34 replies to this topic

[Fulcrum]

$40 difference between the two cards but is it worth it? Why, why not.

thanks for the input.

it would also be appreciated if you would only discuss those cards

[AnonymousFlash]

Only those cards!? But the 7600gt pwns them for the same price!


ahem, sorry



If newegg's specs are right, 1650 has twice the pixel pipelines. And actually some of the x1650xt's are like 115, and the x1600's are 100, so we aren't talking 40 bucks here.

X1650XTs:
http://www.newegg.co...amp;Order=PRICE

[Stormy{CAN}]

If newegg's specs are right, 1650 has twice the pixel pipelines. And actually some of the x1650xt's are like 115, and the x1600's are 100, so we aren't talking 40 bucks here.

X1650XTs:
http://www.newegg.co...amp;Order=PRICE

It is when it is in Canadian funds. That and Newegg doesn't ship to Canada.

Fulcrum the 1600 Pro is pretty awful. If it is the 1600XT don't bother, go for the 1650 Pro as it is a bit quicker than the XT. Now if you were talking about the 1650XT I would say go for the 7600GT as it is faster still, and cheaper than the 1650XT. The one thing you don't say is whether you're after AGP or PCI-E. If it is PCI-E this,

http://www.tigerdire...a...&CatId=1560

is about the lowest price going for a 7600GT. Just to give a rough idea the difference between the 1600 and 1650 Pro,

http://www.gpureview...a...0&card2=447

Here's an idea, which slot is it that you need (AGP or PCI-E), and what is the most you can afford for a new card?

[Silverhawk]

hmmm to many people reading to many opinions.... any nvidia card that is eual to an ati card is allways more expensive.
I'll dig up a good chard I have somewhere and post it here. Might be a day or so.
Personally for the price you can get any of the cards listed you can add a couple dollars to it and get a X1900 pro for arround 200 and that card will walk all over all the cards listed here so far.

[Catfish]

I would look here for some really good advice: http://www.tomshardw..._for_the_money/

or here to compare almost any card against another: http://www23.tomshar...m/graphics.html

[Fulcrum]

I'm trying to stay away from the Nvidias because all of the "highend" cards require me to upgrade my power supply and I dont want to do that just yet

given what you guys have said, and a bit of research, I am now leaning towards the ATI Radeon X1950 Pro (which I found for the same price as the X1600 ) however I would first like to know if there would be anyproblems trying to run that on my, promise not to laugh, Emachines T6524 with a MS-7184 mother board and a gig of ram

lastly, if there are any Torontonians here, would you be able to recommend any stores that I could get a good deal from or any place with a lot of stores in a small area so it wont be too hard to find a decent deal.

Here is a list of various prices

http://www.canadacom...cid=999.243.272
http://www.futuresho...amp;catid=10524
http://www.tigerdire...a...&CatId=1560
http://www.canadacom...cid=999.243.272 << I wish

[Stormy{CAN}]

m trying to stay away from the Nvidias because all of the "highend" cards require me to upgrade my power supply and I dont want to do that just yet

And then you go and look at a card that has as much or more power requirements than the Nvidia cards, and yes the 1950 requires an external power connection. Might be a good idea to check the specs on your current power supply and post the relavent info (total watts, amps on the 3.3, 5 and 12V rails) back here. Might also want to go here,

http://www.extreme.o...culatorlite.jsp

and plug in all the components that you have as well as the card(s) you are looking at and see if your power supply is enough.

[Fulcrum]

aparently i only need ~ 240 W so i think I'm okay for now on that, thanks for the link.

however, Silverhawk said that the x1950 pro doesnt require a external power connection

[DarkFall]

aparently i only need ~ 240 W so i think I'm okay for now on that, thanks for the link.

however, Silverhawk said that the x1950 pro doesnt require a external power connection

I looked up just one x1950 pro and below is the description of stuff that comes with it. Maybe you misunderstood Silverhawk...

"Inside the box, Sapphire packs a couple handfuls of accessories: an S-video cable, a composite video cable, a PCI Express power cable, two VGA-to-DVI adapters, an HDTV-out cable, a composite-to-S-video adapter, and a CrossFire ribbon connector. In addition to the accessories, Sapphire includes a multi-language user manual, an installation driver CD, CyberLink PowerDVD 6 (2-channel version), and The Da Vinci Code game."

[Jac3624]

The x1950pro need power direct from your power supply. I think this card is worth it, so much so I intend on getting another one and running it in crossfire.


I checked out that site, it says that I would only need 440w to run a duel core cpu, 2 x1950pros, 4 sticks of ram, 1 ide HDD and 1 15,000rpm SCSI HDD. something just doesn't seem right about that.

[DarkFall]

The x1950pro need power direct from your power supply. I think this card is worth it, so much so I intend on getting another one and running it in crossfire.


I checked out that site, it says that I would only need 440w to run a duel core cpu, 2 x1950pros, 4 sticks of ram, 1 ide HDD and 1 15,000rpm SCSI HDD. something just doesn't seem right about that.

