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Which 1950?

A

aoe4evr

n00b
Joined
Apr 3, 2007
Messages
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I was putting a new system together for gaming and was curious as to which x1950 I should go with. I would kind of like to stay in the $300 range for both cards but am willing to shell out a bit more. These are the cards I was looking at, but am open to others.

Sapphire
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102061
- Seems like a good mid range 1950, but how is the cooling on it and can it be overclocked easily and will I need to put new cooling on it?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102034
- This is what I am thinking hard about going with because as far as I know is that it the same core and memory, just underclocked. I am under the impression that you can overclock it to the pro and XT speeds by using driver level overclocking. Is that true, and will I need new cooling?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102067
- One of the more expensive ones, but has the highest OEM clocks. I don't really want to go with it if the others can be oc'ed to its clock speeds.

Powercolor
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814131031
- Any advantages over the Sapphires?


And lastly what amount of power will I need to run this system, crossfire, 2 hard drives, and AMD dual core?
 
You're spending $300 and you're not getting an 8800GTS?:eek:

I don't know why you would want run CF anyways. A $300 8800GTS will trump any $300 CF setup.
 
I have 2x sapphire x1950pros available, among other things...with upgraded coolers. all retail. my FS thread, here:
http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1176163

To answer your questions:

I was putting a new system together for gaming and was curious as to which x1950 I should go with. I would kind of like to stay in the $300 range for both cards but am willing to shell out a bit more. These are the cards I was looking at, but am open to others.

Sapphire
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...E16814102 061
- Seems like a good mid range 1950, but how is the cooling on it and can it be overclocked easily and will I need to put new cooling on it? Stock coolers are okay, you can get some OC out of them, but nothing to brag about. I added AS5 and Zalman VF900's to mine, much better. I am able to OC the cards to 620core/776mem

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...E16814102 034
- This is what I am thinking hard about going with because as far as I know is that it the same core and memory, just underclocked. I am under the impression that you can overclock it to the pro and XT speeds by using driver level overclocking. Is that true, and will I need new cooling? You will ate least need new cooling. They are built on the same 80nm process as the real 1950pro, but I'd doubt you'd see the OC on these as much as the higher cards. The core is 80mhz slower than pro @ stock, and ram is 200 (effective) slower than pro @stock.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...E16814102 067
- One of the more expensive ones, but has the highest OEM clocks. I don't really want to go with it if the others can be oc'ed to its clock speeds.I can hit the core clock, no problem on my cards. The RAM, however, I can't match. 1800 effective is 900clock, mine go close to 800mhz. The XT also has 12 pipes, 48 shaders. The pro has 12 pipes, 36 shaders.

Powercolor
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...E16814131 031
- Any advantages over the Sapphires? This one has high core (600 vs sapphire 580) and same memory clocks. It has the improved stock cooler, but this cooler is on par (from reviews) with the Zalman VF900s that I added.



And lastly what amount of power will I need to run this system, crossfire, 2 hard drives, and AMD dual core? That depends on what dual core you're running. Around 500w should do it. The 470w that's in my thread ran my S939 Crossfire setup:

ASUS A8R32-MVP Deluxe
Opteron 165 @ 2.6
Zalman CNPS9700LED
2x WD Raptors
1x DVD-ROM
1x DVD-R/W
2x Sapphire x1950pros
X-Fi Fatal1ty
 
Sapphire makes the reference boards for ATi, I consider them to be the best of any of the ATi vendors. this is really not a good time to buy a current ATi card considering their new stuff should be out within the next month.
 
that may be true, but the new stuff is rumored to be around $599...too rich for my blood.
 
I think what he means is that the price of the 1950s is about to drop because the demand will go down as soon as the R600s come out.
 
aoe4evr said:
I think what he means is that the price of the 1950s is about to drop because the demand will go down as soon as the R600s come out.
Click to expand...

Same goes for the 8800's/8600's as well. If R600 starts drawing people away from NV, they wont have a choice except to drop their prices to offset their losses while they prepare for the upcoming refresh.
 
Do you realize how noisy your system is going to be if you CF 2 X19xx cards?

ATi cards are jet engines. Nvidia cards are much quieter and will perform better.

Just get the 8800GTS and you can save money, save power, save your cells in your ears.

Besides, I just hate ATi drivers. CC is a piece of crap and unnecessary.
 
I have a Thermaltake fan on my current Athlon XP that runs at 5500rpm when I crank it, Noise doesn't really matter to me....
 
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