AGP - X1950 Pro experiences

[Completely Bonkers]

There have been many posts on this site and other forums regarding problems people have been having with AGP X1950 Pro systems. To help everyone ABOUT to making a buying decision (including me ) could you please post your experience as follows:

1./ Stable or Unstable
2./ Brand of AGP - X1950 Pro
3./ Mainboard model
4./ PSU model and power rating

Thank you for everyone participating!

Rules: AGP comments only. AGP X1950 GT and AGP XT comments also allowed here.

****UPDATE********UPDATE********UPDATE********UPDA TE********UPDATE****
It seems that the "early" boards had more problems than the current shipping boards. When posting, please, if you can, note the serial number or revision number of the PCB if there is one. Thanks!
************************************************** ********************

[spud107]

got sapphire x1950 pro week ago n been working great, not had any issues so far. . .

[s4fun]

I voted unstable because I'm on my second x1950 pro. The powercolor x1950 pro was certainly unstable due to inadequte VRM cooling which they may have a fix for now with heatsink upgrades. Currently I'm running the HIS Iceq3 256M x1950 pro agp, and I can't say it is 100% stable because I've found ways to crash it, hang the system.

[Completely Bonkers]

@-1, I thought the Powercolor came with an Artic Accelero Cooler: http://www.powercolor.com/global/mai...ail.asp?id=137

Did your card look like this? If so... that's bad news for using Artic as an aftermarket cooler on X1950's

[Zubasa]

Originally Posted by Completely Bonkers

@-1, I thought the Powercolor came with an Artic Accelero Cooler: http://www.powercolor.com/global/mai...ail.asp?id=137

Did your card look like this? If so... that's bad news for using Artic as an aftermarket cooler on X1950's

He is talking about the cooling for the VRMs.

[Completely Bonkers]

Do you mean small heatsinks around the voltage regulators? I'm not sure this would cause a stability issue. If the hypothesis that when the VRM gets hot, the supply voltage drops? Heatsinks would help stop a burnout... and complete failure of the VRM. But not sure this would have anything to do with artifacting/freezing.

I may be completely wrong... would like to learn: please post explanation.

[s4fun]

The Arctic Cooler Accelero X2 is great. The IceQ3 is quiet, and it is quieter than the nVSilencer I had on my 6800gt. But the Accelero is even more silent than that. The temperature I'm getting with the IceQ3 and the Accelero at idle were all in the mid 30s celsius. Since I couldn't get the powercolor to be stable at load, I can only report that withe Iceq3, I am getting in the mid 40's for games and mid 50's with the ATItool stress tests. All of which are lower temps and quieter than the 6800gt with an nVSilencer.

The bad news for the powercolor is that accelero as it was implemented by powercolor at that time was that there were no heat sinks on the VRMs like the way the Iceq3 has it. And that part gets hot enough to burn your hand if you insist on grabbing it when attempting to run 3dMark03. The powercolor often crashed just barely getting into the test with those B17s bombers for not barely 90 seconds into the test the VRMs were cooking real good.

[tkpenalty]

Dude... the VRM unit isnt needed, I haven't seen it get hot.

[richpb7]

I just got an HIS 256Mb version - very happy, no issues as yet. It's quiet and fast and is a better replacement than the 7800 GS OC that died on me.

Got a new power supply for it, but only because I blew up my old one whilst mucking about inside the case (dumb ass!). Chose a Corsair 520 in the end, which is very quiet as well, and the modular design is fab. I'll never go back to a non-modular one again.

Other specs: Epox 8rda+, Barton 2500+ (o/c so running as a 3200+), 1Gb RAM

[Ketxxx]

Originally Posted by tkpenalty

Dude... the VRM unit isnt needed, I haven't seen it get hot.

i have to agree, the VRMs dont get very hot at all on the X1950Pro, it may be needed on the X1950XT(X) models though.

[s4fun]

Power color had to redo their VRM coolers, and even put a note on their specs about that on their website for the x1950 pro agp with the accelero X2. It doesn't get hot if has got proper cooling.

[Ketxxx]

Sounds more like powercolour messed a bit too much with the reference design if u ask me, my card stays nice an cool, as do other 1950Pros ive seen in AGP form.

[Completely Bonkers]

@-1, which brand is good for you... your spec profile names X1950 but no brand

[micron]

Originally Posted by s4fun

The IceQ3 is quiet, and it is quieter than the nVSilencer I had on my 6800gt. But the Accelero is even more silent than that. .

The Accelero is unworthy compared to the IceQ3...and Accelero reviews across the web will show it to be a sub-par solution compared to other top coolers.

[Zubasa]

Originally Posted by tkpenalty

Dude... the VRM unit isnt needed, I haven't seen it get hot.

They hardly feels warm.

[s4fun]

Accelero is quieter, but it doesn't cool better. The issues is how quiet and how cool and what would you trade between the different solutions.

[tkpenalty]

Originally Posted by micron

The Accelero is unworthy compared to the IceQ3...and Accelero reviews across the web will show it to be a sub-par solution compared to other top coolers.

Wtf? Can I have some of what you had this morning? The IceQIII Doesn't do better than the AcceleroX2. You have the "flock of sheep" intuition. When we talk about powercolor, we don't mean AcceleroX2. Got it?

Across the web my ass, you probably saw one and went "OMG ACCELEROX2 SUCKS".

[tkpenalty]

bonk? Wth does that mean?

[Completely Bonkers]

What's the difference between bonking your head or bumping your head? Not much really. Bonk=bump. Bonk is a bit more active. Bump is a bit more passive.

[tkpenalty]

Most people who get a X1950PRO think it will work perfectly fine with some generic PSU T_T.

[lemonadesoda]

Current ratio 4/14 is not good, ie. 30% people having problems!

[s4fun]

That is about consisent with the people that provide feedback for the various models of x1950 pro on Newegg. I suspect there were some bad components that got out to all the OEMs and manufacturers etc.

[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!!!

[Completely Bonkers]

****UPDATE********UPDATE********UPDATE********UPDA TE********UPDATE****
It seems that the "early" boards had more problems than the current shipping boards. When posting, please, if you can, note the serial number or revision number of the PCB if there is one. Thanks!
************************************************** ********************

[DaComputerDude]

Hi All,

This card HIS X1950 Pro IceQ3 Turbo Dual DL-DVI 512MB/AGP (Rev 2.0) has been running great for over a week - No Problems/crashes/artifacts - All good!! CAT 7.1 ATI Tool 631/1539

Temps 44c Idle 58c flat out! Fan rattles just a bit when running flat out. ATI 3D Rend. 860 FPS

Huge!! improvement in game performance at least 60% (GECUBE ATI 850XT PE) over what I was getting before. I would recommend this card. Can run all games with AA and AF plus turn on the lights/shadows etc now. Be mindful of the cards size though, it's a massive card, I had to relocate a hard drive to fit it in. You "MAY" also need the Molex 4x6 power cable if you have an older PSU. (*Came in the box)

My specs.
P4 Northwood 3.0 O/C 3.6
Asus P4C 800E D
1GB Hyper X 3500 DDR
Thermaltake PurePower Xaser Edition 480W/40 Amp 2x Fans
2x WD Raptors 1x WD 7200
SB Live
BENQ 19" LCD (Max Res 1280x1024)

PS When the card arrived it was running at 587/1539.. Yet I had purchased the 620MHz version (V1.0) cant beleive how quick they changed the card from 1.0 to 2.0 It makes you wonder what was so wrong with Ver 1.0 that they changed it so quickly??

Cheers for now! LONG LIVE AGP! the guys with P4 3+MHz EE are going to love this card!!