Video Card Thread (Mostly Gecube x1950xt)

jesus man, you have a kickass rig! how much did it cost?

 

I have that Zalman, one of the newest, that must be good enough at 500watts.
And it also must be the most "high-end" up-to-date part I have.
Except for the GPU having pretty high specs for an AGP.

The rest was also pretty high end, but not today, so I guess all parts just don't match.
I also think the XFX I saw will match the rest of the system better.

Cause the Motherboard and the CPU are like, hey I know you, you're from my era.
And they might also be like that to the GPU, but still call him a newbie because he's from 2006.
"You better work newbie, us veterans don't want to do all the work!"
And the PSU: "I'll handle it!" *PUMP*
And the MOBO and the CPU: "SHUT UP N00B!"
And the RAM: "Hey, shut up, we're trying to work here!"
And the CPU: "Who are you talking to n00b, I'll Hyper Thread your ass!"
And the MOBO: "HEY HEY, leave my chipset out of it!"
And the HDDs/ODDs: * :\ * ...
And the GPU: "I'm outta here..."

Result: GPU won't like to work here.

 

But ahm MaccerM, I guess a 7950 GT would pull off Battlefield at least right?
It's even got doubled numbers mostly:
http://www.gpureview.com/show_cards.php?card1=382&card2=511

And games like DiRT, I would guess decent frames.
I mean, ok-looking settings at Medium (1024x768), and getting hm... 20-30-40 fps?
Usually it's good if it doesn't drop below 30 fps, because then it still looks and feel like it's smooth.
I would always be glad if it stayed around 30 in Battlefield (2 and 2142).



You know, something else about framerates:

When you get framerates from 40-50-60 plus, all animations look like they're moving too fast.
Just like those old black&white movies without the original sound.
Because they don't have a consistent speed or something.

But I mean, lower framerates, say again more like 30-ish, gives a more dramatic movie-like effect which I've always found cooler than higher framerates.
And this time I have to say I mean modern movie-like effect.
I know getting lower means the performance is lower, which isn't good for gameplay's sake.
And you're also more bothered by it and stuff.

But they should have put the FR-cap at like 30-40, your system would still decide if it would drop under that 30-40.
I know it's capped at 100, but they could've done lower, like they did with C&C3 also at 30.
And I know it's a whole other type of game, but to get the effect, it's kool.
You don't even see it that well in C&C3, so why bother you know .

 

Hahah, holy crap, there goes another batch of cooling-problems XD :
http://www.dollarshops.eu/product_info.php/cPath/1_37_42_182/products_id/267
http://www.dollarshops.eu/index.php/cPath/1_37_42_182

This time with friggin' 8800's... :O
Buuut, these aren't GeCubes, but Sparkle Calibres or something.

 

Waymon, I think for what it is your system is performing well, but I would say from my experince that you are definitely CPU limited. My p4 3.2 never used to max in BF2 either but it's the whole picture you need to be looking at, your old DDR and your m/board too. Your 3Dmark CPU score is still better than mine was tho, I think I got about 830 o/clocked at 3.44ghz, but with my C2D it's now ~1800 and that's stock.
My point from my first post is that this card is too powerful for the vast majority of old AGP rigs out there - overkill. You're never gonna tax it with an old P4. I found that my old 7800gs was probably about the right level for my p4 rig as there was no real game performance ramp with the X1950XT. And with the hassle of just trying to get this thing to go, and get it stable (PSU & overheating) a high-end Nvidia AGP offering is probably the best bet for most users, more appropriate level of power, and power usage!

Sam, fyi my old psu was a Thermaltake TR2500, which I would call a mid-range PSU (Budget PSU, from top manufacturer at mid price range in the market). I don't think more than 30A+ 12v on a 450W psu is really going to be mid price range? (unless you think Enermax's are cheap!?)

