Video Card Thread (Mostly Gecube x1950xt)

Hm, yeah I would get it a controller to slow it down permanently.
But it's really hard to find a 4-pin PWM controller.

Besides that, this noise is just weird seriously, I'll see what another one does and if still, I'll get the "Light" version or something:
http://arctic-cooling.com/fans2.php?idx=103&data=2&disc=
It goes at 500RPM (from the other one 1500RPM) less, but it's aparently only 2db less, but 22db should also be good right?

 

PCI only I'm afraid, not PCIe or AGP, just PCI.

 

Huw, what do you mean?

 

Dinc, can you try running a game and tell me whatfps you are getting?

Like bf2, everything on high and 1024/768.

Play a map like sharq online, or if you can't do that then play something like dalian plant singleplayer, and tell me about what the average fps you get, and ill tell you mine.

If you get a lot lower than me, than there is something definetly wrong with your card.

 

I can tell you guys now, if BF2 doesn't run perfectly at 1024x768 max detail no matter what you throw at it, that card's underperforming.

 

But, even though I think mine performs worse than yours, I think your lowest framerates aren't good with higher BF2-settings.
I mean, seriously, like Sam said, it should be performing better.

I don't quite remember my performances, but I've only tested it on Gulf Of Oman single-player.
The frames were about... what, 40-50 max, down to 20 sometimes, something like that.

And then BF2 is lighter than BF2142 I have noticed long ago.
The only difference is that with an older card I'd still god for 2142, because it just runs smoother despite the lower framerates.
And with that I mean, BF2 just has a lot more stutters for some reason, it's really annoying.

The first time in like 2005 or beginning '06 or something, when I just tried out the Demo, it would stutter like hell.
When I tried the 2142-Demo, it would perform the same, only smoother.
They must have optimized something in the engine the games share.

That's btw also something that I have less now, stutters... the framerates perform the same as my 6800XT. :S
Except, some higher settings have been accepted by the card.


So, I'll try Sharqi or else Daqing in Single-Player and see what it does on High settings.
I was going to say bad, but I think it will rather turn off the computer again...

 

I've just played Sharqi, everything on Medium, only Geometry and Textures on High, AA 4x and 1024x768.

When you get that starting-screen, you know before the match starts, like Sharqi shows the TV-Station, I can actually already see how it performs and also just looking at the movement of the cursor.

On that "starting-screen" I see it runs around 70fps.
When I'm on the construction site on the roof of the building with the flag, everywhere I look it goes to around 30 to around 40, moments up to 50 especially facing the TV-Station.

Now I'll try some other maps and then with everything at High as you requested, but I'm afraid it will just shut down again.

----------

But I might have found something important though:

You know how your screen refreshes slowly when there are no drivers installed?
I mean, more like when you scroll internet- or Explorer-pages, things like that.
Kind of like you see a "line" of the refreshing actually going over the page instead of fluently moving the page.

Well, I have BF2 tabbed out right now, the game is unloaded and in the menus though.
But I have the scrolling acting the same as working without drivers.
Except it only acts like that when scrolling on the internet and with pictures in ACDSee, and not in Explorer.
Oh, and also it's always in 85hertz instead of lower without drivers.


So I think that the card isn't working right when it switches to the 3D-Mode, that something in that part of the card is wrong or something.
It's really weird...

 

So, everything on High this time, I didn't know if you also meant the AF and AA on highest (I did AA 4x to start with though), but I did it.
On Gulf Of Oman to start with.

Very surprisingly it didn't shut down the computer, and when I tabbed out the temperature was somewhere in the 50s I think all the time.

Only the framerate was still that old 30-40s all the time, sometimes a couple of 10s higher but it usually wouldn't go under 20.
So somewhere in the 20s lowest, only at 1 intense moment when everybody was at the last flag at the Construction Site, I saw it even drop down to 16 for a split second.

And that was even with just 16 players, Single Player Mode which is heavier on the CPU though, but still, the card has to render the visual part.

I'll try some more things, I could even try a more player map I think now.
A while I ago I downloaded those custom maps, so maybe I could try 64 players with bots :S .


Oh yeah, something else I wanted to say:
It feels like this card is like being "capped".
You know how they say some games have a framerate-cap or something, that it only goes up to so many frames for a specific game on purpose.
Well, it's like this card just doesn't go higher with the frames but still it makes no difference in framerate between Medium and High settings.
Cause it still went smooth, not much of stuttering, just like very tiny ones or a bit laggy/jerky.
A lil but, just a lil' bit.

And it WILL go higher with simpler things though, so it's just weird...
On the other side, Need For Speed Underground 2 works worse on this card.
I JUST DON'T UNDERSTAND THAT!

 

well need for speed games (or at least the more recent ones) are coded really badly so that doesn't surprise me. Can you turn the resolution up to 1280x1024? If so, does it run acceptably then? If it does, it's not been your Graphics card all along, it'll be something else.

 

Also this Need For Speed from like 2004?
The newer ones were pretty different, Most Wanted and Carbon.

I'm pretty sure it's the card, I ran it with the 6800XT on the same settings (full) without a problem, around 30 fps at all times.
With this card it's even under that, while much heavier games like we mentioned a lot before perform the same or even better.

Why would it run better on a higher resolution btw?

 

it wouldn't, but if the GPU was at fault, it'd run worse. If it ran the same, the GPU probably isn't at fault.

 

Well dinc, I think you are now getting about the same frames as me in bf2.

If you're using fraps, then bf2 has a cap at 100fps, my game won't go over that, even at the loading screen.

