AGP - X1950 Pro experiences

[intel igent]

Originally Posted by intel igent

dont want to jack the thread BUT are there any people using the gecube 1950xt agp?

if so hows that working for ya?

could the O/P maybe add the xt's to the thread/poll?

thnx

anyone?

[madd]

I'm not sure how "power hungry" is this card
I have a Sapphire x1950 PRO 256 MB, and for about 4-5 months I have not experienced any problems at all. The card is very stable with a Fortron ATX-350GTF power supply. The only drawback is the stock cooler which is very noisy when the card is at load and at the same time the temp of the GPU reaches about 80-85C at full load!!!

I'm considering to buy an Arctic Accelero X2, but I've red about the issue with the cooling of the VRM's. Unfortunately the Accelero that's on the market in my country is an old batch or something and does not include the "Voltage Regulator Heat Spreader" thingy So, can anyone tell me, is it a problem if I put the Accelero without this plate fot the VRM's? Do they run very hot, because I can't check this without removing the stock cooler..

[Widjaja]

Sounds like you have the rev 1 Sapphire model which does normally run that hot with insufficent case cooling.
My Sapphire X1950pro runs 76-82 deg max load and yes the fan does start to make noise at those temps but the other fans do drown it out.
It's very important to have heat spreders over the VRMs becuase they do get very hot.
I think you can get the heat spreader separately.

[madd]

Originally Posted by Widjaja

Sounds like you have the rev 1 Sapphire model which does normally run that hot with insufficent case cooling.
My Sapphire X1950pro runs 76-82 deg max load and yes the fan does start to make noise at those temps but the other fans do drown it out.
It's very important to have heat spreders over the VRMs becuase they do get very hot.
I think you can get the heat spreader separately.

10x for the quick reply Yeah, I've red the posts on the forum and it's seems that the VRM's can be cooled with a separate RAM heatsinks on each VRM. If I can't find the heat spreader, I'll buy a pack of those Zalman RAM heatsinks and hopefully they will do the job

[Widjaja]

No probs.

VRMS were placed on these cards instead of having capacitors.
You will see 4 little holes around that area where a VRM heat spreader can just screw in even though you are currently using the Sapphire reference cooler.

Have a chat over at the HD2K clubhouse, the users there are more than happy to help you out with what would be the best cooling solution for your VRMs and I'm pretty sure one of the guys has installed a Zalman VGA cooler with the heatsinks your'e talking about.
There is a pic of it on the first page iirc. . .

[The_Gunslinger]

ok, first post here ... so be gentle.

i've read through most of this thread fairly carefully, and there is definitely 2 different trains of thought when it comes to the power needs of these cards.

here's my system specs, and experiences with my card (His x1950 Pro Turbo v2 - AGP)

Athlon64 +3700 (754 skt)
Arctic Freezer 64 Pro cooler
Gigabyte GA-K8NSNXP
4 Seagate 16mb cache drives (2xSATA 2xIDE)
1 more Seagate IDE drive in a icy-dock removable caddy
Plextor 716SA
Plextor 608AL
NEC 7543A
HiS x1950 Pro - AGP
PSU - Corsair 620W
Monito DELL 2707wfp

I purchased the x1950 v2 from overclockers uk some time ago, and initially had no problems, at the time i was running an Antec Neo HE500 PSU, then within 3 weeks poof! no more switch on, no warning nothing, worked fine on shut down, at the time i was doing some cleaning in the case, and re-seating the RAM afterwards, so i figured i'd pressed to hard and killed something on the mobo, so after swapping everything out and still getting no boot i replaced the mobo, still nothing, the only thing i could think of was that the PSU was dead - but i had tested with another and nothing else connected and it still didnt work, so i took the plunge and ordered a new PSU as i had no way to fully test the old one, turns out that was the problem, and the 380W generic i had tested it with was not even man enough to boot the pc with this card in it !!

Dabs replaced the PSU no problem, it was still within the warranty ... just, and had ran all that time with no problems.

when searching for a replacement i did the research on the requirements and was also surprised to read the amperage requirements for the card, and wondered if that had contributed to the PSU's early demise. I settled on the Corsair unit for a number of reasons, including it's tested stability, power consumption, and it's ability to behave like a single rail unit if overloaded on one of the rails. At the time i did not have the money for a PC P&C unit.
This Corsair unit has run flawlessly in my system now for a few months, and the card is running perfectly, a little warmer than i would like but still good, no artifacts and plays movies very very well, driving the 27" LCD very nicely at 1920x1200

so - did the x1950 help to the early demise of the PSU - possibly, but i guess i'll never know for sure, but i am looking to replace the Corsair with a PC P&C Silencer 750 shortly with a planned upgrade because i dont like it's cooling configuration in the Antec case layout (which i'm about to swap for a P182)

[Bri5150]

Couldn't play BioShock with my old 9800XT so I picked up a VisionTek X1950Pro AGP 256MB DDR3 card to get my system thru a few more months. Picked it up at BestBuy for $189 about a month ago.

