cards being best chips over other manufacturers etc is a line of horse puckey. Many of the top perfoming cards have been brands other than ATI in the tests that I have seen. The faster ones appear to have good fan and heatsinks on them. Food for thought!

Good luck in your choice.

Regards,

J. Turner

WOW, so much info. Thank you all so much, right now newegg has a great deal if anyone wants some x1950pro. One of my friends is going to Taiwan, so I am going to ask her to see what they have over there. If she can't find anything, then going to get the Gecube 512MB for $136.99. Thanks again for all the help!!