I have a X1950XTX... time to upgrade?

[ArbY]

I think my signature has it, but anyway I have an ATI Radeon X1950XTX 512MB GDDR4 graphics card. This thing cost me $488.44 (which was a bargain at the time) and I bought it only days after it hit the market. On average, people are getting about $250 for this on eBay. I haven't come across a benchmark which pits the 8800GT and the X1950XTX against each other, but I'm certain the 8800GT would out-perform it. The question I have is, "By how much?"

The 8800GT on Newegg right now is $289.99, so I could easily sell my card and, without spending much more cash, get an 8800GT. But I need the insight of other wiser people here who are on top of the market and the performance points. Would it be worth it? I believe my system specs are in my signature, and my LCD resolution is 1280x1024, so I prefer to play at that resolution for gaming.

The only DX10 game I own is Bioshock, and I'm probably not going to be buying Crysis anytime soon (didn't care for the demo). But, I've kept this system for over a year now (built September '06) and its age is starting to catch up with it. The only other game I'm thinking about buying is Call of Duty 4, which I don't know if its DX10 capable or not.

So with all that information, would you think it'd be worth the time/cash to upgrade my card to a 8800GT? If you know of any benchmarks which include my video card and the recent line of DX10's, please share!
Thanks in advance.

 

[esmith7075]

i personally would not upgrade quite yet, it looks good
the 8800gt is a good deal/card though

 

[L1qu1d]

I wouldn't jump the gun too soon...wait till Jan or beginning of December...till new cards spread on the market that way you have a pick of the new or the old ones which might have gone down in price.

 

[emp]

You got a kickass card, I'd say wait until something even better comes along or at least until the dust settles with the Ati cards.

 

[L1qu1d]

lets hope its soon

 

[starcraftfanatic]

Don't sell until the succesor to the GTX comes out, your card is nearly top-line.

 

[L1qu1d]

its not nearly top-line but it is good...lol don't over sell stuff out of the DX 9 cards its tied for first with the 7900 GTX...So its got 6-7 Cards infront of it

Like I said good card but don't over sell it Sorry if I sound like Ass but yea Tom's benchmark charts

 

[tymik]

Don't you think that with new middle-ends like 8800GT the X1950XTX price will quickly start decreasing? The best choice is to sell what is available now, wait a few months and then purchase smth like refreshed 8800GTS.

 

[paq7512]

I would also vote for waiting a couple more months. The 8800GT is gonna drop price and ATI has not realeased the 38xx series.

 

[ArbY]

Well, I'm not really an enthusiast at this point, so I figured I'd just upgrade my card and keep it for another year, then buy whatever's good a year from now. The X1950XTX's value is really declining as I've been keeping up with eBay listings for a couple months now, so I think that the more I wait, the less I'll end up getting for it.

So what do you guys think? Should an 8800GT tie me over for another year? 1280x1024 and I usually play with 4X AA.

Even with ATI's new series, their recent track record shows they're REALLY behind NVIDIA's progress. And I have a hard time believing a mid-range 3x00 series card would out-perform the 8800GT in addition to being cheaper ($289). 3D Mark scores don't impress me, just plain old FPS numbers.

And thanks for the responses so far.

 

[Hatman]

The 1950XTX is still a great card.

Wait until the prices of the 8800GT settle in and the old 8800GTS models cost goes WAY down.

 

[randomizer]

I'm sticking to my x1950 pro for ages yet, although I can't even use it until I get a working PC :lol:

 

[bfellow]

Just wait another year. If you still don't like the newer generation cards, then wait another year as well. Keep repeating until you think the X1950XTX is at the bottom of the supported cards list of "Awesome Game to be named later in 20xx!"

