Best gfx card for $150-$190? X1950?

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yuppiejr

Golden Member
Jul 31, 2002
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I'd go with a 1900XT or 1950XT w/ 512 megs in the FS/FT forums here. That's just me though. :)
 
bryanW1995

bryanW1995

Lifer
May 22, 2007
11,144
32
91
I just bought that exact card. It was 149.99 AR 10 days ago when I ordered it. It went up 4 days later to 159.99 AR. yesterday I posted my review and it was back down to 149.99, this time after a $20 mir. now it is up to 179.99 AR, probably because their sale worked too well and they started running low. I still think that is a good price, but it is creeping up closer to the gts 320 mb price, too. There is no way to know if newegg or anyone else is planning another price drop, and 179.99 AR is still good for that card, but I think I'd wait to see if they drop it again if you're not in a big hurry.

By the way, I overclocked mine to 681core/999memory on stock cooling. Unfortunately, I don't need that much power so I rolled it back to default for now, but it's nice to know it's there.

The rebate does seem a little more complicated than my 7600 gt rebate, but it's not really that much more complicated. You just have to follow directions and hunker down for the long wait.
 
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csmaster2005

Senior member
Nov 13, 2005
302
0
0
hah, how ironic. I did get it yesterday for $169.99 before rebate, $149.99 AR. Now it's up to 199 before rebate. Guess I got lucky!

Just curious, when running most games at the default settings, does the fan kick in and get really loud? Most people said it's a really loud card on NE.
I plan to use it mostly for running dual screen, with the occasional gaming. The case I'm using is going to be then antec 900, which is one of the coldest cases I think, so I'm hoping to not have to get the stock fan on the graphics card to be that fast and thus eliminate all that noise. I even got a 120mm fan to put on the case window and points directly at the card.

Also, what values did you use for OC it, and what did you use to do the actual ocing? How hot did it get?
thanks
 
bryanW1995

bryanW1995

Lifer
May 22, 2007
11,144
32
91
Originally posted by: csmaster2005
hah, how ironic. I did get it yesterday for $169.99 before rebate, $149.99 AR. Now it's up to 199 before rebate. Guess I got lucky!

Just curious, when running most games at the default settings, does the fan kick in and get really loud? Most people said it's a really loud card on NE.
I plan to use it mostly for running dual screen, with the occasional gaming. The case I'm using is going to be then antec 900, which is one of the coldest cases I think, so I'm hoping to not have to get the stock fan on the graphics card to be that fast and thus eliminate all that noise. I even got a 120mm fan to put on the case window and points directly at the card.

Also, what values did you use for OC it, and what did you use to do the actual ocing? How hot did it get?
thanks
Click to expand...
I'd heard about the bloated catalyst suite but I had to see it for myself. Unfortunately, I tried installing twice and couldn't get it to run even after all .net updates, so I went to ATI tool. It is a breeze to use. I just hit the "core max" button to get 681.75. Had to reboot once core max was reached, then the same with mem max to get 999. I didn't try both of them together as I mainly play civ 4 right now, but I ordered sup com (29.99 at amazon right now btw) so I'll push it more when that arrives. Card isn't really pushed on civ4 at stock speeds so I haven't used the max oc much. The fan defaults to 27%, this is pretty quiet. I have a zalman 9700 led plus 3 case fans, x1950xt stock fan at 27% is about equal to 2000 rpm noise on zalman. Fan kicks up to 50 % at 80c, which has only happened a few times to me on civ4 playing earth1000 ad mod in warlords at all max settings on 1440x900. 50 % is a definite noise jump, but not so loud that it is irritating. ATI tool allows you to manually set the fan to different speeds at different temps, but default gradually cranks it up until it hits 100 % at 100c iirc. I am at 63c idle at stock, it moves up to 67c at 681/945, and down to 58c at my low-performance/everyday use speed of 500/580.

I have a high performance setting at 668/945 right now but haven't used it much. I'll use it tonight at the highest oc that I get to remain stable and give you more fan noise info.


By the way, my ambient is 24c and card is paired with opteron 180 in a no-name case. Case has a front and top fan for intake and rear exhaust fan, plus zalman blowing on exhaust fan, so it is fairly well ventilated.
 
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csmaster2005

Senior member
Nov 13, 2005
302
0
0
hmm ok sounds good, cant wait to get all my stuff setup and messed with. I should have 2 120mm front fans, 1 rear 120mm, 1 window 120mm pointing right at the gfx card, and 1 MASSIVE 200mm (or something like that) fan at the top pointing down. Additionally I have a zalman 7700 for the cpu, and I just realized I dont know if it will get it the way with this mobo that I planned to get - http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16813128050 because that one tower near the CPU might hit it...

Anyways thanks for info so far, I gotta find some new games to mess with and power up my computer. I'm planning on going with a intel E6750.
 
bryanW1995

bryanW1995

Lifer
May 22, 2007
11,144
32
91
Yeah, I'm looking at that p35 ds3r, too, but I'm worried about how my crucial ballistix ddr2 1066 will run on it. I've heard of people running them with no probs, but it's not on the officially supported list. Plus, I'm getting a quad and plan to oc so I might step up into the $200 mobo price range.
 
bryanW1995

bryanW1995

Lifer
May 22, 2007
11,144
32
91
pc 6400 is easy, there is a ton of that on their list. pc 8500 doesn't have very many listed, however. I know that it's probably ok...
 
bryanW1995

bryanW1995

Lifer
May 22, 2007
11,144
32
91
ok, I just changed my settings in ati tool to 675/945. let's see how that does in 3d mark. by the way, the fan % is as follows at default in atitool : <70c=27%, 70c=32%, 80c=36%, 88c=50%, 91c=55%, 94c=59%, 97c=68%, 100c=100%.
 
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