Video Card Thread (Mostly Gecube x1950xt)

Waymon

Ray, you finally got your crysis beta key (who is matt?) Congratulations dude!

 

Ray's link to YouTube Dirt video

Ray, I looked at that video - his Dirt was pretty smooth with the gecube. But look at his processor, versus the P4 that Mike was trying to run it on. Isn't that a much more powerful cpu?

 

Sam, some more research on gecube speed and architecture versus other ati releases - they're saying 10000 fill rate, same as x1900xt, or 10400 for x1900xtx if that is what you have (versus 6900 for x1950pro, or for abuzar's card, the x1900gt.) That's what I suspect - the gecube is roughly as powerful as your card - the difference for you is better interface, more vram, and solid core 2 duo cpu.

Another thing that is interesting in this article, from answers.com is their discussion of the x1950pro. The pro is based on the 80nm r570 chip, versus the gecube's 90nm 580 chip, and they say it draws and dissipates less power. If I can get a pci-e pro nearly as cheap as abuzar's x1900gt (underclocked xt with 4 pixel shaders disabled) then my weak psu may be able to handle it, since it currently runs my x850 okay.

 

@harvrdguy
I wouldn't recommend switching to an Asrock board. Maybe a GA-P35-DS3L, an E4300(or E2180, it has half the cache but overclocks to 3.2 Ghz easily), and a new video card. Asrock just doesn't scream quality. BTW here are the newegg links for the CPU+Mobo.

CPU- 92 USD
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116052&Tpk=E2180


Motherboard- 110 USD
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128059&Tpk=GA-P35-DS3l

 

For crying out loud!

You can't find the gecube agp anymore, but when they had it, it was $270. I can get it for that, or maybe $299. Or if I go over to ebay in England, maybe for about $200.

But..........

The PCI-E version of the gecube is only $167 at newegg here, or for that matter, gecube itself makes this 512mb pci-e x1950xt, and it's only $199 here.

I still don't know if my weak psu will run the power hungry r580 90nm chip, so I might have to settle for the x1950pro, but with mobos like the ASrock for $65 why wouldn't I slide over the PCI-E? I can get the pro 512mb pci-e for about $150 brand new, and I bet under $100 on ebay.

 

Also I'm downloading the dirt demo. Seems like the omega drivers has Fraps built in. How do I use the record feature in it?

 

No, I'm saying the X1950XT-X is about 30% faster than my X1900XT. I don't know what the X1950XT's like.
I'd reckon the X1950XT (at least for AGP) has a similar fill rate to my card. Why not run 3Dmark and find out? They have a fill rate test.
As for the ebay thing, never assume you're safe. You never know what problems can occur with bad components. believe me, I've seen some strange things. Be careful.

 

Looks like newegg is carrying the Gecube again :http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814241049

Btw, what do you guys mean with the "fill rate tests" - I'm kinda lost at that.

Matt is an admin at incrysis.com who gives out keys to everyone. Not really sure if he has to do with crytec or anything like that though, hes just a really high member at those forums.

 

Waymon

Ray, thanks for the gecube newegg link dude. They've dropped the price too! I bet they told gecube to go back and re-engineer placement of the cooler - or at least put it on better and improve the packaging so it doesn't dislodge during shipping!

Question: More or less, does it look to you guys like it's blowing out the back of the case like on the nvidia card, or is this how it's always looked?

Travis, (kardson) you've still got the stock cooler. Does it blow out the back of the case, and does it look like the newegg picture in the link above?

I use fill rates as a coarse rule of thumb to figure out how powerful a card is. In terms of fill rate test, that's the first I ever heard of that - can't help you there.

Sam, I have 3dmark6 of course, and I paid the $20 to get the regular (not pro) version - where do I find the fill rate test?

 

Well, I think the standard version was free, I believe you can download it off of their site. But the pro version that I have (which I got for free, I bet you all can guess how) has some extra features in it, like the fill rate tests, and the trangle thingies that dont do anything to your score...

