x1600 XT performance issues

[dusk565]

Alright.

I've got two x1600 XT's, one Sapphire, one HIS, in Crossfire. Performance pretty much sucks, whether the cards are in Crossfire mode or not. FEAR doesn't even play like there are two cards present at all. Oblivion runs fine, with a notable performance increase with Crossfire, BUT if there is ANY shadow option enabled, frame rate drops dramatically. Same goes with NFS Carbon/Most Wanted. With any other game (read Doom 3, FarCry, and GTA: San Andreas.. the list goes on) performance is hit or miss (mostly miss) at any level of FSAA, quality setting, resolution, whatever. Am I missing something here?

I'm using Catalyst 7.2. I've got an MSI RD480 Neo2-Fi, 2 gigs of DDR400 (dual channel), an Athlon64 X2 3800. I've got a 450 watt PSU, with everything connected. The x1600's are both overclocked to 620/800. The overclock helps, but ultimately it doesn't.

Lately I've been looking at ditching the x1600 XT's for two x850 XT's. Would it be worth it?

 

[Eric_Cartman]

the x16*0 series was utter crap, it is as simple as that

they are extremely weak, and generally overpriced

i wouldn't say ditching them for older cards is a good idea, especially not cards that lack sm3.0, games are actually starting to require it now

just deal with it until you can afford better cards

 

[Joshmcmillan]

I have 1 x1650 Pro and it's not "utter crap". And before you say a hole entire range of video cards is crap, I would actually have a better one if I were you.

 

[Eric_Cartman]

just because i have an x300 doesn't mean i haven't owned/used better cards

my rig originally had an x1600pro in it, it sucked hard

i upgraded to a x1950pro, loved it, the performance difference was like night and day, game i could barely run on low with the x1600pro ran maxed out flawlessly on the x1950pro

i sold my x1950pro and replaced it with the used x300se i picked up for $10 because i am getting into console gaming thanks to a shiny new xbox360 and ps3

the x16*0 series was patheticly underpowered, and drasticly overpriced

we are talking about cards that score in the 2000 range of 3dmark06 while being priced in the pricerange of other cards scoring in the 4000 range

the only good one out of the entire series was the x1650XT and that is only because it uses a stripped down core from the x19*0 series, and even then it is still overpriced most of the time

 

[Joshmcmillan]

Well, X1650 Pro is $132 Australian dollars here in Austrailia. I would hardely call that "drasticly overprices". And if you ask anyone here it has good power for such a low price. I can run oblivion at full speed on reasonably high settings. I got 18,000 in 3D mark 01 and I'll go download 03 and 06 now and see what I get. I'll let you know.

 

[newtekie1]

I agree with Eric, the x1600 series is horrible.

As seen in my sig I have an x1650Pro, which is almost identical to the x1600XT. I bought both the x1650Pro and the 7600GT at the exact same time, I paid less for the 7600GT than for the x1650Pro, both were the cheapest versions available on newegg at the time. Right now the cheapest 7600GT is $110 on newegg, the cheapest x1650Pro is $103.

Attached are my 3DMark06 scores using the latest version of 06. You can see the scores of the two cards compared using the exact same system taken litterly minutes apart from eachother. I put one in, installed drivers fresh, set the max clocks I found earlier, tested it, cleaned drivers, put the other in, installed drivers, set the max clocks, and tested it.


That is nearly doubling the score for $7 more. The x1650Pro is the best ATI has to offer in the series except for the very different x1650XT as Eric has said. Yeah, I would call the x1600 series "utter crap" too when you actually take a look at what is out there.

 

[freaksavior]

yeah, i agree the x16X0 aren't good cards, i had one to replace my 9600, hated the puto, and returned it the next day, bought a x800 love it.

 

[theonetruewill]

The X1650 XT is a lovely card (apart from the Asus - that thing is wails like a shrieking banshee) - beats the 7900GS in NFS carbon. Don't believe me, try it yourself.

Most of the time its better than a 7600Gt - even XFX's fatal1ty and other oc'd versions. (except in Quake 4, Doom 3 etc, you know the drill)
But the 1600XT is not a great card and failed miserably against the 7600GT, and the 1650pro is just a slightly higher clocked variant of that.

Josh I don't think anyone is insulting you for your card, we all know most people can't afford to by an 1950xt just because they feel like it. All people are saying is that its a bad card compared to its rivals.

Also, I'm not saying that my card is any good either - trust me its totally shit

 

[Joshmcmillan]

I agree it's not as good as the 7600gt and I would prefer the 7600gt but just because It's not as good as coming els it doesn't mean it's bad. It runs every game that exists at least at medium settings. Also the 6600gt is worse and costs more, if you want to talk about overpriced stuff.

