Intel vs. AMD

you can get the pro version for 275 with the refference blower which is apparently noisey, but to me looks better,or one with a artic cooling one for 302. now i would guess the second, more expensive, one would also oc a bit more than the stock cooling will allow.

the thing is can you get a ac blower fo it for 27 bucks or would you be adding it to the water loop? if the latter theres no point getting one with a upgraded blower just to take it off.

 

Marsey: Yes I do, and I just proved it!
Dazila: Of the series listed, the X1800 is the best, but as I've just demonstrated the model within that series is equally important. A 7800GT is significantly better than a GS< for example. The best value X1800 card at the moment is an X1800GTO, but that's not much different from a 7600GT or X850XT. X1800XTs are old top-end cards and as such are too expensive for what they are. an X1900GT right now is a good investment. The X1950 Pro from what I've seen is a little underwhelming.
Crowy: the 7950GT is $341, not sure whether that's a bit much, but that's a powerful card. I'm seeing an X1950GT for $264 and an X1950 Pro for $302.

X1950 Pro: 54.5+46.2+12.4+41.3 Total 154.4
7950GT: 56.7+46.9+9.5+45.2 Total 158.3
X1900GT: 50.0+39.0+11.0+35.0 Total 135.0
7900GS: 43.2+37.8+6.7+35.9 Total 123.6
7800GT: 40.0+33.0+5.0+31.0 Total 109.0
X1800GTO: 34.0+33.0+8.0+22.0 Total 97.0
X850XT: 32.0+34.0+11.0+24.0 Total 101.0
7600GT: 28.0+22.0+4.0+24.0 Total 78.0

Scores from Half Life 2 episode one, Hard truck Apocalypse, Elder Scrolls Oblivion (outdoors), Prey
All tests at 1600x1200 4xAA 8xAF from http://tomshardware.co.uk

I can confirm that the stock cooler on the X1800XT/X1900XT/XT-X/X1950XT is noisy, but it depends how quiet the rest of your system is. The HIS versions of the cards have quieter coolers by a bit. I don't know what the noise level is like for the Arctic or Zalman units. However, what I do know is that Arctic's fans have the most bearable noise. The stock cooler and Zalman fans have an annoying buzzing sound to them.

 

lol. i know but im still a bit shocked by it.

they are still selling them for £150 in some shops and the 76gt is still under £110

the vga charts on tomshardware tells another story tho??????

 

The only 7800GS AGP tom's hardware have is the GS+ GoldenSample, which is actually a 7900GS on a 7800GS board, so I didn't count it. As you can see it scores a lot higher.

OK, this is a benchmark comparing the X1950GT from http://www.digital-daily.com

Serious Sam 2
X1950XT: 74.3
7950GT: 65.9
X1950 Pro: 57.3
X1950GT: 50.9

Quake 4
X1950XT: 51.3
7950GT: 50.1
X1950 pro: 37.8
X1950GT: 33.1

Prey
X1950XT: 65.1
7950GT: 61.5
X1950 Pro: 49.5
X1950GT: 43.8

FEAR
X1950XT: 50
7950GT: 41
X1950 Pro: 37
X1950GT: 34

Pretty conclusive, the X1950GT sits a little bit below the Pro (as expected), and the X1950XT is a bit ahead of the 7950GT, between 5 and 20%.

Oh and dazila, avoid the X1300 and X1650 series, they're very slow in comparison. My X1600 pro gets flattened by an X800GTO, and the X1650 series is just the X1600 rebranded and made a wee bit faster.

 

I beg to differ. my zalman 9500 (on high) and my stock cooler master rear 120mm case fan (1000rpm) are the quietest fans on my pc. while my antec 120mm 3 speed fan (set at medium 1700rpm) is the loudest, the fan on my X850XT PE has a different whining sound that stands out from all the rest and I have it set to only run at 13% most of the time.

while I'm content with my X850XT PE's performance (then again I'm not a gammer), I wouldn't buy another one due to the noisy fan. I can't even hear my 9500 and I don't by any means consider my pc loud but you can tell when it's running.

 

You're presumably running a different bit of software to control your fan speeds, since 13% stops my GPU fan altogether, but you're right, the noise is annoying, and I'd try and avoid that cooler next time if I was buying another model that used it. My zalman 7000 isn't as loud as some of the fans in its case (the Antec) but its louder than most, and compares to my GPU at about 60%. I'm unsurprised a 1000rpm case fan doesn't make much noise, I run mine at around the 600 mark.

silentPCreview lists the 9500 as 37dB max, and the 7000 at 39dB, so I don't see how they should be much different. I'm unsure what Antec case fan you have, the medium setting on mine is 1400rpm, and that equates to a mere 27dB, far less than the zalman heatsink at full speed.

 

my pc sets on the table right next to me and I'm going by what fans I can actually hear, not the specs for the fans. the case fan speeds are as reported by everest ultimate edition and the gpu fan speed as reported by atitool.

you've got to consider the cpu hsf is inside the case and the antec 120mm fan is in front.

if I load up my gpu, it drowns everything else out. I have it set dynamically based on gpu temerature.

 

I don't believe fans' ratings either, I use silentpcreview because they scientifically measure the volumes, so it's interesting that your accounts are different. I do know that the X1900 is the loudest thing in my PC, and I can confirm that PCs sitting next to you are a lot louder than ones sitting underneath your desk like mine is at home (but not at university)

 

sam,

not to change the subject but has any of those bios settings suggestions I gave you to try over at hounds helped you gain with your OC on your 4300?