 

[mactronix]

So what games etc are you having problems with at the min then? if the answer is none really and you are just worried about the resale value of your currant card and are looking for the best deal then i think you should at least wait and see what the ATI card can do when it comes out in a few days time. Its quite rare these days to be able to get what will be essentially a free upgrade so best of luck to you with what ever decision you make personally i think its a no brainer really free upgrade to the latest hardware yes please
Mactronix

 

[mactronix]

Found this for you http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3140&p=11
Mactronix

 

[aevm]

I'm surprised that so many people recommend keeping the x1950xtx. Yes, it 's a great card, and yes it's still able to handle most games properly. But, if you can find an idiot to buy it from you for enough money to buy an 8800GT, do it. The 8800GT is better than the x1950xtx, so if you can switch for only the cost of shipping I'd say do it. Plus, if you switch an old card without warranty for a brand new one with warranty, that can't be bad either.

I don't have benchmarks for 8800GT vs x1950XTX, but there are plenty of benchmarks showing that
8800GT > 8800 GTS 640MB and others showing that
8800 GTS 640MB > X1950XTX
http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3140&p=7
http://www23.tomshardware.com/graphics_2007.html?modelx=33&model1=723&model2=707&chart=297

 

[einstein4pres]

Frankly, I find it amazing that those cards will go for $250 on ebay, given the competition (8800gt). Personally, I'd be afraid that the 3800 will dry up the market for other high end ATI cards (fanboy factor), and therefore, I'd suggest making the upgrade if you plan on doing so in the near future.

 

[ethel]

Get the 8800GT - it is extremely good value for money. It is also superior to the X1950XTX, so if you can get it for a similar price, why not?

 

[cleeve]

Spending money on a videocard BEFORE you have a game that your current card can't play to your satisfaction is ALWAYS a waste of money.

Cards get cheaper and better all the time. Upgrade when you have a game in your hands that your current card can't handle.

NEVER upgrade for a 'future' game.

 

[boibknud]

I absolutely agree with aevm.

If you can find an idiot who would pay $250 for your X1950XTX then what are you waiting for!!??

Gotta say though - I see no way that you can get that kind of money for a used video card. Chances are you'll get a maximum of $100 or so for it and in that case I see no real reason for you to upgrade at this point. What you have is still pretty high-end so wait another 6 months or so.

 

[choirbass]

what you could also do, is if youre intent on upgrading before your gpus time is up, is to put the 1950xtx into another system (either upgrade an extra tower to pcie so it can make use of your current gpu, or to even assemble a complete budget tower for ~$200+), that way you have 1 gaming-centric budget priced system (incase you have friends or family who might want to play simultaneously too, or maybe just built as a gift for someone, which is never a bad thing), and you have your current system, which is more well rounded to handle other non gaming tasks too

as a sidenote too, your current gpu can be used for folding@home, if there are times its not being used to play games

 

[speedbird]

If your upgrading specifically for Direct x 10 then my advice would be that it's not worth it. DX10 games presently don't look that much better than if they were played in Direct X 9.
I believe DX10 is a marketing tactic by MS to sell more copies of Vista because there would be little else worthwhile to ditch XP otherwise

 

[choirbass]

yeah... DX10 is one marketing tactic in favor of vista (possibly to be compatible with xp after who knows how long). currently DX10 is about as much of an improvement as DX9 was over DX8 at first... the more mature games get, the better theyll look. but as it is currently, DX10 has little visual difference to speak of.

 

[djbarty]

The 1950 XTX is a great card. Because of my involvement with the graphics card industry, I was able to upgrade from a 1950XTX to a 2900XT, at no cost. I was disappointed by the lack of noticeable differences between the two cards. Crysis still sucks on the 2900XT. Had I actually paid money for this card, I would have been even more disappointed. Since there isn't any card out there that's able to take on Crysis at a decent frame rate at high resolutions (and some AA), I would hold off on purchasing a new GPU. Otherwise, if you are purchasing now, you are essentially buying obsolete hardware.

 

[bildo123]

I personally stretched my $185 9800 PRO for 3 years. Im sure you could do better.