Do you still have the drivers from the disk? Maybe try downloading the new ones, but uninstall the old ones via ad or remove programs. Then just reboot and install the newest.

I had a relativly big frame rate change from the drivers.

This is a dumb question but did you uninstall the nvidia drivers before you put the card in?

Also I noticed on the x1950 that there is a 4 pin molex connecter inbetween the card and the tec fan that you need to pull out and connect. It is kinda hidden, but the instructions say you need to plug that in or the card won't work right.

 

Yes,do plug that in or it definitely won't run right!

 

Yeah, I tried 3 different sets of drivers I believe.
One I first downloaded before I had the card, which is 1 version before the current one.
Which was I believe 7.6 and the current version would be 7.7.
In between those I tried the disc-version, but it all didn't make much of a difference.

There are also newer drivers from recently on the GeCube-website, I don't know how those would work since they would probably get the complaints and hopefully try to fix it.
Didn't try those...

And I didn't use Fraps since Battlefield has it's own fps-counter.
If you don't know that or how to get it do this:
Press 'End', which will open the console, then type 'renderer.drawfps 1' and press 'Enter', which will make the counter appear, then 'End' again to close the console.
This counter, as I told before, will also show the time between frames.
I guess you could kind of see the stress on the performance too there.
That time will be 10.0 (or something) lowest, and like you said the frames will be 100 highest.

But it's not really the "cap" I meant btw, more like the card has a cap or a limitation, which would obviously be it's performance.


And yes, I do uninstall other interfering drivers and older drivers etc. of course .
Also connected the Molex-connector, I read manuals and have an eye for detail.
It's also the thing that made it use 3 Molex-connectors when you didn't have a PCIe-connector on your PSU, so you'd have to split the 6-pin to 2 Molexes.
So I was 1 Molex short so I had to buy a new PSU, so I got that Zalman and I really like it shall I stop talking now lol...

 

Could it be a power issue? I have a antec 500watt psu, with many splitters to connect all my hardware.

I have a a "y" splitter that doesn't come from the official source, it comes from a cable that goes through the lights, which may not provide enough power?

Maybe I should get a cable that comes directly from the psu, and connects the gfx card?

Also, do you think I am stressing the hardware and am running out of power?, because I heard that the x1950xt likes to take 200 to 250watts of power.

What do you guys think (according to the specs in my sig)

 

Depends how good the PSU is, A Corsair 520W PSU can power an 8800GTX and Pentium D, which sums over 80W more than you're using. However, Antecs vary so I wouldn't know.

 

I would just connect everything as directly and "grouped" as possible, just to be sure.

So meaning, for instance 1 cable with 2 connectors to 2 HDDs.
Another wire with 2 connectors to 2 ODDs.
Then another wire looping through all the fans.
And another one for the cards or just the GPU only.

But I think it shouldn't be too much of a problem otherwise.
Even though I believe I did read in some manual that you have to connect everything or the card separate.
And I guess that would indeed be because of the high wattage.

 

ok, i just wanted to make sure that I wouldnt kill my mobo, psu and gfx card (happened 2 times in that past, different psu thugh) by adding that thermaltake tidewater to my system...

as i said before, i play my games with the side of the case off, and a big fan that blows directly on the x1950xt, but i really want to play my games with the case door on and the lights on (so it looks cool). I put my fingerr in between the card and the heatsink on the x1950xt and there was alot of hot air blowing through it (from the 2 standard fans on the TEC) but it was still really hot (this was with the big fan on the card to.). I just hope the tidewater is up to be good enough to do the job.

I have a 4 pin molex connector that connects to a fan controller, which is connected to 2 80mm fans, so I save some connecterrs there, and then i have 2 other 80mm case fans that are connected to molex conecters.

I just hope I have enough juice to power everything, and enough connecterrs (think ill buy a splitter when i orderr the tidewater as well as a seperate cable to connect the gfx card directly the psu, which will spare the 2 connecters that are connected to it right now.)

(really random, but YAY, im a senior member!)what comes next and how many posts do I have to get to that? How did you become a addict sammorris/

 

Congrats on the senior member. I belive it's 5000 posts to become an addict, and 2000 for a senior member. Not sure though.
As for the heatsink, theyre supposed to get hot, it's what happens.

 

Yeah, the air coming from it is really hot isn't it?
I found it felt kinda like a blowdryer or something, even though the card itself would be 40-45 degrees.
But of course the heat has to go somewhere besides the card, so yeah, that's what you get.

I just wish they would've made it so the black thing was connected to the back grill so it would have more chance to get blown out of the case.
But it's like half-way there so I might be able to semi-amateur-mess with it so it will about do that.

You know what's also retarded, all of those cards with the coolers so called "blowers" or something, are made exactly the opposite or mirroring way.
Instead of blowing the hot air to the back it will blow towards the front of the case.
That's with even the best cards, except for some really big ones.

I mean, jesus, why not do the same in the opposite way, it's the same amount of everything, materials, building, PLUS it will get rid of the hot air.
Morons...



PS:
The card's already been sent back since Thursday, so I hope I will be receiving a new one by Monday or Tuesday.
IF they agree with my demand :S .
I just kinda wrote down I WANT A NEW ONE TO COMPARE PERFORMANCES, since the technical department on the phone said I should put on the RMA-papers what I wanted to happen...

I bet they're wondering how I got it to work since I removed all the "modifications" lol.
N00bs ... :\

MAN, I just want to play some games without getting "lag-pwnd".