Is an upgrade to X1950pro worth it? Or am I bottlenecked?

[jpw1234]

Currently I'm running a P4 2.8 with 1gig ram and an ATI 9800PRO.

Would it even be worth it to upgrade to a X1950PRO or am I going to see minimal results?

My computer is AGP, I found an X1950Pro for around $140.

 

[drabarius]

I had a similar rig... I had an AMD Athlon Mobile 2600+ (1.8 Ghz OC'd to 2.5 Ghz) with an ATI X800 pro. Everyone told me an upgrade to a 1950XT would be seriously bottlenecked. I decided to take the plunge anyway and buy the X1950XT AGP card. It was well worth it in my opinion. My 3dMark06 Scores went from 1948, to 4676. That's a pretty good gain. Games ran pretty well too.

Just my 2 cents...

 

[tomfool]

Don't know if you would be "bottlenecked" by your 2.8 P4, but I have a 3.4 P4 Northwood and "HAD" to replace my crapped out vid card. I got this http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814161082 and am very happy with it. It idles at 40c and runs at 44c in HL2 Deathmatch with the fan at 41%. Performance is great for my rig and the best part is the cool running. Just make sure your psu can handle it and whatever else your running.

 

[antohnee]

not sure if it would be bottlenecked, but yes its a good upgrade from your current card

 

[mactronix]

The thing with so called bottlenecking is that most systems will have one somewhere be it a slight one or a biggeer one usually CPU/GPU. The card will still run faster than the 9800 and will let you play games you just plain cant at the min.
My main concern would be your powersupply it will need 28/30 amps on the 12volt rail to run.
Mactronix

 

[jpw1234]

Well I ordered a random 400W cheap PSU (pulled from a new computer) which I won't know the brand until it arrives. Yea I know its prolly junk but I just needed a cheap replacement cause mine is dying. I'm not sure how to check the amps on it. Is it possible this PSU will work?

 

[computertech82]

The "bottleneck" is really the cpu not quite keeping up with the new video card. It's doesn't mean you will not still get a good gain in speed, just means the video card can run a little faster with a faster cpu.
As someone already pointed out, you will see the speed increase.

 

[mactronix]

I doubt very much that it will run on a generic(cheap)400 watt supply the manufacturers recomend a 450 watt min but as i said the important bit is the Amps on the 12volt rail,you can check this by reading the sticker that will be on the PSU when you get it,it is possable that it will but you wont know until you get the PSU i know of people who are running 1950 pro's on 380 watt PSU's but thats the differance between a good psu and a bad one which = cash im afraid.
Mactronix

 

[lunyone]

I doubt very much that it will run on a generic(cheap)400 watt supply the manufacturers recomend a 450 watt min but as i said the important bit is the Amps on the 12volt rail,you can check this by reading the sticker that will be on the PSU when you get it,it is possable that it will but you wont know until you get the PSU i know of people who are running 1950 pro's on 380 watt PSU's but thats the differance between a good psu and a bad one which = cash im afraid.
Mactronix

380w EarthWatts PSU will run a 8800gtx and an e6600 OC'd and its a good quality PSU. A generic PSU will probably need the sticker read once you get it to see if it'll work. I'm betting that its about 12-15A on the 12v rail, but that is just a guess. Let us know what the sticker says, or at least what make/model it is.

 

[baddog1]

It'll run fine. The power supply will be fine. You'll be fine.

These people who think you must have 2kw psu's are people with a little knowledge, and you know where that leads.

As for the so-called bottleneck, how would you know? Your framerate will zoom with the 1950, and you can turn on eye-candy. You'll be playing the same games and enjoying them much more. So what if a faster proc would kick it up another couple f's-ps?

 

[mactronix]

It'll run fine. The power supply will be fine. You'll be fine.

These people who think you must have 2kw psu's are people with a little knowledge, and you know where that leads.

As for the so-called bottleneck, how would you know? Your framerate will zoom with the 1950, and you can turn on eye-candy. You'll be playing the same games and enjoying them much more. So what if a faster proc would kick it up another couple f's-ps?

How can you say it will run fine you have no clue no one does untill the psu gets here and the sticker gets read ?
Who mentioned 2kw psu's ?
mactronix

 

[Hotdogunner]

You will also see a big differance if you have gaming ram. High speed ram for gaming is almost if not more important than a good CPU. If you can afford it go to PCI-E they are much faster.

