PowerColor Radeon X1950 PRO Extreme 256 MB @ [H]

FrgMstr

FrgMstr

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PowerColor Radeon X1950 PRO Extreme 256 MB - Can PowerColor's Radeon X1950 PRO Extreme Edition overcome its price premium and offer better performance than the GeForce 7900 GS? Will the enlarged cooling unit help with overclocking? We will take a look and tell you exactly which video card is the better value.

The PowerColor Radeon X1950 PRO Extreme 256 MB is a very competitive video card, when compared with the GeForce 7900 GS. Buyers concerned about noise can rest easy with this video card. It is just as quiet as the silent Zalman VF700-AlCu from our recent evaluation of a Gigabyte GeForce 7950 GT. If you want the best bang for your buck, the PowerColor Radeon X1950 PRO Extreme 256 MB is it.
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Good read. Do you think that you might ever add DVD playback testing to your reviews?
 
What about DVD playback do you think should be tested?

Edit:

What I mean is: Exactly what is in question? You should expect basically every Radeon X1K series to have roughly the same image quality (excellent) during DVD playback. Performance can vary, obviously, but I haven't seen a video card have DVD playback performance problems in a very long time. Like, since around 2001 or so.
 
Great article, I was just about to build a new system - with a 7900gs in it. Then I realised that the x1950pros were starting to sell for just about the same price. The only concern I had was noise. The accelero cooler is a nice touch.
 
Mark_Warner said:
What about DVD playback do you think should be tested?

Edit:

What I mean is: Exactly what is in question? You should expect basically every Radeon X1K series to have roughly the same image quality (excellent) during DVD playback. Performance can vary, obviously, but I haven't seen a video card have DVD playback performance problems in a very long time. Like, since around 2001 or so.
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Maybe something about HD? For instance, is HD video better looking with a x1950 over the 7900gs? Also, does the x1950pro here use less system resources when playing back HD (as compared to the 7900gs)?

I'm guessing, though, that the first question will rely mainly on software (i.e., whether or not nvidia's purevideo codec is being used with the 7900gs etc...)?
 
Mark_Warner said:
What about DVD playback do you think should be tested?

Edit:

What I mean is: Exactly what is in question? You should expect basically every Radeon X1K series to have roughly the same image quality (excellent) during DVD playback. Performance can vary, obviously, but I haven't seen a video card have DVD playback performance problems in a very long time. Like, since around 2001 or so.
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Since both cards are both fairly silent and post excellent gaming results, some may use the card in a HTPC system. So comparing as was mentioned above, cpu usage, quality of video and HD is just a thought.
 
Your suggestions have been noted and considered. Thank you for your input.
 
Personally doing a review on a midranged PCIe graphics card is pointless with all the current choices of cards.

Had this been a last hurrah AGP review, you might have gotten many really excited considering there are still millions of AGP users that have not bought into the PCIe change.

Even CPU mag blew it bigtime this past issue when they wasted about 4 pages reviewing AGP cards and didn't even include the 1950 agp.
 
AGP is dead. Sure, there are people still using it, but they are just delaying the inevitable.
 
Is it no big deal that the cooling device on this video card blows the warm air on the motherboard instead of out the back of the case (like a lot of video cards do)? Quite a few of the customer reviews of this card over at Newegg are critical of this situation. What do those of you who are knowledgable about video card cooling think of this situation? Other than the fact that this card might make your machine run warmer it looks like it is probably a pretty good video card for the money (imho).

CB
 
Good read guys as I just upgraded to a X1950pro from a 7900 GS (which I had for a month lol)

Anyways, I see you guys were having fun dealing with O/Cing the memory on that card. Its a common issue (even on my BBAti card).
http://www.overclock.net/ati/145755-x1950pro-oddity.html
Basically you just need to check your video card's stepping and then O/C by that many MHz at a time. If I didnt do this my computer would just freeze when I tried to OC, but now I have the memory up to 769Mhz stable.
 
Mark_Warner said:
AGP is dead. Sure, there are people still using it, but they are just delaying the inevitable.
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If it's so dead then why did they just come out with the x1950 agp? And why is nvidia coming out with a card to counter it?

Yes, PCIe is the bomb for high end gamers, but for millions of us that still have decently powered AGP systems we still have another 5 years to go before we really need to change.

AGP still lives.
 
Curious142 said:
Is it no big deal that the cooling device on this video card blows the warm air on the motherboard instead of out the back of the case (like a lot of video cards do)? Quite a few of the customer reviews of this card over at Newegg are critical of this situation. What do those of you who are knowledgable about video card cooling think of this situation? Other than the fact that this card might make your machine run warmer it looks like it is probably a pretty good video card for the money (imho).