 

DInc: Are you on drugs? That's the most ridiculous post I've seen in a while!
A 7950GT would pull off DiRT on PCI express, as for AGP, who knows!
DiRT does seem to be a very demanding game. I doubt i'd be able to run it max at anything above 1680x1050, if that
I've never had that problem with high framerates, unless you have a very strange desync issue, all the frame rate should affect is stuff being smoother.
At 30fps, I find playing FPS a struggle, it's too jittery for me. The limit is around 50fps. Above that you're not likely to see any different.
Bear in mind we're after the AVERAGE frame rate.
Picture a game with a simple bland graphics section, then later on a richly detailed section.
If you aim for 60fps in the bland section (well above 30-40), supposing you only get 15 in the detailed sectin, and have to turn the graphics down then?
It's all about finding the setting that works for everything

The 8800 can be cooled, just look at the Thermalright HR-03 Plus, I use the standard version of the HR-03 for my X1900XT, no problems. Not even with 500rpm case fans. However, in the case of that thing, it'll be crap because
PELTIER COOLERS ARE RUBBISH.

Why do you think they only exist in mini-fridges, and not in the real things? They're really inefficient, so in handling 100W of heat from a graphics card, youre ending up with even more heat coming out of the card because of the inefficiency of the cooler.

MaccerM: What's the point you're making? I'm a little confused.

 

Hi Sam, to clarify...
You said: 'You obviously had a bad power supply.' I thought I'd let you know what it was and in my opinion the TT TR2500 was a fair, mid range PSU that was capable of running a 7 series Nvidia card in a loaded system (2 hdd, 2 opticals etc etc).
'you can run an X1950XT on a 350W unit' - can you? I have not seen a 350W unit that puts out the ampage you need (at least 40A 12v unless you're not gonna use and HDDs etc!).
I guess my point /the reason for my posts is that I wanted to tell people about what I experienced - My frustration at having a sensible ThermalTake 500W that wasn't good enough when the manufacturers recommend you have a 450W, (which could be a Q-tec for all they know!), instead of stating a minimum of 30A on the 12v instead like they should.
So recommending to people that I think if they want this card they should aim for a 700W PSU is a good thing, especially when you cannot find detailed specs for all PSUs. Therefore by impliction I think your post was a little misleading, (but not neccisarily wrong). (Hey I notice you have a TT Toughpower 750 - nice PSU!)

 

You don' need 40A on the 12V Rail, what you need to bear in mind is that a lot of PSUs are incapable of putting out the amount they say they can. As a consequence, the manufacturers say you should go with a big power supply to be sure. This is where people have been attracted to 1000W powwer supplies, they just aren't necessary. A guy I know runs an Overclocked Core 2 Duo (2.13 to 3.20) and an overclocked 8800GTS on a 350W Hiper unit, simply because they can source as much power as stated on the label.
Going for powerful PSUs is unnecessary, what you're doing there is costing them money. I have a Toughpower 750 because I was under the impression with a big 14cm fan it would be quiet. Not so. my next PSU is going to be a Corsair 620W. Lower wattage, but I'm not bothered, if one of those can run two 8800GTXs in SLI with an overclocked quad core and 5 hard disks, I fail to see why you'd need 700W For an X1950XT AGP.

 

Yeah I'm sure that might be possible, just! C2Ds are not very hungry and with the 8800 eating what's left, (what do they use? 150, 180W?) he's probably running that baby at full tilt (and will probably kill it before it's time). But I'm betting that is a premium model 350W, not a Hiper bog standard. This was my point, you won't run this card on 70% of the 450W PSU's out there
So, fair enough then, what should then be recommended is a premium PSU, like an Antec/Enermax 450W+ or a Thermaltake Purepower/Toughpower 600W+ or most importantly something that can put out about 40A minimum on the 12v rail. (My TR2 500 had 29A and that would cut out every time my card went into 3D mode.)

 

Hmm, and what CPU do you use? 29A is cutting it a bit fine.

