Going to buy x1650 pro.. which manufacturer?

[bmlocal175]

HIS, Sapphire, Visiontek, Diamond, Powercolor etc...

In some cases we are talking a lot more money for different brands. I was just wondering the difference and if it all matters. Most of these cards I have been checking on Newegg which seem to have the best prices at this time.

 

[relisys]

Sapphire

 

[decripple]

Did you know that right now there is a X1650XT for $65 before shipping on newegg.com? It is from powercolor, is PCI-Express and has good reviews so far
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814131074

 

[spentshells]

his makes some good pro turbo versions

 

[SEALBoy]

What's your budget? We can help you pick out the best card in a price range.

As far as Radeons go, all the manufacturers you listed are pretty good. Sapphire I have had good experience with, my brother has an HIS card that's worked without a hitch.

 

[bmlocal175]

This is for an AGP slot and I'm upgrading from a 9600 to make this PC last a little while longer before turning it over to the kid.
I'm mostly going to play TF2. Probably not going to venture into newer games because depression will set in playing them on mediocre settings.

Don't want to spend to much but want a descent card. I'm buying some more rdram which is highly expensive, so I'm keeping these two upgrades at around $175.
I'm running a P4 2.4 with 512mb with a 250w PSU. I checked and the x1650 Pro runs at about the same as my last card that came with PC, around 35watts.

 

[pauldh]

Two thoughts. First, more important than which brand is that you get one with GDDR3 memory and not GDDR2.

Second thought, doubtful the X1650 pro will run on a 250W power supply. What is the 12v rail rated for? It uses a little more power than the 7600GT and alot more than the 7600GS. From what I have seen it's closer to 45W for a GDDR3 X1650 pro. The 7600GS would be my choice if trying to scrape by on a wimpy PSU.

For comparison, my Sapphire X1650 pro AGP GDDR3 states 350W power supply (without specifying the 12v rail) and the HIS iceQ X1650XT states 450W power supply with 30 amp 12v.

Think of the X1650 pro as a slightly OC'ed X1600XT when you look at these power consumption numbers.
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/video/display/radeon-x1650xt_4.html#sect0

Also if anything the AGP version should use a tad more power as the Rialto (pci-e to agp) bridge chip isn't 100% efficient. It may be a very minuscule amount (I am not sure) but clocked the same the AGP can't use less power anyway than the PCI-e.

 

[bmlocal175]

I think it uses 43 watts and my old card used 35 watts. Would 8 watts make that much of a difference? Which is a better card 7600gs or a x1650 pro?

 

[pauldh]

The 7600GS and X1650 pro GDDR3 trade blows with each other. So it really depends on the game and chances are you will not find a comparison of them in the newest games. Based on the fact that the X1650XT is now pulling ahead of the 7600GT in some of these new titles, I tend to think the X1650 pro may do the same to the 7600GS. But honestly, they are pretty even cards overall. The X1650 pro's with slow 800MHZ GDDR2 will lose to the 7600GS the majority of the time. But the 7600GS is a cool running low power consuming card still capable of playing games. I have a passive cooled XFX 7600GS in this quiet system I am on right now.

 

[pauldh]

As far as the PSU, 8watts could matter if you were near the max anyway. And if you add more ram also or make other changes that would draw more power too.

DO you know the 12v rail rating of your PSU? Brand? You will have instability if the system doesn't get the juice it needs.

 

[bmlocal175]

Well all the newegg x1650 pros are all ddr2. So should I just get the 7600gs to be on the safe side with my PSU, if the cards are equal in performance?

I knew what my PSU was before and if I remember was very good on the rail. Its from a Gateway PC 700X.

The 7600gs was my choice awhile ago but read DEC best cards for the money and saw the x1650 pro. But for 70 bucks all I can find are the ddr2 ones.

 

[pauldh]

priced the same, I would take the 7600GS over a GDDR2 X1650 pro, especially if the power supply is a concern. gateway and dell have pretty conservative ratings, so you may be just fine with either card. If not, it will crash/lockup in games. If it's a proprietary PSU ???? in your system, needign to swap the PSU would be a bigger issue. Anyway, I would go with the 7600GS if in your shoes.