 

Can't say I've tried them yet, sorry, had a lot of stuff to do. I'll do it tonight or tomorrow morning and report back.

 

I've never had any complaints out of the Zalman coolers. As for fans, some will get noisy when wound up. A lot of problems come from poor mounting with no vibration dampening. If the fan isn't good and tight, then it had best have dampening material between the fan and case housing. Some cases come with fans that clip in and don't fit well.

The X850 has a noticable sound when it first starts up. Every one I've seen has made the same grinding sound at startup. Sounds something like an electric motor winding up. Then it smooths out and gets lost in the rest of the fan noises unless a person has an exceptionally quite PC. As long as a person knows what to expect, no problem. I've had no complaints about them except for that initial startup. They're good cards and Vista ready. I'd give them a thumbs up as one of Radeon's better old tech cards. The 850 is no longer cutting edge. But as Mort pointed out, it still works good, even with a C2D system. It's not a super gamer, but can still do a good job unless the user is hardcore.

Cases are pretty much what we make of them, except some have ventilation flaws. Sound depends on what we put in them and on them. Each moving part adds to the accumulated dB count. Performance systems are the big culprits unless they have liquid cooling. Big cooling fans for the CPU and multiple case fans, add a couple of GPUs, PSU, add a bit more sound for one of the new air conditioned cases and you have a noticable sound. Even with all that the low noise isn't bad unless the builder doesn't pay attention to detail. I've built a few, minus the AC case, and they only made a light fan noise. I tend to use Cooler Master, Ultra, and Thermaltake cases and the Thermaltake fans when adding extras. The fans get a thin foam insulator if they have the least amount of play in the mount. The thermaltakes aren't the quietest, but are efficient for cooling without being loud. I save a few dBs with the Corsair PSUs. The Thermaltakes and Antecs I used in the past weren't all that bad.

If I have the music playing or any background noise the fan sound almost disappears, even with one of the performance systems. Guess I haven't gotten into the race for the quitest PC, but no one has complained about noise yet. I guess the noisiest one I ever built is my own, and I'm not complaining.

 

You know guy's, with all the whining about how loud the 7800 GT is supposed to be, you must be talking about extreme gaming conditions as the one I put in Gina's computer is quieter than the X800 in my computer. My computer sits less than 3' from me on the desktop. You can hear it but I don't consider it close to loud. The noisiest fan in mine is the PS, mainly because of it's proximity to the wall, a foot behind it as it reflects the noise. Still, it's a lot quieter than my Dell 3000 ever was. That damn thing would roar when you encoded. It was loud enough to hear in the next room easily! Considering that there is only 2 fans in the Dell and 5 total in mine, I'm very happy with the noise level!

Happy Computering,
theone

 

I'm sad to see the 7800GS got whomped. But the 7950GT is an excellent value and probably one of the best price/performance gamer cards out. After that I'd say maybe the X1900GT. It's a nice gamer and I found it for about $150 at newegg.

I agree on the X850XT. It's not the fastest anymore but it'll beat out a 7600GT in a lot of tests and dominate at higher resolutions(as far as I've actually played) methinks because of the 256-bit memory bus. My old X850XT performs great in Oblivion. I have all settings to 50% with 100% view distance and distant land on with bloom at 1280x1024. It only dropped to a choppy level when in heavy combat using magic... and when oblivion gates appeared. Still a tops card I think.

And even though the X1800XT is a bit overpriced now I got it at $199.99 from newegg. I'll say it was a great deal and will still play any game at max settings. Oblivion at MAX settings with HDR at 1280x1024 with an average of 50-100FPS indoors, 25-50 outdoors, and maybe 15-30 in combat. All very playable.

 

The good thing about the X850XT and X1800XT is that they were once top of the line cards, and so have decent features on them. If you can get good deals on them, then they're good buys. Cards like the 7600GT were never meant to be top-end to start with.
Nice performance in oblivion, but at 1280x1024, try 2560x1600!
Games like UT2004, Doom 3 and Half Life 2 / CounterStrike run fine at that res with all the options on, but Quake 4 and HL2 Episode one are a little difficult. Haven't really played Oblivion much so I didn't mess with that.

 

What's really funny is that the 8800GTX can handle Oblivion at max at 1600x1200 with an average FPS of 50(citation needed).

I can do Quake 4 at max(not ultra) at 1600x1200 as well as HL2:Ep.1 with smooth frames. I haven't tried any higher because my monitor's native is 1280x1024. So I generally play at that for excellent image quality balanced with very nice framerates.

 

Hey do theys still sell the X1900 anywhere? everywhere i call they say that its an old card and isnt sold anymore.

 

http://www.pricegrabber.com/search_attrib.php/page_id=5/form_keyword=X1900/rd=1

 

whats so good about this one to make it 400 more then all the other X1900XTX's?
http://www.pricegrabber.com/p__Asus_Extreme_Radeon_X1900XTX_Video_Card,__16656152/search=X1900

 

A suspect part is a vendor with an overpriced item. If you notice there are 2 similar Asus GPUs, 1 at $500 and the other at $800.
http://www.pricegrabber.com/search_attrib.php/page_id=5/form_keyword=X1900 XTX/rd=1
One is the Extreme, but I don't see $300 difference. I consider the $500 one a bit pricey. I usually look to saphire and ATi for better prices. Some of the lower priced cards have quality problems. You can check reviews on those.

 

no-way i didnt know that the 78gs+ was in fact a 79.