 

[newtekie1]

Yes, but the 6600GT is overpriced because nvidia has long since stopped making it, it is old technology, and oddly in the video card industry old technology tends to actual go up in price once it has stopped production. SLI and Crossfire's need for a second card has only amplified that, people are willing to pay a premium for a second card to match theirs.

The card is "utter crap" to me because for the same price you can get a different current gen card, that is still in production, and still readily available that gives double the performance.

The fact that it plays games to your satisfaction doesn't matter in the whole scheme of things, and doesn't apply to the "utter crap" judgement. Double the performance for the same price is what makes me satisfied, half the performance for the same price is what makes me judge "utter crap".

Heck, even the x1650XT is regularly outperformed by the cheaper 7600GT, not always, but a lot of the time, especially when overclocked. The x1650XT overclocks rather poorly, while the 7600GT is a notoriously good overclocker. These two at least trade blows back and forth, but the 7600GT is still cheaper, so a pretty easy decision.

 

[rhythmeister]

I have to say the x1600's appear quite crap but my tasty Sapphire x1650xt is pretty decent for the low price I paid for it, about £50 I think it ended up being. I flogged a beast of an x850 xt pe to go pixel shader 3 and I'm never going back! Besides the obvious gfx improvement from PS3, it's also a nice efficient card which doesn't need any molex/ floppy connectors, has a single slot (Cu) cooler and is the same size as my old 9600xt. It doesn't heat up my wee case that much either and I can play most games with lots of treats on... nice Oh yeah, think of us micro ATX guys from time to time, we can't all afford Silverstone Sugo cases to fit an x19xx series card in ffs

 

[Solaris17]

so about helping this guy............at any rate well it would seem to me though it may not make a huge difference the two cards though identical are not the same you could use ati tool or something and make sure the cards memory timings are the same you may want to do a registry clean up and use driver cleaner to remove the drivers after you uninstall them...then instead of installing ccc (assumption) just install the drivers oc the cards and use ati tool to tweak the geometry renders and A.I. etc.... as for trading them.......i wouldn't recommend it id keep what you have or get 2 matching ones........or instead of 2 x1600's sell them top dollar get yourself 2 matching 7600's or a 19xx card better than going to older tech though you may sacrifice brand/crossfire. my 2 cents

 

[Formula350]

Well crossfire IS working for him since it does 14xAA.

What if two BIOS' were tweaked identically and then both flashed with it? I guess I'd say the best way would be make them both HIS, as to not lose the software support (assuming he uses HIS' software).

 

[Zubasa]

I agree with Eric, the x1600 series is horrible.

As seen in my sig I have an x1650Pro, which is almost identical to the x1600XT. I bought both the x1650Pro and the 7600GT at the exact same time, I paid less for the 7600GT than for the x1650Pro, both were the cheapest versions available on newegg at the time. Right now the cheapest 7600GT is $110 on newegg, the cheapest x1650Pro is $103.

Attached are my 3DMark06 scores using the latest version of 06. You can see the scores of the two cards compared using the exact same system taken litterly minutes apart from eachother. I put one in, installed drivers fresh, set the max clocks I found earlier, tested it, cleaned drivers, put the other in, installed drivers, set the max clocks, and tested it.


That is nearly doubling the score for $7 more. The x1650Pro is the best ATI has to offer in the series except for the very different x1650XT as Eric has said. Yeah, I would call the x1600 series "utter crap" too when you actually take a look at what is out there.

The score you have for that X1650Pro is BS.
That card is NOT a REAL X1650Pro. (Dude, my X1600Pro is running faster than that:shadedshu )
Don't you see that card has 391Mhz memory? X1650Pro should use GDDR3 memory @ 700Mhz.

 

[Formula350]

I didn't even look at his but I don't quite buy that 7600 score. Even though I don't have a dual-core cpu, I only get 5100 06 marks. That 1650's score is more realistic.

 

[tkpenalty]

Yes, but the 6600GT is overpriced because nvidia has long since stopped making it, it is old technology, and oddly in the video card industry old technology tends to actual go up in price once it has stopped production. SLI and Crossfire's need for a second card has only amplified that, people are willing to pay a premium for a second card to match theirs.

The card is "utter crap" to me because for the same price you can get a different current gen card, that is still in production, and still readily available that gives double the performance.

The fact that it plays games to your satisfaction doesn't matter in the whole scheme of things, and doesn't apply to the "utter crap" judgement. Double the performance for the same price is what makes me satisfied, half the performance for the same price is what makes me judge "utter crap".

