Video Card Thread (Mostly Gecube x1950xt)

The 7950GT PCI express version should be able to run it well, I don't know how the AGP version will perform.

 

Well, my P4 has *no* overclocking headroom... i tried once to overclock it with systool, and got to 3.27ghz, from my original 3.2GHz, and then it froze my computer.... So overclocking my P4 is out of the question.

Btw, I got my tidewater water cooling kit today, hooked it up to the x1950xt... Everythings goin great! The teps go to about 55C max on load, right now we're at 42.50C. And man, this thing is quiet! Well worth the money (so far)

 

Software overclocking programs are typically useless, you'll get much further in the BIOS.

 

I wouldn't really trust overclocking a CPU.
Considering it would get unstable and could die easily and things like that.
It's probably the most expensive part of your system.
But ok, an older CPU can use some overclocking since it's... old... and the value dropped.


Only something else:

Would there also be better Motherboards than mine, that would work better with the newer AGP-cards?
If there aren't even, why would they even make these AGP-cards?

Cause, my dad's colleague said he had a nice Motherboard available.
Still AGP, but maybe it could be one that can take the newer AGP-cards(?).
I'd still have to see if the motherboard is something good, since this is the same guy we got this system from.
And he also said it was good, including the Radeon 9200 LE Family or something it came with, so whatever.

 

I doubt it'll be much better. If you're going with a new motherboard, buy PCI express. Buying AGP now is a joke.

 

Yeah, I know, but the one he has just happens to be AGP.
And it's not like it's 80-150 euros, I can have it for 20 euros...

 

How do you know it's better than the one you already have?

 

I don't know anything about it, the only word I know about it is 'Pro'.
But I'll probably have it here tomorrow, and I can research some on it.
It might be about the same, but if it's newer I guess it would fit better for newer AGP-cards?

Maybe I could just swap the Motherboard for a new not too expensive PCIe-version?
But then I have to ask you, could I still use the same CPU, RAM, PSU and everything else?
Well, PSU I guess it's not problem by the way, it's not like it's for AGP lol.

If that's possible I could also get a PCIe-card for probably even less, and share the price with the new Motherboard.

 

That's a better solution. You'll need to find the same socket, but other than that everything should work.

 

Do you think I could find a well performance one for under 100 bucks? :S
I kinda doubt it, but I'm not so sure either...

I guess good brands are ASUS, Gigabyte of course, nVidia (nForce then), Sapphire maybe, I forgot some again lol.

Argh, all the names and models...

 

Nvidia don't produce motherboards, just the chipsets for them. While sapphire do make motherboards, they're very specialist.
Do you currently use socket 478 or 775?

 

Oh, I didn't know it was like the GPUs.
I really though they actually had their own Motherboards called nForces.

But that would be the 478pin.

 

That may save you money.

 

Waymon, I'm interested about your tidewater experience. My options are to use that or the HR-03 and both will be about the same price. I was just wondering what you did about the heatspreader on the back of the card. Did you leave the old one on or did you have to take it off? If so what if anything did you do about cooling the VRMs and the bridge chip on the back of the card? Does the tidewater come with ramsinks and have you been able to run the card at 675mhz since?
On your CPU overclocking front, if you can do it you will probably notice a 5% increase in performance. Do it in your BIOS. Your Asus m/board should have an overclock feature in the CPU settings section that is as easy as changing the setting from 'standard' to '5% overclock!'
If it fails that mobo should also have a feature that automatically resets to the last known working clock so you won't have to CMOS reset either. I found the 5% stable but couldn't get 10% to run.
The other way to do it is to set manual and set the frequency yourself, I managed to get up to 215mhz vs 200 without any extra voltage - which was the stable 3.44ghz I talked about running at with only an extra 2c under load. (With arctic cooling freezer 4) If you have a good cooler and gave it an extra 0.05v I'm sure you could get a fair bit higher but I never tried. Anyway the golden rule is try to keep full load temps under 60c and you will be fine!

 

Ok, macerm, the tidewater I have is not the plus version, so it only has one vga waterblock (make sure you pick the right one if you are going to buy one!) but anyways, about the vram, the tidewater did come with 8 vram heatsinks that are made of aluminum (I think) and they are smaller than the average heatsinks so the tubes can pass cleanly over them. The thing it, I had allready baught thermaltake copper heatsinks and fitted them on, except for on in the middle, which I had to put on slightly crookedly at the end because of the tube, but I'd say it makes about 90-95% contact with the vram. There are also 2 speeds on the tidewater, one high and one low, with the low speed turned on, you cant hear anything, but with the high on, it sounds just a tiny bit louder. (I think it is 17dbs vs 19 on high).

As I said before, it does come with small (I'd say about.25" thickness) heatsinks for the vram chips, and I can run it at 675mhz for playing any game (it hasnt overheated or crashed on me yet) for about 3 hours streight, and while I'd be playing BF2, for example, I would close the game and have RivaTuner monitoring my temps in the background, and it would say 47C (this is on the high setting I think) vs a 45C internal temp in the case.

This is a real good product, it doesnt create any heat in the case, it takes in air and then blows it out through the back.

PS, on the back of the card, there is a place where you hook it up to the back 2 PCI brackets, and the airflow does come out like it should, but it doesnt make excellant contact with the back...

Ill post some pics later one.

-----------------------------------

As for the overclocking, the options in my bios are locked... So no overclocking that way...

I can overclock a lot (if I had a cpu that would let me) because I have a bronze zalman heatsink and 90mm fan mounted on the cpu as the cooler, so temps arent a worry yet....

EDIT The temps right now (on low) are 42.63C for the core and 42C for the case. Just thought you might want to know.

 

And here's another benchmark for ya, I overclocked the x1950xt with ATiTool to 702/855 vs 648/702 standard and after about an hour and 20minutes of bf2, the max temps were 49.50C core and 46C case.

I got slightly better fps, around 35 on Sharqi 64player.

Also, with the "show 3d view" option in ATiTool, I originally got around 570fps and now I get a fairly good 631 fps.

 

That's impressive! So did you keep the old heatspreader on the back of the card? I notice that mine gets very hot during use because it covers the VRMs (down by the power connector) and the bridge at the other end. I'm just wondering whether I need to install some sinks on these if that backplate comes off.
As for your locked overclocking I am very surprised! I was running an ASUS P4P800D and yours is the E! Are you sure you cannot change the FSB? Infact you must be able to if you overclocked with software. Your CPU multiplyer will be locked but the FSB shouldn't be. You should also have the option to keep your RAM at 400mhz if it can't keep up so you can push the cpu a bit more - have another look.

 

In the BIOS? I guess I will try to do the overclocking manually with a program in XP (if there isnt anything in the bios)

And, with the new overclock of 702/855 I got 5192 3dmark06 score! The last I had with the overclock was 3871... Big improvment.

Old:
SM2 test: 1631
HDR/SM3 test: 1881
CPU test: 927

New:
SM2 test:1940
HDR/SM3 test:2325
CPU test:927 (didnt run it again, takes to long... So I just used the last score)

 

Yeah, in your BIOS. There is an ASUS utility you can try AI Booster, it might even be on your m/board CD. That runs in windows and lets you change your FSB but I always prefer to use the BIOS.

 

Yep, just went into BIOS again... Locked... Ill includ a couple of pics in a few minutes, just let me upload them first.

With systool again I only got to 3.245ghz, and then the computer froze, so I had to restart it. The rated bus speed was 202mhz and the FSB was 811.4 from the standard 799.