Btw, I'll get that pic up of my 3dmark06 O'ced score in a bit.

 

It's just the perspective. That's solid plastic right there. The fans work as they always have.

 

Damn pirate lol. It's cool I just downloaded Half Life 2(never played it becuase I had a piece of sh*t compaq), and the Bourne Ultimatum. I don't think they have a crack for Bioshock other wise I would download that too lol.

 

No, I pretty sure they do have a crack for bioshock, you'll just have to google for it. but, if I dont really care about a game that much, I wont even bother going threw all that to get it.

 

There is one. I erm, well.

It requires cracking your copy of Directx9, the copy protection merely screws over your graphics, so it's DX9 you have to crack.

 

Plus they don't have seeders for it. Maybe I'll leave it downloading overnight. I've gotten to this nasty habit of not seeding as much anymore. Usually when it's done I quit, since my phone runs off the internet and I need to try to keep it at a good quality lol.

 

Sam have you tried it? If you have PM me would you?

 

Ok so I ran DIRT at 1024x768, all on high and I got about 25 FPS.

 

thats not bad at all! But then again, you have a C2D with a PCI-e card, which probably makes a difference since pci-e has twice the bandwith

 

Ray I'm thinking of getting the tidewater. I was wondering how you cool your RAM though?

 

(sorry, another long friggin post - but I think it's all coming together for me decision-wise with everybody's great help)

Abuzar

I followed your links. Those are nice products and I like the p35 chipset on the mobo, also the 16x pci-e. I just learned that the pci-e on the ASrock is only 4x, which according to anandtech is half the read speed of agp 8x (better write speed but that doesn't matter.)

Versus the ASrock I'd be starting over, with new cpu, new mobo, new memory, new cpu hsf. Would my p4 hsf bolt on, probably not. How much more would it be for 1 gig ram and a cpu hsf above the $200 for the cpu and mobo, another $100?

So let's see. $300 gets me rocking cpu, 16x pci-e, p35 chip set, and faster memory, versus $55 keeps me at p4, locks me into 4x pci-e, weaker chip set. With the ASrock I can add the rocking cpu any time I want. I already have the ddr400 memory which anandtech benches show works just fine.

It's just a matter of what is more affordable right now. Kind of like Travis, $55 is easy. For me, since I haven't already busted out $230 on the gecube agp, the ASrock gives me the freedom to jump to PCI-E and I'll save more than the cost of the mobo by picking up the cheaper pci-e version of the gecube - or I'll save $30 if I get the 512mb version from gecube themselves (on newegg.)

To be fair, all the analysis in this forum says I have to change my psu if I get the gecube - even if I took off the tec. So if I picked up the ASrock, took over my power hungry p4, same memory, and bought a x1950xt pci-e with leaf blower cooler (no tec) I probably don't have the power for the R580 gpu chip. But I might have the power for the R570 x1950pro gpu - a couple of posts back the answers.com article said it drew less power.

So Option 0 is to spend about $300 on new mobo, cpu, ram, and hsf. That leaves buying the psu, and buying the graphics card. (Or would I need a new PSU since core 2 duo is a lot less power hungry than the p4. Sam, even though you hate the Allied, with good reason, would the 240 watts on the 12 volt rail run the core 2 duo, and your graphics card? - the actual card, essentially equivalent to yours, would be the gecube x1950xt pci-e with 512mb.) Total about $500 to $600.

Here is the chart again comparing everybody's 3dmark6, because in the options below I am going to compare what I wind up with to everybody's system.

