Video Card Thread (Mostly Gecube x1950xt)

I'm still not grasping the full concept, can you explain a little more?

When I ran 3dmark06 with my P4 @3.2Ghz., I ot something like .4FPS (which sucks.) I then tested it on my dads Athlon X2 and got something like 1-2 FPS. So I dont think my processor is that bad.

Will a P4 bottleneck the card?

Thanks for all your help by the way!

 

Even my core 2 duo only gets 1fps or so in the CPU tests. It's designed that way to make absolutely sure it's fully stressing your CPU.

What I'm trying to say about mhz, is that they're now irrelevant. Although the clock speed varies, different types of CPU get more real work done for every clock cycle. Think of it kind of like a different set of gears in a gearbox.
The Old Pentium 4s may achieve say "70mph for 3400rpm" whereas the new Core 2 Duos can achieve "75mph at 1800rpm" simply because the architecture is better. Clock speed's still important, but it's no longer the only factor that affects processor speed.

 

Well I just ran 3dmakr06 again, only in 1024x768 and got 3069. So the higher the resolution, the lower the fps?

 

Yep, that's the trade off.

 

damn.... Oh well. I guess I'll be getting the x1950xt for my next card with a Zalman VF900-Cu LED VGA Cooler since the one that comes with it is a piece of sh**.

Thanks for your help sammoris and everyone else that helped!

 

No problem. The stock cooler's relatively effective when the fan's up high, but good god it's noisy.

 

So do you think it would be nessessary for me to get the Zalman cooler and replace the tec cooler with it? Would it make a difference?

Thanks

 

I'd recommend doing it if you can.

 

Hi,

I also got this card since I'm also stuck with AGP and am tired of bad performance.

Anyways, after weeks of waiting for parts and messing around with the PSU and GPUs etc. etc. I finally got it working.
Well, after attaching the cooler tight enough and adding AS5, because before I did that the whole system would just turn off after seconds of starting.

But now I got it working and I tried BF2142 at Medium to Low settings (just 1024x768 with no AA and AF) and it is disappointing.
I could only get 30-40 fps and it would drop dramatically below that, still playing in Single Player Mode.
I mean, my previous ASUS nVidia GeForce 6800XT (128mb AGP) could do that, the only difference is that the X1950XT didn't stutter as much and has slightly more frames.


Now I thought it's probably the heat, because right now with just using FireFox, Everest shows the GPU is 68C and I noticed it goes up to or over 80C during BF2142.
The rest of the parts and the case are cooled well, that's not the problem for sure.

So is it the heat making the card perform bad?
I've seen someone else doing the same "mod" saying he got the card to go from 50C to 40C when idle:
http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?p=1030990942
I'm sure it helps because I got it to work while it didn't even start completely before this change, but it still seems too hot.

And should I get something like a Zalman VGA-cooler like these?:
http://zalman.co.kr/eng/product/view.asp?idx=192&code=013
http://zalman.co.kr/eng/product/view.asp?idx=215&code=013

Or will this one work well too, or should I get one with a fan?:
http://zalman.co.kr/eng/product/view.asp?idx=278&code=013

Or isn't this possible and/or will I break the card somehow?


Sorry for this long message, but I'm pissed it won't work for the money I put into it just to play some freaking games.
Please help me out.


GreetZ
- Damage Inc.



PS:
Where can I find the fan-control I've been reading about?
They turn, but maybe I can turn them up.
I can't find any fan-controls in the Catalyst Control Center, but then I'm also new to ATi-cards.

 

The heat's fine, what processor and RAM do you have? If you still have AGP, they're likely to be old, and I think they're posing more of a problem.

 

Really? 70 degrees when doing nothing?
Well, yeah actually the 6800XT was like 60 idle...

But I have a Pentium 4 HT 3GHz+, and the RAM is DDR SDRAM 1536MB.
It's a bit low for today's standards, should be at least 2Gb and DDR2 too.

I think the RAM can be replaced by a bit faster version of the same, but
the motherboard doesn't support much or nothing more than that.
It's not like I am short of RAM, I'm never pushing the limit.
The speeds would rather be a problem I guess.

I think most of the parts are from like 2004 or something.



By the way, I would still think it's the heat though.
The whole system would only start with the card when I tightened the cooler and added a bit more Arctic Silver.
Before that it would just shut down while not even having tested the system-memory.
And also, when I ran the Automated Clock Configuration Utility for the Overdrive, it turned off the computer again.
To me, seeming like it got too hot while testing different clock-speeds.