ASUS P4C800-E
Pent 3.4 @ 3.56
4Gig 4000DDR Mem
Antec 600Watt PS
WD Raptor Drives

X1950 Pro AGP running ATI Tray Tools
GPU 614.25
MEM 729.00
100% Stable....

I picked up a 2 fan cooling card that fits next to the video card just for the hell of it.

I'm going to wait about 90 days and see how the X48 MB's are and build a $4000 system (less monitor,KB,Mouse,Speakers)

[Widjaja]

Originally Posted by The_Gunslinger

so - did the x1950 help to the early demise of the PSU - possibly, but i guess i'll never know for sure, but i am looking to replace the Corsair with a PC P&C Silencer 750 shortly with a planned upgrade because i dont like it's cooling configuration in the Antec case layout (which i'm about to swap for a P182)

Welcome to TPU. . . .

If the GPU was the last piece of hardware to be installed into your system and then the PSU died then yes.
At cold boot power gets seriously sucked out from a PSU for the first few moment and may have burnt out a worn/faulty component in your PSU causing the smoke and death.

My mates PSU did this a couple of weeks ago but it was a generic job.
He used to have his PC on nearly 24/7.
He's currently using another generic which I think is weaker and is starting to make odd noises but thats his own problem.

[The_Gunslinger]

thank you,

and yes it was the last piece i changed/fitted.

PSU didnt die immediately after fitting the x1950, and to be honest it was not the first thing i suspected, and i was very lucky in the way it went, it took nothing else at all with it

[Widjaja]

Halfway decent PSU should have some sort of fail safe circuitry which is supposed to stop it from frying hardware.

Quite a while ago I tried running my card with a 450W Generic PSU with +12v/15a on a single rail and it held up fine.
But out of safety I had to change it to something else just incase it did decide to pack it in somewhere down the track.

[manycheese]

well i had to return my HIS ati Radeion x1950 Pro IceQ3 512mb

tbh a very dodgy card.

gonna get a sahppire one instead...

maybe it'll work better

[InnocentCriminal]

Looks like these cards are rather hit and miss - mine however seems to be perfectly fine (driver permitting). I'm also running mine of a Shuttle 240W, as you can see from my system specs. The only real issues I've been having are the amount of noise created by the fan and the recent drivers from ATi.

Other than that, the card is one of the best things I've ever bought and it powers my games at 1680 x 1050 perfectly. I'm just hoping the upcoming 3850 will be able to give me the same sort of price to performance ratio this has. I also look forward to watercooling it too.

^^

[Widjaja]

Originally Posted by manycheese

well i had to return my HIS ati Radeion x1950 Pro IceQ3 512mb

tbh a very dodgy card.

gonna get a sahppire one instead...

maybe it'll work better

Can say my Sapphire X1950pro is still going strong.
Played at least 8hrs straight of Bioshock which heats up the system.

Nearly finished the game, only bought it yesterday.

The games good enough to go through again though.

[rodneyhchef]

Had no problems with my sapphire X1950 even though I've overclocked it loads.

[Makaveli]

I have a Sapphire X1950Pro 512mb, Runs great, however the first thing I did was replace the stock POS cooler. My load temps don't break 55c now.

[Widjaja]

Originally Posted by Makaveli

I have a Sapphire X1950Pro 512mb, Runs great, however the first thing I did was replace the stock POS cooler. My load temps don't break 55c now.

I think the cooler is its only fault.
Just cleaned out the caked on dust out of my PC.

The card now runs at 79deg max with stock cooler in GPU intensive games.

[rodneyhchef]

If you install ATI tray tools you can adjust it so the fan goes up to 100% as soon as you play a game, mine would idle at 50-60°C at 50% fan speed but in a game with the fan on 100% it wouldnt get to 70. So it is quite effective when fully utilised (if a little noisy!) the temperature vs fan speed control in the bios doesnt do it justice.

[intel igent]

Originally Posted by intel igent

dont want to jack the thread BUT are there any people using the gecube 1950xt agp?

if so hows that working for ya?

could the O/P maybe add the xt's to the thread/poll?

thnx

ill try again

[kreaturekodeyellow]

Originally Posted by dashsmashed

i'm running a saphire 512 AGP with an X2 - is good for me !! after a bit of fiddling...(a small issue I had with my old CRT)

I have to say that out of the box with no o/c it worked great.. I just wanted MORE!!!