Suppose, instead of spending the $500 or $600 above, that I go cheap and I get the ASrock at $55 which I can always throw away later. Here are the 3 ASrock options:

Option 1: Gecube $240 with shipping, psu $85. ASrock later for $65 for upgrading cpu - (like Travis) - continue to run gecube after cpu upgrade on agp slot. AGP interface on ASrock is twice as fast as PCI-E 4x ASrock interface. Total $390 gives me an ASrock ready for cpu upgrade, and gecube agp card. New psu that Sam likes. Fill rate equal to Sam. Interface speed same as Mike. (Or if I skip over the ASrock and live with my P4 and fast 8x agp until I get a completely new system, Total $325.)

Option 2: ASrock $65 with shipping. x1950pro pci-e 512mb $180. Leave in existing psu. That's $245 - *or $200 see below* and I'm ready for cpu upgrade, I have pci-e card at 512mb (although until I toss the ASrock I'm on a limited x4 interface half as fast as agp - but I do have twice the vram.) and I have a graphics card that is only about 70% as fast as the gecube, similar to Abuzar, but on a slower interface than his 16x pci-e. I wonder what kind of additional performance hit I'll take beyond the slower card. (Variation of option 2 is skip the Asrock idea, live with current system - and its fast 8x agp - until I buy all new system, and for now just purchase agp 512mb x1950 pro for current mobo at $170 newegg, or $120 ebay, giving me abuzar's graphics card in terms of fill rate, but twice the vram. Total $120 to $170.) Existing psu that Sam doesn't like.

Option 3: ASrock $65 with shipping. x1950xt pci-e (by gecube) 512mb $206 with shipping. New psu $85. Total $355, ready for cpu upgrade. Slower interface (vs agp) double vram, same fill rate as option 1. Fill rate equal to Sam, except on interface even slower than agp. New psu that Sam likes. Move card with double vram (same as Sam) over to faster mobo with pci-e 16x later, perhaps.

How do you guys vote?

*I can knock another 50 off option 2 and bring it in right around $200 by buying the pro on ebay - I almost got one for $120 but I was outbid - before I learned about the Gecube.

Oh, man! I'm looking at this, and between options 1 and 3, I'll tell you what my brain is saying. By the time I really want to gear up in a year or two - I will want a new 2900 graphics card anyway, so option 3, taking the pci card with me, is not as attractive as option 1, having that faster agp interface right now, and then throwing the agp card away later. So between option 1 and option 3 I would probably just get the gecube.

But then there's option 2. Cheap! Keep the psu (that Sam hates.) And look at the sub-option for $120. Keep the mobo too! Go agp on the card. Don't do a thing! Did I say cheap - lazy too! Don't ever go to the ASrock, just get a stop-gap x1950pro agp 512mb on ebay, run it on my present fast 8x agp slot, (twice as fast as the ASrock 4x pci-e slot) live with the p4, take a slight fill rate hit versus my x850, (6900 versus 8300) but pick up extra shader pipelines, and double the vram, probably yielding 3600-3800 3dmark up from my 2260, giving me shader 3.0 so I can run MOA-Airborne, tweak down my settings, and live with it until I get the monster (Raymond) system in two years.

I think it's option 1 or option 2. Furthermore, regarding option 2, I think what this analysis is telling me is to forget about pci-e cards for now, just get the agp card with the ASrock. In effect, with the ASrock, I'm getting a crippled pci-e interface, which doesn't make buying a pci card sound that exciting right now. The weak pci-e interface took all the wind out of my sails, from a few posts back when I was saying "Why wouldn't I jump right now to PCI-E?"

But fortunately, the ASrock has a strong AGP 8x interface. So if I decide to move toward small incremental upgrades, like Travis, picking up the ASrock for $65 would allow me to upgrade the cpu for another $100, etc.

So until I get the ASrock, if ever, option 1 is gecube and new psu $345, option 2 is cheapest agp pro I can find and do nothing else, $120.

God that $120 and don't do nothin sounds cheap and lazy! What happened to all my initiative? They're closing my real estate office because of the real estate "frozen" market here in socal, so I am interviewing next week to change companies, and right now I'm packing up all my stuff. I guess that's what happened to my initiative, lol