X1950 Pro- $164 video card worth the purchase?

[Phosphate]

I just noticed this one sells for $164 at New egg. Does this card over-take any others for best performance in its price range?

I need something better for when I move up to a 22" widescreen LCD monitor.

[Track]

X1900XT 256MB for 200$ is still a better deal.
7900 GTO 512MB for 200$ is even better if u dont care abt Crysis, HDR+AA, etc.
X1950XT 256MB will/has come out already.

The X1950 Pro has only 2/3 of the pipelines, thats why it is not as good as the X1900XT even though it has an 80nm core. Not to mention the 80nm accounts for lower temperatures and not higher overclocking, but even if it did u would not even be able to get to the X1900XT's stock freaquency performance at the highest overclock possible on an 80nm.

[Mike]

The card is out of stock at newegg, but it's absolutely worth the money.

Track, link me to one x1900xt, 7900gto or x1950xt in stock for $200...I bet you $5 you can't.

[Track]

Maybe not 200$ exactly, but once the DX10 cards are released it will be even lower than 200$.
I can probably find some 220-230$ X1900XT 256MB/7900 GTO 512MB. But if ur buying something that expensive ur probably going to want to look at Newegg and such, so the price is around 240-250$, wich isnt a lot worse, but if u want the X1950 Pro for 164$ until DX10, then i suppose it isnt such a bad deal. I mean here its over 325$.

[bucdan]

man they have a 1950 xt version too???? is it for the 256 mb while the xtx is 512? kind of a waste if you ask me id go for the x1950 pro and get crossfire out of that... getting annoyed with the crossfire edition cards needed. i didnt know their gonna have a x1950 pro for agp. or is that just a assumption???

[Track]

You can see the X1950 Pro listed as an AGP card on this site.

ATI finally got the idea. So now there will actually be a DIFFERENCE beetween the X1950XT and the X1950XTX.

75GB/s on 256MB is kind of a waste, but im sure ull get a few more FPS.

[MrWizard6600]

yeah, Sapphires got the "X1950XT 256MB" goin on for pretty cheap. i dont understand this card in the slightest, im asuming its rebinned X1950XTXs, but then what are all the other board partners doing with their X1950XTXs if they dont meet the standard?

[Track]

The X1950XT is just like the X1950XTX, except it has half the RAM and DDR3.. so its abt the same as the X1900XT 256MB.
The X1950XT has the EXACT same performance as the X1900XT 512MB, because of it's somewhat higher memory clock.

At low resolutions there isnt MUCH of a difference beetween 256MB and 512MB, but if u need the highest resolution textures.. 512MB is better, although not for any game out today so i guess 256MB can get u the same quality as 512MB. Only thing u need to worry abt is DX10 games.

[MrWizard6600]

I'm reasonably sure that the "XXX50" means GDDR4 these days, bar NV and X16XX.

so I think that the X1950XT does have GDDR4 memory. just less of it.....

Man, I wish I could trust what sapphire posts on their site. It would make things so much easier. lol, I betcha the webmaster is looking to GPU review for the answer.

[Mike]

The X1950 XT (i.e. not the XTX) uses GDDR3. From what I've seen, GDDR4 only gets you about 200MHz more than GDDR3.

[Track]

If u dont take Sapphire's word, whos word will u take?

[MrWizard6600]

GURU 3D stated they were able to push their GDDR4 to speeds well into 2GHz

i still dont think it makes sense that the X1950XT has GDDR3. why would sapphire do that? espicially since soo many havnt been able to overclock their X1900XTX mem to that speeds. why would sapphire release a version with higher mem clocks and lower core clocks then the X1900XTX, if they dont use GDDR4?

and its not that i dont take sapphires word, its that i dont take sapphires webmasters word. he screwed up in the origonal posting, whos to say hes not screwing up now.

FURTHERMORE, explain the use of the R580+!

[Track]

GURU 3D stated they were able to push their GDDR4 to speeds well into 2GHz

i still dont think it makes sense that the X1950XT has GDDR3. why would sapphire do that? espicially since soo many havnt been able to overclock their X1900XTX mem to that speeds. why would sapphire release a version with higher mem clocks and lower core clocks then the X1900XTX, if they dont use GDDR4?

and its not that i dont take sapphires word, its that i dont take sapphires webmasters word. he screwed up in the origonal posting, whos to say hes not screwing up now.

FURTHERMORE, explain the use of the R580+!

Why can the GDDR3 memory found on the 8800s and the X1950XT overclock to almost the same clocks as the GDDR4 memory on the X1950XTX?
For the same reason the 7900 GTX can overclock more than the 7800 GTX - the fact that the GDDR3 uses 90nm GDDR3 while the rest use 110nm+ GDDR3.

And if 90nm GDDR3 can overclock almost to GDDR4 speeds, why waste money on the more expensive GDDR4?

*Note - The faster memory on the X1950XT only makes it as good as the X1900XT 512MB, because having 256MB is a bottleneck with anything higher than 1024x768.

[David]

What? I heard you can clock gddr4 to 3.2ghz and gddr3 can go up 1.3ghz.

[Track]

What? I heard you can clock gddr4 to 3.2ghz and gddr3 can go up 1.3ghz.

You have to clerify what GDDR4 and GDDR3 mean.
If ur talking abt the GDDR4 found on the X1950XTX, then it can only overclock to 2.4-2.6Ghz, like the GDDR3 found on the 7900 GTX can only overclock to 1.8Ghz.
Now the GDDR3 on the 8800 GTS can overclock to ~2.2Ghz because it uses a 90nm fabrication process.
If u had GDDR4 with a 90nm process, u might be able to get it to 3.2Ghz.. ull have to wait and see.

[MrWizard6600]

Why can the GDDR3 memory found on the 8800s and the X1950XT overclock to almost the same clocks as the GDDR4 memory on the X1950XTX?
For the same reason the 7900 GTX can overclock more than the 7800 GTX - the fact that the GDDR3 uses 90nm GDDR3 while the rest use 110nm+ GDDR3.

And if 90nm GDDR3 can overclock almost to GDDR4 speeds, why waste money on the more expensive GDDR4?

*Note - The faster memory on the X1950XT only makes it as good as the X1900XT 512MB, because having 256MB is a bottleneck with anything higher than 1024x768.

uhh, ive never heard ram measured in 90 or 110 nm die sizes, Iv heard them measured in column sizes of 1.1ns, but to that end, Iv never heard of .9ns ram.

and I strongly disagree with this statement! My 6600GT w/ 128Mb of ram manages 1200X1000 and is able to cache all the vertex and pixel info for that resolution! My friend is able to play CS:S and BF2042 @ 1600X1200 comfertably and he has 256MB of ram! 512MB is excessive! emmensly excessive!

[Track]

Sorry, i meant 'ns' not 'nm". And yes, the 8800s use 0.9ns RAM.

The 6600 GT is such a weak card, compared to the X1950XT, and because of that the 6600 GT can only run low-medium graphical settings not including AA. This means that it's performance is going to be low in any case so the last thing u will notice is that it's slow because it's using the RAM/HDD for storing textures or frames. And also, 256MB can run a high resolution, the only problem is that it will be slower than if u had 512MB. If u dial down the graphical settings with the 256MB u will be able to get 512MB, because the 256MB makes it slower, not immpossible to run. So the 6600 GT, again, is using such a low graphical setting compared to the X1950XT in the same game, that even if the memory was decreasing performance, it wouldnt matter.