Heck, even the x1650XT is regularly outperformed by the cheaper 7600GT, not always, but a lot of the time, especially when overclocked. The x1650XT overclocks rather poorly, while the 7600GT is a notoriously good overclocker. These two at least trade blows back and forth, but the 7600GT is still cheaper, so a pretty easy decision.

Sometimes I wish somethings never come back :shadedshu

Dude the X1650XT outperforms the 7600GT 24/7, except in open GL. The X1650XT > 7600GT.

I agree with Eric, the x1600 series is horrible.

As seen in my sig I have an x1650Pro, which is almost identical to the x1600XT. I bought both the x1650Pro and the 7600GT at the exact same time, I paid less for the 7600GT than for the x1650Pro, both were the cheapest versions available on newegg at the time. Right now the cheapest 7600GT is $110 on newegg, the cheapest x1650Pro is $103.

Attached are my 3DMark06 scores using the latest version of 06. You can see the scores of the two cards compared using the exact same system taken litterly minutes apart from eachother. I put one in, installed drivers fresh, set the max clocks I found earlier, tested it, cleaned drivers, put the other in, installed drivers, set the max clocks, and tested it.


That is nearly doubling the score for $7 more. The x1650Pro is the best ATI has to offer in the series except for the very different x1650XT as Eric has said. Yeah, I would call the x1600 series "utter crap" too when you actually take a look at what is out there.

Not double, thats an overstatement to teh_max.

 

[Joshmcmillan]

By the way the 7600gt isn't cheaper, it costs quite a bit more were I live.

 

[tkpenalty]

By the way the 7600gt isn't cheaper, it costs quite a bit more were I live.

Yeah, 7600GT is more expensive than the X1650XT in australia. Same with 7900GS & X1950PRO/GT

 

[cjoyce1980]

as this shows the X1650XT is a little more powerful than the 7600GT
http://www.gpureview.com/show_cards.php?card1=472&card2=385#
but i also remember because is was a cut down X1950 there was some way to unlock the extra pipelines so it would perform like a x1950

 

[tkpenalty]

as this shows the X1650XT is a little more powerful than the 7600GT
http://www.gpureview.com/show_cards.php?card1=472&card2=385#
but i also remember because is was a cut down X1950 there was some way to unlock the extra pipelines so it would perform like a x1950

No, ATI decided to cut the pipelines. They wanted a quick saviour anyway. Its virtually impossible due to the different memory, and bus bandwidth. Its a different story when compared to the X850/X800 since those were both High range GPUs.

 

[Zubasa]

No, ATI decided to cut the pipelines. They wanted a quick saviour anyway. Its virtually impossible due to the different memory, and bus bandwidth. Its a different story when compared to the X850/X800 since those were both High range GPUs.

It is more than that.
The BGA package they use on the "RV560" makes it impossible to be unlocked.
It has less Balls/Pins than the RV570 core.
So even if the core can be unlocked, the signals won't work.

 

[Casheti]

X850XT

 

[rhythmeister]

X850XT

Yes but NO PS3 support!

 

[newtekie1]

as this shows the X1650XT is a little more powerful than the 7600GT
http://www.gpureview.com/show_cards.php?card1=472&card2=385#
but i also remember because is was a cut down X1950 there was some way to unlock the extra pipelines so it would perform like a x1950

But look at the 3DMark06 scores in that link, the 7600GT actually scores higher, and if you look at mine it scores quite a bit higher than a x1650XT which even when overclocked maxes out at about 3700(the x1650XT I had overclocked like complete ass).

Yeah, 7600GT is more expensive than the X1650XT in australia. Same with 7900GS & X1950PRO/GT

Well I don't live there, so I don't know the priced, I only know the prices here in America, but pricing of all hardware in Australia is kind of screwy from what I hear. Like I said though, in America the 7600GT can be had for only $7 more than the x1650Pro, and the x1650XT is even more expensive than the x1650Pro(obviously).

 

[Formula350]

But look at the 3DMark06 scores in that link, the 7600GT actually scores higher, and if you look at mine it scores quite a bit higher than a x1650XT which even when overclocked maxes out at about 3700(the x1650XT I had overclocked like complete ass).



Well I don't live there, so I don't know the priced, I only know the prices here in America, but pricing of all hardware in Australia is kind of screwy from what I hear. Like I said though, in America the 7600GT can be had for only $7 more than the x1650Pro, and the x1650XT is even more expensive than the x1650Pro(obviously).

Well, as I said, I don't believe that 7600GT score for one second.