 

[nightscope]

If you can just wait a little longer to save some money up, and upgrade your whole computer along with a new video card, it'd be a better buy in my opinion. Not a good idea to spend money on an outdated slot.

 

[lunyone]

So I'd be looking at a possible PSU and GPU upgrade. PSU is about $50-60 for a quality one (some are cheaper w/MIR's) and about $150-170 for the x1950pro. That is about $200-225 for upgrade. You can get a budget x2 (much better than your current CPU), GPU, PSU, mobo, & DDR2 for about ($65 cpu, $130 GPU, $50 PSU, $60 DDR2) $300 or so. Now that would be a smarter choice, but that is about $100 more than the original option. So you can decide. BTW the DDR2 price was for 2 gig's of RAM, so you could save about $20-25 off of the price if you just got 1 gig, but that is starting to push things. 1 gig would be okay for now if you were running windows XP.

 

[jpw1234]

Excellent, well I shall check out the sticker on the PSU when it gets here later this week and go from there!

 

[jpw1234]

Well I won an auction on eBay and got a pretty sweet deal.

Ended up winning an EVGA 6800GS CO (copper heatsink, faster clocks) AGP card for only $35 plus shipping!

This card says it requires a 350w PSU so I should be in the clear

 

[lunyone]

What PSU do you have? Did you read the sticker on the side? Is there a brand name and model number on the sticker/box?

 

[jpw1234]

The PSU I ordered will arrive tomorrow. I am hoping for a good score, since the the brand is a surprise and guaranteed 400W or more!

My current PSU is an Enermax 300W with 15A running on the 12v rail.

 

[lunyone]

I'm pretty sure that your 300w PSU won't cut it. Hopefully you get some good info from the sticker/box on your PSU that your getting.

 

[solid]

Currently I'm running a P4 2.8 with 1gig ram and an ATI 9800PRO.

Would it even be worth it to upgrade to a X1950PRO or am I going to see minimal results?

My computer is AGP, I found an X1950Pro for around $140.

I did the same thing basically

I had a P4 3.0E and a 6800 GT. When I upgraded to my x1950 PRO AGP their was no increase in FPS, but I was planning on upgrading CPU anyway. I slapped in an E6600 and the card blazes a large amount of games.

Any Source/HL2 game gets extremely high frames even on maxed out settings with lots of AA/AF.

 

[jpw1234]

Got the power supply. Its 450W, Intput 10A/6A

Outputs +3.3v/26A, +5V/35A, +12V/15A, -12V/0.8A, -5V/0.5A, +5VSB/2A


You know I'm lookin here on newegg and I only see 1 or 2 PSU's with amps in the 25-30 range on the +12. Even a lot of the expensive ones don't have it.


Either way I should fine running the 6800 GS CO correct? How about the X1950 Pro for future reference?

 

[kpo6969]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817703011
26amps-one of the best brands- $75

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139003
33amps-excellent price/performance-$65 (after rebate)

Just remember you get what you pay for. You know those amps will be there.

 

[jpw1234]

Researched a bit more, no way this PSU will run a X1950 pro but it should be more than enough for the 6800 GS, am I wrong?

 

[lunyone]

Well.....you might be able to, if you don't have alot hooked up to it. I originally found that a 6800gs requires 18a on the 12v rail. I have a link dating back to when the 6800gs came out, so you can see where it fits on the power consumption. I have a AMD 3200+ w/2gig's DDR, 2 DVD's, x1800xt running on a 13a PSU, so I'm sure it can work. I just wouldn't bank on any good results out of it. It might work now, but who knows what will happen in the future. I don't recommend using the PSU, so I'm just warning you if you do. It might be fine, but who knows. If the PSU fails at a later date, it might take out other parts, so just trying to inform you the best I can. There are several posts that people have used cheaper PSU's and come asking for help when there computer starts having problems. And then wonder why the PSU would cause issues. Okay I think I ranted long enough. Here is the link I was referring to. It's not all inclusive, but here it is.
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/video/display/gpu-consumption2006_6.html

 

[scryer_360]

Its time to invest in a PCI express motherboard man. You probably will get a big benefit from a new X1950Pro compared to you last card, but a low-end PCIe system these days can easily post the 3dMark scores you hope to achieve with that new graphics card. Save your money. Wait for Penryn to come out and the new 3xxx series from ATI, and the 9xxx series from Nvidia (both which should be out by Christmas, according to some sources).

Then build a new PC. From scratch.