What video card for $50??

[aznstriker92]

Ok I only have $50.
Im getting tired of waiting for prices to drop and Im not making any money ATM so Im wondering if I should get a X1950pro through ebay. (plus Kanes Wrath is coming out this week)
How does this look? This one won't go anywhere so I can keep an eye on it.
Its refurbished so it looks a bit iffy.
http://cgi.ebay.com/Sapphire-ATI-Radeon-X1950Pro-256MB-2DVI-HDTV-PCI-Expres_W0QQitemZ190208208853QQihZ009QQcategoryZ74957QQrdZ1QQssPageNameZWD1VQQ_trksidZp1638.m118.l1247QQcmdZViewItem


Im really interested in this one, but does anybody know if the zerotherm will take up two slots?
http://cgi.ebay.com/Sapphire-X1950XT-256MB-PCI-E-Video-Card_W0QQitemZ300208564280QQihZ020QQcategoryZ3762QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem


If anybody can find a (single slot) card there that will play most games maxed (cod4, cnc3) I'll gladly look into it.

 

[mactronix]

Its a job to be certain. I havent owned one but i do beleive that the zerotherm would require two slots. the price on the other is good but you have to accept that you are taking a chance buying anything electrical from ebay.
mactronix

 

[aznstriker92]

Are you sure that it will take 2 slots? The X1950XT is what I really want. It has all the cables too.
im 15 please give me a break.

 

[shoota]

i have an extra x1950xt here. how bad do you want it?

edit: it's dual slot tho.

 

[FrozenGpu]

Are you sure that it will take 2 slots? The X1950XT is what I really want. It has all the cables too.
im 15 please give me a break.

the zerotherm does take up two slots, and what is this all about i'm 15 gimme a break, dude no one give's anybody a break [if you can give/help others that makes u a better person for it, point being learn to give b4 you get so comfortable with receiving], the sooner you understand this the better you will do in life...

P.S. dude seriously just go for the x1950pro, its single slot, and will play C&C3 kane's wrath, I personally can't wait for it since it does include the beta for red alert 3....

for $50 you can't beat that deal...but do heed mactronix's warning, nothing in life is guaranteed, the guy who is selling those $50 1950's has a 3,000 ish feedback score, with a rating of 98.6% I would buy form him if I were in your shoes is all I'm saying.

 

[aznstriker92]

Thanks for the advise frozen gpu.
Well I want a card to last as long as possible...
But the X1950pro is noticably slower than the X1950XT right?
Also is this single slot?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835887007

 

[aznstriker92]

Also the X1950 is refurbished, is that ok?
I also heard that the X1950 dosen't oc very well.

 

[felix2792]

Also the X1950 is refurbished, is that ok?

you might want to look at your local craigslist. depending on where you live, you can get some good stuff.

in my experience, refurbed stuff usually is fine, it just dosen't come in retail packaging or with some of the accessories that might come with something that you bought new.

I'm just wondering, what can you really refurbish on a graphics card? The HSF?
Maybe its just been pulled from somebodys PC and sprayed down with compressed air to prepare it for sale, and it's not really refurbished

 

[randomizer]

Maybe its just been pulled from somebodys PC and sprayed down with compressed air to prepare it for sale, and it's not really refurbished

That's what I would do.

@aznstriker: I'm looking to sell my powercolor X1950 pro, but shipping to the US is probably gonna cost around $20. It does come with most of the original packaging at least

 

[lunyone]

I'm hoping that you have a PSU that can handle that x1950pro/xt. They are a bit power hungry and if memory serves me right they are looking for 26-28A on the 12V rail(s) to support a x1950pro/xt.

 

[randomizer]

An X1950 pro could run on 22A, the XT would be looking more at 23-24A. You'd want a 29-30A PSU to account for capacitor aging and upgrades though.

 

[lunyone]

An X1950 pro could run on 22A, the XT would be looking more at 23-24A. You'd want a 29-30A PSU to account for capacitor aging and upgrades though.

Yep, that is probably why 26-28A was on my mind. Most upgrades these days seem to forget about the PSU, so I thought I'd mention that upfront, so there wouldn't be any surprises when they hit the power button.

 

[randomizer]

*pop*

 

[marvelous211]

That 1950pro looks like a hell of a deal.

 

[FrozenGpu]

Thanks for the advise frozen gpu.
Well I want a card to last as long as possible...
But the X1950pro is noticably slower than the X1950XT right?
Also is this single slot?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835887007

yeah it does look like you would loose a slot to it, so I think that cooler isn't single slot.

Also what are the specs for your power supply, how many amps on the 12v rails, or combined amps?

 

[aznstriker92]

I have a Dell 305watt with 22A on dual 12v rails so I think im fine for a X1950pro.
I think I will just get that one on ebay and since it dosen't come with accessories, I'll have to buy a 6 pin pciexpress to 4 pin molex from newegg.
But I heard that the X1950pro is a bad OCer.
Also How well does it perform in COD4, and CNC3? Those are my main games.
Also I hope 256mb is enough at 1280 1024 with 7 brutal bots on a 500x500 map in cnc.

 

[lunyone]

Not sure that the Dell 305w PSU is going to work, but I know that other people say that the Dell PSU's are sometimes under-rated. I just don't like to push things when it comes to PSU's. They are probably the most important thing on a PC. If you don't have stable and reliable power, than you will have issues sooner or later.

Edit: forgot to mention that your PSU may have some level of capacitor aging, depending on how old the PSU is. So if it's rated at 22A, but is 2-3 yrs. old, you could be down to 20A or so. Just keep this in mind. Also you'll be stressing this PSU more so it might react different than what you currently experience. I'm just stating this right now, so you don't come back and say that it doesn't work or that you fried some parts when you turned your computer on for the first time after installing the GPU.

 

[aznstriker92]

Well some people run 8800GTs on that thing.

 

[pauldh]

The recommended 12v for the X1950 pro is 30 amps, which assumes a pretty loaded system. 26 would probably be fine, but I wouldn't expect 22 amps to work out too well for you. Depends on system load of course, but 22 amps points more toward an HD2600XT/8600GTS max to me.
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/video/display/radeon-hd2600xt-gddr4_5.html

 

[aznstriker92]

Well Im confident that I should be fine. I have a pentium D920 @ 3.2ghz, 2 gig ram, 250gig HDD, a DVD/CD drive one 250mm fan.

 

[imrul]

yea....

 

[joefriday]

I have a Dell 250 watt psu from 2002. It powers my main rig: Pentium D 805 @ 3.1 Ghz with Radeon 9500 pro GPU.

 

[lunyone]

Well Im confident that I should be fine. I have a pentium D920 @ 3.2ghz, 2 gig ram, 250gig HDD, a DVD/CD drive one 250mm fan.

Good luck with it, just don't come back later and wonder what went wrong. I'm just cautious and don't want people to end up with a bad computer experience.

 

[pauldh]

Hopefully you are fine. If you have instability while starting/playing games, you'll know why. Good luck.

 

[FrozenGpu]

Well some people run 8800GTs on that thing.

yeah well, the x1950pro is still based on an older process, than the G80, so there is still a chance the x1950pro uses more power, hey if that PSU of your blows and saying it takes nothing else with it, get this one to replace it which should be more than enough: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371005