 

That was on a 3.2 Ghz P4, so it didn't cut it - at all, but it wouldn't with my less hungry E6320 either. The ATi 12v spec requirement for this card is 30A, with a 'loaded system'. A loaded system is one 'with one HDD and one optical drive' (Ati support).
Remembering that the ampage quoted on most PSU specs is the peak not sustained a sensible thing to do is take 1/3-1/4 off - or add it on to get you minimum. So 40A minimum is what you will need for a x1950xt.

 

On most PSUs I've seen I'm sure it was listed as sustained. In any case, good Power supplies don't use proportions of the total output for the different voltages. A lot quote up to their maximum rating, just for 12V alone. For example, my PSU is rated for 750W, but can deliver up to 64A on the 12V rail.
An X1900XT (I'd imagine similar power consumption to the X1950XT) uses about 12A at full load, my overclocked E4300 (and overvolted) uses around 15A, factoring in the efficiency of the Motherboard. Add say an extra 4A for two hard disks and a DVDRW drive, maybe an extra 1A for fans, and an extra 1.5A for various cold cathode lights. The rest will likely come from the 5V rail.
That comes to about 34A. That's 30 amps to spare, a full 360W.

 

Sure, so we are agreed then. The minimum you want to be looking for on the 12v is 40A. You don't want to be running your PSU full whack, and some people will have less efficient processors than you.
My point about the spec:
http://www.thermaltake.com/product/Power/ToughPower/W0116/w0116.asp
That is your PSU, and it was the one I was going to get but my local shop didn't have it in so I got a 700W Jeantech instead because I wanted modular cabling. Anyway, the yellow 'combined output' sticker at the top of this page rates 60A combined 12v ampage and Thermaltake give you this figure which I think is sustained. However if you look at the bottom of the page, there are 4 12v rails, each rated at 18A. 4 x 18A is 72, so where did those 12A go? - that is the difference between peak and sustained but not all PSU manufacturers give you that combined figure, they just tell you what each rail maxes at hence why I wouldn't expect a 30A rated PSU to either supply 30A or run a X1950XT.

 

30A on multi-rail is not so great, I agree. If you're going to have a low-end power supply, get a single rail one. Where the Toughpower is good is that it doesn't have 4 rails at all, just 1, because all 4 rails are soldered together.

 

wait.. So what? are you telling me that the power supply isnt enough to run the x1950xt? Or the cpu?

Refurring to what MacerM said earlier (alot earlier) about a P4, well to tell you the truth, I used to have a ATi radeon 9800XT and it played BF2 on high (everything high) with 1280x960 and got decent frames... That was my first card I had in this computer. (also with only a gig of ram)

 

How many amps do you have on the 12V rail?

 

Waymon, all Antec 500W PSUs will be fine (except the Basiq model which would probably struggle) If yours is the Neo 550 then that has 54A which is ample.
As far as your 9800 being faster!? No idea! I thought initially it might be DX8 vs 9 but the 9800 was DX9? Perhaps an upgrade of the game version since has hit performance?

 

The X1950XT is 10 times as fast as a 9800 pro...

 

TBH Waymon, you might be able to overclock your CPU to sqeeze a bit more out of your system (if you haven't already) but the inevitable is you are gonna need a new cpu/mboard and ram. That might not be as expensive as it first seems as you should get a fair amount back for your old kit on Ebay.
You might want to consider a halfway upgrade similar to mine, the ASrock 4Core will let you use 2 DDR 400s or 2 DDRIIs and has AGP but I would try to disuede you personally, it has less features than you'd be used to on your ASUS. You could get a 775 AGP DDRII only board if you want to keep your card (which I wish I'd done!) OR you could just turn the detail down and wait for PCI-E v2.
You will however be in the infuriating situation of knowing you have a card that could do better...

 

I'm also confused:

You're saying a 7950 can or can't run DiRT well?
It did rape my 6800XT at any settings... even wore out the X1950XT.