Sapphire 100175L X1650PRO 512 MB - questions about intalling.

[nmilligan]

Hello. I am new to these forums. I am about to attempt my very
first video card installation. Not sure what to do. I do know how to
install the card into the AGP slot, but the card came with basically no instructions
and there is a power cord that came with it. Not sure if I need to install it
to the PSU or not. Again, I know nothing about video card installs.

I bought my card from newegg.com. Sapphire 100175L X1650PRO 512 MB AGP.

PLEASE, CAN ANYONE HELP?!

 

[erocker]

Yes, you need to install the power adapter. Also make sure you have all your old video drivers uninstalled before installing the new card.

 

[nmilligan]

Still don't know how to hook up power

I have now idea how to hook up the power adapter. The power chord has two big connectors and one little one. Again, I have no idea what I am doing. Argg!

 

[DanishDevil]

You need one of the connectors shown on the left of this picture:

That goes onto your card. Then, find a molex plug (the one on the right of the picture) coming from your power supply. Then, attach that to the one that looks similar to it on the adapter. It should slide into place.

 

[erocker]

The little end goes on the card, and the bigger end connects to your psu. They leave an extra connector on the cable for anything else you'd want to use it for.

 

[DanishDevil]

Above post edited.

 

[nmilligan]

About the old drivers. They are Nvidia drivers. If I uninstall them and the new card doesn't work, am I up a creek without a paddle? Will I even be able to get back to where I started?

Also, I already installed the new cards software. Is that ok?

Thanks in advance for all your help!

 

[DanishDevil]

Uninstall all of the old nVidia and ATi Drivers. Then, once you boot with no drivers, install the drivers on the CD that came with your card.

To others - I don't think he really needs to do the DriverCleaner or registry stuff.

 

[nmilligan]

Ok. I think I am ready to try this! Wish me luck! LOL

Thanks again!

 

[DanishDevil]

Good luck, you're welcome, and Welcome to the TechPowerUp Forums!

 

[erocker]

Good luck buddy! And welcome.

 

[nmilligan]

Well, I did it. Seems to be functioning ok. Do I need to download
any of these drivers?

XP Professional/Home

ATI Catalyst™ 8.3 Display Driver for Windows XP Professional/Home Edition

ATI Catalyst™ 8.3 Drivers and ATI Multimedia Software for Windows XP Professional/Home Edition

ATI Catalyst™ 8.3 Display Driver for Windows XP Professional/Home Edition - Motherboard/IGP Drivers

ATI Catalyst™ Mobility 8.3 Display Driver for Windows XP Professional/Home Edition

ATI Theater™ 8.3 Drivers for Windows XP Professional/Home Edition

ATI TV Wonder™ 600 USB 8.3 Drivers for Windows XP Professional/Home Edition

ATI TV Wonder™ 650 Combo USB 8.3 Drivers for Windows XP Professional/Home E

 

[Darren]

nmilligan,

You need to download the latest drivers from ATI's website, Catalyst Version 8.3


Select your operating system and graphics card and it should re-direct you to a link where you can download "Catalyst software suite version 8.3"
http://ati.amd.com/support/driver.html

 

[DanishDevil]

^^What he said.

Glad to hear it's all working!

 

[nmilligan]

Thanks. Will do. I will post my 3dmark06 results shortly. They have got to be better than
the 4338 score I got with my last card.

 

[Darren]

Thanks. Will do. I will post my 3dmark06 results shortly. They have got to be better than
the 4338 score I got with my last card.

I've got an x1600 Pro overclocked slightly and I got around 4000-ish. What card did you have before because your x1650 Pro will not score much higher than 4000 maybe 5000 and that is pushing it. The x1600 range is over two years old and no longer competes too well in newer games let alone 3dmarks 2006. Either way I would love to find out your score.

 

[nmilligan]

Darren,

I have an old Nvidia 128mb 5200 series that came with my dell 4600.

I better get a better score.

I just want to be able to play Oblivion and games like that. I couldn't before. They were really slow and choppy even at lowest settings.

I will test as soon as my drivers update. Will take about an hour to download new driver package.

Cheers.

Neal

 

[Darren]

Well performance is going to depend on other factors, such as ram capacity and speed, processor etc. But generally speaking the x1650 is a much better card than the Nvida FX5200. However I wouldn't recommend either card for today's gaming, and forget about all the newer games coming out such as Farcry 2 and Assasins Creed. Obvion should play with "playable" frame rates at medium. Older games between 2004-2007 should also play well at medium.

 

[nmilligan]

Yeah, your right. I have 3.06ghz cpu. 2gig ram. By the end of the year I will be buying a new computer. This one is about 3 years old and worth upgrading any more.

I am a mechanical designer and I use a 3D parametric software calle Pro/Engineer and it needs lots of power and good graphics, especially when I am working on very large assemblies of 1000 or more parts. My next computer will probably have 4 gig ram and a very high end GPU. Just waiting till towards the end of the year to purchase.

 

[KainXS]

if you want a boost now in cad software then you could softmod the X1650 to the FireGL 5200

I had the X1650Pro a while back and it can play oblivion, but I used oldblivion to get better fps

 

[nmilligan]

What is softmod and how do you do it? I am learning all this for the first time.

My 3DMARK06 RESULTS: 1886 without any changes. Just as is out of the box.

I did that test with my old card and got 4338 score. I must be mistaken because it was an Nvidia 5200 128mb.

Anyway, the true test will be when I try out one of my games.

Neal

 

[Darren]

What is softmod and how do you do it?

It's when a card is modified to improve performance.

I did that test with my old card and got 4338 score. I must be mistaken because it was an Nvidia 5200 128mb.

Neal

Yeah you must be mistaken because a score of 4338 is 100% impossible with an Nvida FX 5200. Unless you tested with an earlier version of 3Dmarks then the scoring system is different.

Your system isn't completely dead, although its old and slow you probably could still run the latest games at high if you make a strategic graphics upgrade. If you could get newegg to replace your x1600 with an 3850 Pro you could probably get another year of gaming at medium/high if you stick to a resolution of 1024x768.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102730

Or if you've got $200 you could put together dualcore system on the cheap, 3800+ x2, 2 GB ram, a motherboard that supports AGP + PCIx, and keep your current x1650 pro. Definately be much faster than what you have and would add another year of playing games at medium at respectable framerates.

 

[nmilligan]

Thanks for the info Darren.

I installed my Neverwinter nights 2 last night. Works wonderfully! All at the highest video levels and very smooth and fast. I was pleasantly suprised.

My GPU is running at a steady 44-47celcius even while playing NW2.
Ambient temp is running steady at 37.

So far so good. I will have to replace my PSU. It is only 250 watts. Probably go to at least a 500 watt or better. Looking to replace the stock on that came with my dell 4600.
Also, I probably need to upgrade to a better cooling fan.

Cheers.

Neal

 

[KainXS]

Thanks for the info Darren.

I installed my Neverwinter nights 2 last night. Works wonderfully! All at the highest video levels and very smooth and fast. I was pleasantly suprised.

My GPU is running at a steady 44-47celcius even while playing NW2.
Ambient temp is running steady at 37.

So far so good. I will have to replace my PSU. It is only 250 watts. Probably go to at least a 500 watt or better. Looking to replace the stock on that came with my dell 4600.
Also, I probably need to upgrade to a better cooling fan.

Cheers.

Neal

The Dell 4600 uses a standard ATX PSU, you can replace it with pretty much any PSU

this is a good psu for under 50 bucks here
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817182009