It's smaller than I thought! (x1950xt)

[kalniel]

The sapphire x1950xt arrived this morning in a tiny package! I thought it must be an OEM box or something, but it's the full thing

Comes with a driver CD, 2 dvi->VGA adaptors, two break out cables for HDCP and VIVO, and some bling sapphire stickers.

Card itself is much smaller than expected too - it has that horrible cooler but I was expecting it to be larger. I won't get a chance to fire it up until this afternoon though.

It definately is GDDR3 ram that's used, 256mb worth at 900mhz (1800 effective). That means it's not going to overclock on the ram much unlike the GDDR4 powered xtx card. Not that I'll be trying though (sorry, I value my warrenties too much!)

[notsobig]

I recieved my card(x1950pro) today also, here are some benchmark result. It seems it's slightly faster than X1800XT which I used to have, but not by much. But for the price it's definitely a good performer. But unfortunately mine started showing artifact already so it's going back to shop next tuesday, bah

3dmark03 15505
3dmark05 9975
3dmark06 4369

[Clunk]

i just overclocked mine for the first time and scored 6750 in 3dmark06, not done 05 yet

that was 730/790.

edit: nevermind, mines only an x1900xt sorry.

[notsobig]

That's very nice score Clunk, I'm probably getting x1900xt or 7900gto instead next time, it seems 1950 series cards still need good driver and support from third party tools such as atitool or ati tray tools, at the moment there's not much you can't do overclockwise, other than sticking to very buggy overdrive to get minimal result. Surprisingly even the latest ATI official driver doesn't support this card yet which is quite annoying

[cptwhite_uk]

true - i had to use the dirvers from the install CD! quite suprising!

[Smokey21]

6.10 cats are out which support the X1950XTX. My Sapphire X1800XT came in quite a small box as well, must be sapphire.

Im glad i didn't get a X1950, wanna spend big and get a big increase, iam trying to wait for the R600, cause i really want ATI.

[Ady168uk]

tempted to have a play around with the G80's but same as Smokey21...waiting on ATI, my friend has ordered a GTX so at least can see how good it really is.

not sure what to buy atm, either nothing or a x1950pro/xt till R600

[JimNastics]

not sure what to buy atm, either nothing or a x1950pro/xt till R600

Yep that's what I'm doing, going for the x1950pro to tie me over

[kalniel]

Ok, it rocks

Went from 15-25fps on Oblivion at medium, to 40fps on full!

Added 4xAA and 8XAF - High Quality AF at that mind you, and it's now 35-40fps and looks stunning. Feels like I'm playing an FPS it's so responsive.

First run through 3dmark06 gives around 5060 - it's not a core2duo and I have a load of junk in the background.. plus I like running at high quality textures etc

Not too great an improvement in Gothic 3 though - seems they need to tweak the drivers a bit (or improve the game )

Talking of drivers, I'm using the Sapphire provided drivers on the CD, but they're apparently cat 6.10's anyway.

Not had a single bug or artifact. Noise isn't as bad as I feared, but more than any other card I've heard - sounds like the DVD drive is spinning up when it starts to get hot, but it is quite a gradual speed up over several stages.

[oralpain]

I always replace the thermal compound of any card I get, before I use it. Since I've started doing this, I have not had a single one fail. Most cards really are not assembled well.

3dmark03 15505
3dmark05 9975
3dmark06 4369

3dmark 05 and 06 scores are pretty impressive for a stock card at that price point.

I was seriously considering an X1950Pro, but it would not have fit easily (would have hit my SATA ports), and overclocking seems rather limited at this point. I had to settle for a 7900GS, which after my cooling modifications, was about $40 more expensive, and a moderately better peformer. All in all, they seem pretty much even, bang for the buck wise.

It definately is GDDR3 ram that's used, 256mb worth at 900mhz (1800 effective). That means it's not going to overclock on the ram much unlike the GDDR4 powered xtx card. Not that I'll be trying though (sorry, I value my warrenties too much!)

Give it some more voltage. I'm at 909MHz on 1.4ns GDDR3!

[kalniel]

Give it some more voltage. I'm at 909MHz on 1.4ns GDDR3!

Not that I'll be trying though (sorry, I value my warrenties too much!)

also

Motherboard: ASRock 939 Dual Sata 2

Card seems well built and cooler properly attached though - fan only very gradually speeds up and it's never got to full speed yet, despite multiple 06 runs and plenty of Oblivion abuse.

[notsobig]

I was seriously considering an X1950Pro, but it would not have fit easily (would have hit my SATA ports), and overclocking seems rather limited at this point. I had to settle for a 7900GS, which after my cooling modifications, was about $40 more expensive, and a moderately better peformer. All in all, they seem pretty much even, bang for the buck wise.

Yeah, Sapphire one was quite lengthy, I somehow managed to fit it eventually but I had to move my HD. If you're into overclocking I think 7900GS is better choice, my x1900pro didn't overclock at all well.

[mistrip]

Could someone measure the length of the X1950pro or x1900xt? I'm just trying to find out if it'll fit in my case before i buy.

[shaithis]

The lengths of the cards are no greater then most gfx cards, they are just bulky due to the coolers used.

[kalniel]

The x1950xt is actually the longest card I've had yet, it overhangs the southbridge on my motherboard and makes the cables a pain to route. It isn't very tall compared to my old card though, and the cooler isn't at all bulky (it's infact smaller than I expected, hence this thread ).

[notsobig]

Could someone measure the length of the X1950pro or x1900xt? I'm just trying to find out if it'll fit in my case before i buy.

I've already returned my card so I can't tell you exact size but it's long.
Look here and just compare the size with 7900GS!
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/vid...-gf7900gs.html
I think Sapphire site has some large pictures of the card so if you are interested check them out(If you are patient I think you can calculate the actual size from the picture since PCI-E slots have fixed length)