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Peter Mann
Weaksauce
- Joined
- Oct 22, 2000
- Messages
- 82
I'm in somewhat of a quandary.
I bought and received a HIS x1900XT 256MB with it's great HSF.
Before I bought it the x1950 pro had just come out and after seeing the benchmarks I felt that the slight premium in price was worth moving to the 256mb XT. Just after I got the card I found online that the x1950XT was coming out ... DOH !!!
While the core is not significantly different the ram is clocked at 1800MHz vs the 1450MHz of the x1900 xt ! Even if I overclocked the x1900 there is no way that ram is going to 1800MHz.... AND.... the x1950xt's ram starts at 1800MHz, so it might be posible to push it even higher, maybe to 2000MHz.
So....
the unopened box of my x1900xt 256 just sits there while I decide whether to return it and seek out the HIS x1950xt ICEQ3 (damn hard to find here in Canada - please, no NewEgg links), get a Sapphire x1950xt and slap on an Arctic Cooling HSF (doesn't evacuate the hot air out of the case) or even go the extra mile and get a Sapphire x1900XTX 512 and AC HSF for an extra $70.00 (+- and same non case venting HSF).
One thing I'd really like to point out is that the biggest 'problem' in my decision making process is the performance of ALL these cards in Oblivion.
Benchmark scores are all over the place with these cards and Oblivion.
AnandTech in the x1950 Pro article gets:
(Oblivion 0AA -1280x1024 - Intel Core 2 Extreme X6800)
x1950xtx (512): 29.1
x1900xtx (512): 28.5
x1900xt (512): 27.9
x1900xt (256): 22.5
x1950Pro (256): 21.9
(Oblivion 0AA -1600x1200)
x1950xtx (512): 23.9
x1900xtx (512): 23.8
x1900xt (512): 22.8
x1900xt (256): 17.7
x1950Pro (256): 17.6
FiringSquad
0AA 8xAF - Intel Core 2 Extreme X6800
1280x1024 - foliage
x1900xt (256): 32.9
x1950pro(256): 25.4
1600x1200 - foliage
x1900xt (256): 26.8
x1950pro(256): 21.3
The Anand article shows a real drop off between the 512mb and 256mb x1900 cards.
In addition the 256mb x1900xt looks even too weak to play Oblivion at 1280x1024 (22.5fps), my current screen size. All the other games look very playable but the Oblivion scores Anand shows makes me want to return my card for either the x1950xt 256mb for it's faster memory... or the x1900xtx 512.
WHAT DO I DO ??????
...(help?)
My System to be:
E6400 (will overclock to 3+GHz) - Big Typhoon
2Gb Team DDR2 800 4-4-4-10
ASUS P5B Dlx Wi-Fi
OCZ GameStream 700W
Audigy 4
several hard drives
WinXP Pro sp2
(I have all the components just waiting for video)
Please, no "get a 8800GTS" ($600.00 + after tax here in Kanuckland) suggestions. I upgrade some major components every 8-14 months and I see myself getting another video card by this time next year (and a 22"widescreen lcd). My 'old' cards then get moved to my kids computers or the home theater computer. As it stands my daughter is going to get the x850pro (16pipes-@xtpe) I'm writing this on.
I guess I'm asking about these cards, Oblivion the real world experience the [H]ard have had.
Cheers.
I bought and received a HIS x1900XT 256MB with it's great HSF.
Before I bought it the x1950 pro had just come out and after seeing the benchmarks I felt that the slight premium in price was worth moving to the 256mb XT. Just after I got the card I found online that the x1950XT was coming out ... DOH !!!
While the core is not significantly different the ram is clocked at 1800MHz vs the 1450MHz of the x1900 xt ! Even if I overclocked the x1900 there is no way that ram is going to 1800MHz.... AND.... the x1950xt's ram starts at 1800MHz, so it might be posible to push it even higher, maybe to 2000MHz.
So....
the unopened box of my x1900xt 256 just sits there while I decide whether to return it and seek out the HIS x1950xt ICEQ3 (damn hard to find here in Canada - please, no NewEgg links), get a Sapphire x1950xt and slap on an Arctic Cooling HSF (doesn't evacuate the hot air out of the case) or even go the extra mile and get a Sapphire x1900XTX 512 and AC HSF for an extra $70.00 (+- and same non case venting HSF).
One thing I'd really like to point out is that the biggest 'problem' in my decision making process is the performance of ALL these cards in Oblivion.
Benchmark scores are all over the place with these cards and Oblivion.
AnandTech in the x1950 Pro article gets:
(Oblivion 0AA -1280x1024 - Intel Core 2 Extreme X6800)
x1950xtx (512): 29.1
x1900xtx (512): 28.5
x1900xt (512): 27.9
x1900xt (256): 22.5
x1950Pro (256): 21.9
(Oblivion 0AA -1600x1200)
x1950xtx (512): 23.9
x1900xtx (512): 23.8
x1900xt (512): 22.8
x1900xt (256): 17.7
x1950Pro (256): 17.6
FiringSquad
0AA 8xAF - Intel Core 2 Extreme X6800
1280x1024 - foliage
x1900xt (256): 32.9
x1950pro(256): 25.4
1600x1200 - foliage
x1900xt (256): 26.8
x1950pro(256): 21.3
The Anand article shows a real drop off between the 512mb and 256mb x1900 cards.
In addition the 256mb x1900xt looks even too weak to play Oblivion at 1280x1024 (22.5fps), my current screen size. All the other games look very playable but the Oblivion scores Anand shows makes me want to return my card for either the x1950xt 256mb for it's faster memory... or the x1900xtx 512.
WHAT DO I DO ??????
...(help?)
My System to be:
E6400 (will overclock to 3+GHz) - Big Typhoon
2Gb Team DDR2 800 4-4-4-10
ASUS P5B Dlx Wi-Fi
OCZ GameStream 700W
Audigy 4
several hard drives
WinXP Pro sp2
(I have all the components just waiting for video)
Please, no "get a 8800GTS" ($600.00 + after tax here in Kanuckland) suggestions. I upgrade some major components every 8-14 months and I see myself getting another video card by this time next year (and a 22"widescreen lcd). My 'old' cards then get moved to my kids computers or the home theater computer. As it stands my daughter is going to get the x850pro (16pipes-@xtpe) I'm writing this on.
I guess I'm asking about these cards, Oblivion the real world experience the [H]ard have had.
Cheers.
Oblivion is texture intensive so it will benefit from the 512mb ram and check out this Oblivion guide as it should allow you to get the most out of oblivion: