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X1950 Pro AGP PSU question

horrorshow

horrorshow

Lakewood Original
Joined
Dec 14, 2007
Messages
9,909
Well, my GF is having some trouble playing WoW at a decent FPS.

I happen to have a x1950 pro (AGP) laying around.

Here are her current specs.

2.8Ghz Pentium 4
1 Gig DDR 2100
40 Gig HD
CD-RW / DVD-Reader
ATI 9800 Pro 128mb (AGP)
SB Audigy 2
Antec Basiq 350W

- That's EVERYTHING in her box -

Now, after some reading online, it seems people are having luck running the x1950 pro on 300-350W PSUs.

With her barebones machine (due to so few components inside) and a new Antec Basiq 350W PSU, do you guys think she would be OK if I popped in the x1950 pro to replace her aging 9800 pro???

(My main concern obviously is whether or not the PSU would be able to supply the neccesary power to the vcard etc)

Please help, I'd like to get this done tonight so she can enjoy WoW at a higher quality this holiday season....

All advice/help is much appreciated!

Side Note: If this WILL work in your opinion, please post and tell her the HUGE difference to expect from said vcard upgrade :)
 
Should run fine with that 350watt psu.

I was using a thermaltake 400watt psu with a P4 2.6ghz, 2GB Ram, 500GB drive, Audigy 2 ZS, X1950Pro 256, DVD-RW.

For comparison, my main rig a few months back had a 450watt Antec, P4 3.4Ghz, 2GB ram, X1950Pro, 8 hard drives, DVD-RW, Audigy 2 ZS, Promise Sata Card, USB 2 Card, Firewire card, 2x 120mm fans, and 2x 80mm fans.

Game will run much much smoother and look much much better.
 
it probably would work but the system would be starving for juice. hows your electricity there? pretty clean or a mess like it is in the country or in Phoenix, az??
 
It'd probably work but it would be a heavy load. Estimate using about 230-260W (135W CPU, 65W GPU, 45+ misc hdd/dvd/fans) or so and ~20A on the 12V (PSU handles 23A on the 12V) since the P4 is so power hungry. There'd be a lot more headroom with a Core 2 but that's for another day.
 
horrorshow said:
- That's EVERYTHING in her box -
Click to expand...



Really? Are you going to make it that easy? :D


To answer your question, no, I don't think that PSU will cut it at all. People confuse the X1950Pro AGP with the PCI-e version. The AGP version is much more power hungry. If it were the PCI-e version then maybe you could get away with that Antec Basiq, but with the AGP version you're just asking for trouble. I had a X1950pro AGP back in the day and the recommended specs were 450 watts and 30 amps on the 12v rail. The 30 amp requirement being much more essential than the former. That powersupply doesn't come close to either. I agree the 1950 would indeed be huge upgrade, but realistically you need to upgrade the PSU first.

Trust me, you wouldn't want your girlfriends BOX to explode would you? :p


(Sorry, I couldn't help myself.)
 
If you need a cheaper PSU shoot me a PM. I have an OCZ 500Watt not doing anything. Maybe we could work something out.
 
horrorshow said:
2.8Ghz Pentium 4
1 Gig DDR 2100
40 Gig HD
CD-RW / DVD-Reader
ATI 9800 Pro 128mb (AGP)
SB Audigy 2
Antec Basiq 350W

- That's EVERYTHING in her box -
Click to expand...

Heh. Here's what I had in my old system:

2.8 GHz Pentium 4
2 GB DDR 3200
500 GB HDD
DVD-RW
ATI 9800 PRO 128 MB (AGP)
SB Audigy 2 ZS
300W completely questionable generic PSU (17A on the +12V)

I eventually switched out the 9800 PRO for the X1950 PRO---HIS's overclocked version, in fact (which presumably draws even more power than the usual versions). I don't think I managed to hit even 230W draw while on WoW... and hit something like 276W at artificial load. I had a Kill-A-Watt, so I was watching the system like a hawk, expecting it to blow up at any moment.

As far as WoW goes, with the 9800 PRO, I left all the video settings on default. With the X1950 PRO, I could pretty much turn up everything to either medium or max except for draw distance and the new shadows (which I think do not like to play nice with AGP anything, especially in Dalaran). Didn't actually check the FSP, but I would guess 30?

PSUs really vary a lot between manufacturers, but mine was unbelievably crap and I still had no problems. So here's one vote for going ahead with the new card. Anecdotal evidence for the win, eh? ;)
 
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