X1950 Pro 512MB vs 8800GT - worth the upgrade?

I just finished my system build about a month and a half ago and I'm already wanting to get rid of my Sapphire X1950 Pro 512mb. Here are my specs:

ASUS P5k-E/WIFI mobo
Intel E6750 cpu
2 1 gigs sticks of Crucial Ballistix DDR2 1066
Sapphire X1950 Pro 512MB PCI-E
Corsair HX520 PSU
Antec 900 case

The X1950 Pro is powerful enough for my gaming needs (I didn't do much gaming before this build but I've really enjoyed playing TF2 at maxed settings) although it has it short comings. I'm experiencing issues with the drivers conflicting with Windows Media Player that lead to explorer crashing and I've heard terrible things about CCC7.10. I'm also having issues loading Ubuntu onto my system and I've heard NVIDIA drivers work much better with Linux than ATI drivers. The X1950 Pro is also a complete power hog (Sapphire's tech support insists that my PSU isn't putting out enough amps for the card) so I feel like I either need to upgrade my PSU or find a card that doesn't draw as many amps. That leads me to my last point... Sapphire's tech support is absolutely TERRIBLE; I'll spare you guys the details but I don't intend to buy another Sapphire product and would like to get rid of this one out of principle.

So, would the 8800GT be a significant upgrade from the X1950 Pro 512mb? I'd like to play Crysis but keep in mind I'm running XP and don't intend to put Vista on this machine until they release the first service pack for it.

How many amps does it require on the 12v rail? Also, which manufacturer would you suggest (preferably one with decent tech support)?

By the way, how much do you think my card will fetch on ebay?

X1950 Pro "Minimum 450 Watts PSU with combined 30 amps on both +12V rail(s) required"
8800GT \"Minimum of a 400 Watt power supply with +12 Volt current rating of 22 Amp Amps.\" From EVGA products page for Superclocked version.
Your Corsair 520HX has 40 amps of +12V.
Hard to believe Sapphire's tech support was pointing at the your PSU.

Without knowing what games and gaming resolution you use its hard to say just how much of an upgrade an 8800GT would be - but this might give you an idea:

Bunch of other benchmarks in the complete 8800GT review article here

With a new 1950Pro selling for $150 you'll be lucky to get $100 even for your \"low mileage\" card.
It's probably a good idea to go hang out on some of the Ubuntu/Linux forums and scope out the GPU/Driver recommendations.

Thanks a ton, guys. I'm sure you're all tired of the 8800GT threads so I really appreciate your input on my situation

cryptonix, there is a huge difference between 10x7 with medium shaders and shadows, and 12x10 with high shaders and shadows. Try it for yourself an you may find single digit framerates too. Until you try it, there is no way to say it's not the case.

The legion hardware crysis benchmarks show the X1950 pro ave fps as 36 at 12x8 medium. But who knows how it would have done at 14x9 high? Look at the HD2900XT. AT 12x8 medium it averages 85 fps, but bump up the res one notch and set details to high and it averages 36 fps. If the HD2900XT goes from 86 to 36, why couldn't the X1950 pro go from 36 to 9? I know shaders and shadows both on medium alone boosted my 8800GT near 10 fps. Now imaging a resolution boost too at the same time.

http://www.legionhardware.com/docu [...] id=698&p=2

If you wait a couple of weeks more you'd get the Radeon 4870.

There are chances that little bro 4850 would outperform 8800GT for the same price. So wait for the benchmarks at least before buying 8800GT

hehehe..i hadn't realized

lol how did i find it?

lmao...not another one