ULTRA 550W X2-Connect Power Supply? Does that PSU actually run this card when the card is at full load?

[Widjaja]

Originally Posted by kreaturekodeyellow

ULTRA 550W X2-Connect Power Supply? Does that PSU actually run this card when the card is at full load?

Here we go again with the PSU +12v amperage.

For X1950pro's 450W +12v/30a on a single rail or +12/V20a on dual rail PSUs.
But these are over exaggerated statements from ATi which are recommended with fully loaded systems in mind.

I'm using a PSU with +12V/18a dual rails and it runs without a hitch.

Hell I was using a 450W PSU with +12/15a rail to run the system at one stage.
But to be safe I had to buy a quality PSU.

[Makaveli]

i run my Card with a X2 cooler but the sticky pads on the VRM heat spreader suck and it fell off. So i've been running it without. I've had the card running at 620/730 for hours and no issues. I will eventually epoxy the heat speader but for me I've had no issues. I also have very good airflow in my case tho which helps.

[spud107]

noooooooooooooooooooooo!!!! paste em back on quick, the vrm's are slowly cooking. . .
they dont cut out till 125c

[Makaveli]

Originally Posted by The_Gunslinger

ok, first post here ... so be gentle.

i've read through most of this thread fairly carefully, and there is definitely 2 different trains of thought when it comes to the power needs of these cards.

here's my system specs, and experiences with my card (His x1950 Pro Turbo v2 - AGP)

Athlon64 +3700 (754 skt)
Arctic Freezer 64 Pro cooler
Gigabyte GA-K8NSNXP
4 Seagate 16mb cache drives (2xSATA 2xIDE)
1 more Seagate IDE drive in a icy-dock removable caddy
Plextor 716SA
Plextor 608AL
NEC 7543A
HiS x1950 Pro - AGP
PSU - Corsair 620W
Monito DELL 2707wfp

I purchased the x1950 v2 from overclockers uk some time ago, and initially had no problems, at the time i was running an Antec Neo HE500 PSU, then within 3 weeks poof! no more switch on, no warning nothing, worked fine on shut down, at the time i was doing some cleaning in the case, and re-seating the RAM afterwards, so i figured i'd pressed to hard and killed something on the mobo, so after swapping everything out and still getting no boot i replaced the mobo, still nothing, the only thing i could think of was that the PSU was dead - but i had tested with another and nothing else connected and it still didnt work, so i took the plunge and ordered a new PSU as i had no way to fully test the old one, turns out that was the problem, and the 380W generic i had tested it with was not even man enough to boot the pc with this card in it !!

Dabs replaced the PSU no problem, it was still within the warranty ... just, and had ran all that time with no problems.

when searching for a replacement i did the research on the requirements and was also surprised to read the amperage requirements for the card, and wondered if that had contributed to the PSU's early demise. I settled on the Corsair unit for a number of reasons, including it's tested stability, power consumption, and it's ability to behave like a single rail unit if overloaded on one of the rails. At the time i did not have the money for a PC P&C unit.
This Corsair unit has run flawlessly in my system now for a few months, and the card is running perfectly, a little warmer than i would like but still good, no artifacts and plays movies very very well, driving the 27" LCD very nicely at 1920x1200

so - did the x1950 help to the early demise of the PSU - possibly, but i guess i'll never know for sure, but i am looking to replace the Corsair with a PC P&C Silencer 750 shortly with a planned upgrade because i dont like it's cooling configuration in the Antec case layout (which i'm about to swap for a P182)

You actually find games playable at 1920x1200 on a X1950Pro?

I can get a used Samsung 27` for like $699 which is a very good deal. However I know my videocard won't be pushing the frame rate I require for it to be smooth. From all the reviews i've seen you need a GTX level card to really have that res comfortable for the majority of games out. I know HL2 and say Team Fortress 2 will be playable on X1950pro because they scale well with older hardware. However new games like bioshock, the new medal of honor will surely tank at that res on this card.

[Makaveli]

Originally Posted by spud107

noooooooooooooooooooooo!!!! paste em back on quick, the vrm's are slowly cooking. . .
they dont cut out till 125c

Paste them back on with what? I don't have the epoxy yet. I've been running it without the VRM heatspeaker for like 3 months already and no issues. As I said the airflow in my case is good there is a fan on the window blowing air directly on the card.

I would have epoxy'd it sooner, but none of the local shops carry it so I have to order it online.

Also with my card never breaking 55c while overclocked I seriously doubt they are getting that hot.

[spud107]

with this hs they still run about 47-50c under load, plenty airflow here too, 250mm fan next to the card,


jus dont wanna see your card fry,