That site tells you that the lite version of it's calculator is a very general resource and you need to use the full version to get adequate results...

[Silverhawk]

where did you get that the 1950 requires an external??? Its just an adapter that hooks to your existing power supply. In my opinion the best deal out there right now is that X1900pro both in agp and PCIe for a range of 190-240 depending on where you buy it.

Depending on your system for the most part a 350W - 400W is plenty.
as for 440 w for that setup looks right to me but id personally run a 600 for crossfire just to keep the heat down and not work the supply so hard.

My current power supply is a 400w and this is what it is running
MB/CPU w/zalman cu7000led
ATI 9700 pro W/addon fan zalman
2 - sata drives seagate 320gigs
4 ibm scsi drives 36gig
2 dvd burners
4 lights cool blue
4 cooling fans temp controlled
and earlier I had another 4 scsi drives in this system but gave them to daughter.

Currently your board only has 1 pciE slot so crossfire is out but at least if you decide to do it later you will have a compatible card.

This is a decent article that covers your pricing issues

Atricle

The main difference between ATI and Nvidia is not price but hardware commands and hardware abilities.
Where ati does with hardware nvidia still performs with drivers.
Nvidia still lacks many featurs that just make gamming sweet.
Mark this tho as time keeps going forwards these 2 cards just get closer and closer to the exact same card.
then the only issue will be price and for the most part ATI wind there also.

I'll find that chart lol its arround somewhere its very sweet it shows many aspects of the cards and their ranks in terms of performance.
In the long run you will find that ATI/nvidia are like neck and neck most the time as per fps but vid quality is sweet when trueform takes over...

[Jac3624]

I was thinking that a 600w power supply would be best.

I got my x1950pro for $160USD, from newegg though. here's a link to the page: http://www.newegg.co...N82E16814102061

I'm sure tigerdirect has one for a good price.

:edit: here's a tigerdirect link to a x1950 pro that's about the same price as the one on newegg: http://www.tigerdire...e...&CatId=2349

[DarkFall]

where did you get that the 1950 requires an external??? Its just an adapter that hooks to your existing power supply. In my opinion the best deal out there right now is that X1900pro both in agp and PCIe for a range of 190-240 depending on where you buy it.

Silverhawk, nobody is saying the card requires an outside source. We are saying it has a separate power cord to your PC power supply, instead of the older cards that got all their power from just being plugged into their slot. That is something that needs to be taken into account for some of us. Especially if we are considering going to a Crossfire or SLi configuration in the near future. Most of us don't have power supplies that will handle the extra load of two additional power draws, if we have much in the way of peripherals, already. I am probably skirting the limit on mine already and since I am moving up to a dual core and SLi card, a new power supply is almost certainly a given...

[Stormy{CAN}]

I was thinking that a 600w power supply would be best.

I got my x1950pro for $160USD, from newegg though. here's a link to the page: http://www.newegg.co...N82E16814102061

I'm sure tigerdirect has one for a good price.

:edit: here's a tigerdirect link to a x1950 pro that's about the same price as the one on newegg: http://www.tigerdire...e...&CatId=2349

Just out of curiosity would you but why after I said in my first post that he is from Canada, and the fact that everyone on this forum has a flag of where they are from (granted some aren't correct, but Fulcrum's is), would link to a site in the US? Also Tiger Direct has a US and a Canadian site and the prices are nowhere near the same. Here is the same card on,

http://www.tigerdire...a...&CatId=1560

just a wee bit more than what you linked too.

where did you get that the 1950 requires an external??? Its just an adapter that hooks to your existing power supply.

Same difference, unless you want to nit-pick. The 1650 doesn't, and the 1950 does. Oh and you can not compare the power requirements of a 9700 to a 1950. If you check the specs on most 1900/1950 cards they list the following for power requirements,

450-Watt power supply or greater, 30 Amps on 12 volt rail recommended (assumes fully loaded system)

I realize that is for a fully loaded system, but would you really trust the power supply that comes in an off-the-shelf computer (Dell, Gateway, etc)?

vid quality is sweet when trueform takes over...

A game has to support Trueform to use it, and the last game I saw that did was Serious Sam SE. That is almost like saying a Physics card is a good idea for BF2, except that BF2 doesn't support/use it.

[DarkFall]

I always test my system as if it were fully loaded. It's safer that way and I'm too poor to replace parts frequently...

[Fulcrum]

im a bit of a hardware noob so i'll be asking a lot of questions

would this power supply work?

http://www.tigerdire...a...&CatId=1078

[Stormy{CAN}]

As a high quality paperweight, yes. For powering high-end computer compnents, no.

[Fulcrum]

http://www.tigerdire...a...&CatId=1078 ?

[Stormy{CAN}]

Whether it is enough to run a 1950 I can't say, I have seen quite a ew user reviews that say they are using it no problem with a 1950 or 7900 series card though. If it helps any that is the same psu that I am currently using powering the following,

http://www.pcpitstop...1ZTHWQASFWSWJEW

with zero stability issues.