Could it be the PSU not having enough Watts?
I just bought the ZM500-HP because I was a Molex-connector short with my previous PSU and for more features.
But the manual for the X1950XT on some pages recommends 550W, but on the page for the system-requirements it says 450W at least.
And I'm right in between, so I don't know...

It's hard to believe though since these PSUs are also SLI-ready which would mean it can power 2 cards.
And I didn't even utilize all cables and connections included with the modular system.

 

What's the rating on the 12V rails? Thats what's really important.
As for the heat, it's strange you had cooler issues, but those temps are better than my X1900XT used to get, so I wouldn't worry too much. If they do prove problematic, perhaps consider a Zalman cooler for it.

 

Well, it seems like the cooler was the problem after I changed the pressure.
Also because other people complained it got too hot and the cooler was too loose.
And it was pretty loose, I could just wiggle it and almost look in between the cooler and card at the point of the core.

But I'm sorry, what do you mean by the rating on the 12V rails?


Btw, I just removed the latest drivers etc. I got from the ATi-website.
Instead I though I'd just use the Software-CD includes and it already installed way more than I downloaded from the ATi-website.
And it also showed more things/features which are a bit hard to name.
I know you have to keep everything updated, which I do usually, but the disc's software seems to be better.
Even though it performs the same...

I also have to say that in both cases, before installing the software, it gave me a warning that it's something like "not Windows-logo certified" or something.
That I should only use products made for Windows and I could continue or stop the setup.
But I don't think it should be a problem right?

AND, I also couldn't really verify the installation as shown in the manual.
That it should read 'ATI T200 Unified AVStream Driver' under 'Sound, video and game controllers' in the Device Manager.
I do however see 'Radeon X1950 Series' and 'Radeon X1950 Series Secondary' under "Monitor Adapters" or something similar.
Because I have it in Dutch, I don't know all the exact English translations in Windows.

But might that also be the difference, that it's in Dutch and it will show different so I CAN verify the installation?
Still it seems too different and something might be wrong.

 

Yea, to all who were wonduring, I got my card today, x1950xt, and the first thing I did (before even putting it into the computer to see how it ran) was I removed the TEC cooler, put on some AS5 and tightened to the farthest it will go...

THen I got everything installed, and installed the drivers from the web site, not the cd which was a bad idea... I play bf2 at a shi**y 12fps with the website drivers, and I am currently installed the drivers from the cd... Hopefully it'll make a difference.

Also, I got ATi Tool ran the little "show 3d view" thing and got a average of 549fps...

At the same time, I had rivatuner monitoring temps, and the highest mine got was to 69C or about 156F. (But I have a huge fan blowing on it the whole time...)

Is that to high?

Right now at idle temps the core is running at 40.12C according to rivatuner, with a 39.75C case temp...

Hope that info helps!

 

Those temps are actually really good, similar to mine.

 

40 when idle is good, mine is 70 right now, doing nothing but running Firefox and all the other standard things.
While I also corrected the cooler and added AS5 like here:
http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?p=1030990942

But be sure you have at least 1 fan blowing in cool air and 1 or 2 blowing out acting like exhausts.
That's how I have it, plus the PSU blowing out and fans on the CPU and CPU themselves.

Be sure to not put the BF-settings too high, you could get like 30-40 fps at Medium to Low settings like I can right now.
Even though I could already do that with the 6800XT, but this card should be capable of (almost) full settings.

 

Yea, its real weird... I was playing BF2 single player (dalian plant, 16 player) i got about 30-40fps, with medium/high settings, 2x AA and 1024x768..

Now heres the weird part. I went online to play some Sharqi 64 player map, and got only low 20s fps... and that was after I had modified myu settings to be mostly low...

I have no idea why the fps are so low... I wanted to get like 45-60fps, but I guess not.

Could it be the drivers??? I have catalyst 6.12 drivers.... (from cd)

Are there any better ones out there and is there a solution to why it is being that bad of a card?

Btw, it's not overheating, max temp was about 46C on BF2...


EDIT: I got a 3985 3dmark06 score.... Is that good? (ran at 1024x768)

 

I don't know whether the AGP bus is limiting, but so you know, an X1900XT with a 4200+ Dual core gets around 5500 3dmarks at 1280x1024.

 

is that the PCI-e card?

 

Yeah, hence why I say I'm not sure on hwo much AGP is limiting performance, as far as I was aware, the difference wasn't all that much, but I could be wrong, I'll have a look around and see what sort of numbers you should be getting.