CB
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I'm not an expert but I have the AGP version of this card. Before I bought I read several reviews, not only of the Powercolor card but also of the X2 cooler. Do a search on the net for "Accelero X2 cooler review". There are tons of reviews. I was convinced after the 3rd or 4th article that the cooler does a great job and the design was well thought out.
 
Mark_Warner said:
AGP is dead. Sure, there are people still using it, but they are just delaying the inevitable.
Click to expand...

On just about all the reviews I have read, the AGP versions of the X1950 Pro cards perform equal to or better than the PCI-e versions.

So there is a lot to be said for delaying the inevitable.
 
dej166 said:
I'm not an expert but I have the AGP version of this card. Before I bought I read several reviews, not only of the Powercolor card but also of the X2 cooler. Do a search on the net for "Accelero X2 cooler review". There are tons of reviews. I was convinced after the 3rd or 4th article that the cooler does a great job and the design was well thought out.
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Thanks for the reply. Sounds like you did your homework.

CB
 
Rob94hawk said:
If it's so dead then why did they just come out with the x1950 agp? And why is nvidia coming out with a card to counter it?

Yes, PCIe is the bomb for high end gamers, but for millions of us that still have decently powered AGP systems we still have another 5 years to go before we really need to change.

AGP still lives.
Click to expand...

The AGP versions of the X1950 PRO is something that Sapphire and PowerColor have done on their own. ATI does not officially support the X1950 PRO GPU on an AGP bus. It is lucky for AGP users that they did, as it gives you a good upgrade path without having to spend huge amounts on core platform upgrades.
What, exactly, do you think (or hear) that NVIDIA is coming out with for AGP? I'm quite curious to know. I *highly* doubt NVIDIA is going to dedicate more research to providing AGP solutions to its partners. That is not to say that its partners will not do it on their own, the way PowerColor and Sapphire have done.

nvpx said:
On just about all the reviews I have read, the AGP versions of the X1950 Pro cards perform equal to or better than the PCI-e versions.

So there is a lot to be said for delaying the inevitable.
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If the X1950 PRO were significantly faster on AGP, I might agree. But it's not. Plus, you can't CrossFire (or SLI) an AGP card.

AGP certainly has a long, rich past with plenty of great video cards, but it also has a short, cold future.

I will amend my statement: AGP is dying. It has a terminal disease, and that is obsolesence. Is it planned, artificial obsolesence? Absolutely. Could AGP, along with continuted support and development from ATI and NVIDIA, still provide us with more good stuff in the future? Absolutely. But it won't happen, because they won't do it. PCI-Express is the way it is going to be, for better or worse.
 
Mark_Warner said:
The AGP versions of the X1950 PRO is something that Sapphire and PowerColor have done on their own. ATI does not officially support the X1950 PRO GPU on an AGP bus. It is lucky for AGP users that they did, as it gives you a good upgrade path without having to spend huge amounts on core platform upgrades.
What, exactly, do you think (or hear) that NVIDIA is coming out with for AGP? I'm quite curious to know. I *highly* doubt NVIDIA is going to dedicate more research to providing AGP solutions to its partners. That is not to say that its partners will not do it on their own, the way PowerColor and Sapphire have done.
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Mark, from my understanding these vendors have made the conversion from PCI-E to AGP by adding a chip and circuit modifications. Nothing done with the GPU. It doesn't sound to me like the conversion was all that costly or difficult (an extra 20 bucks or so per unit). Bandwidth issues aside, couldn't this be done with just about any existing PCI-E card?
 
dej166 said:
Mark, from my understanding these vendors have made the conversion from PCI-E to AGP by adding a chip and circuit modifications. Nothing done with the GPU. It doesn't sound to me like the conversion was all that costly or difficult (an extra 20 bucks or so per unit). Bandwidth issues aside, couldn't this be done with just about any existing PCI-E card?
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From what I have seen, it certainly does not appear to be a difficult process. It is, however, a process that is counterproductive to what every vendor wants to do: Expand their market share. Making AGP cards necessarily takes away resources for PCIe cards, which they sell more of. Plus, with CrossFire and SLI, if they can starve the AGP users out, they have the potential of selling 2 video cards. It is more rewarding for them to make people move to PCIe rather than keep selling AGP cards.

It is my opinion that NVIDIA started the SLI initiative to give perfectly happy AGP users a compelling reason to make the move to PCI-Express and sell more video cards. After all, the only thing better than selling one flagship video card to each customer, is selling 2 flagship video cards to each customer. Sure, SLI happens to give great performance boosts (usually) too, but is it something we need? No. Does it also benefit motherboard and power supply makers? Yes. Everyone is happy, except for the gamer on a slimmer budget (such as myself).

Core logic (chipset) development for AGP has also stagnated. There are some noble efforts by at least one motherboard manufacturer (ECS) to provide newer chipset support to AGP users, but they are becoming fewer and further between.

I mean not to offend AGP users. I am just stating what I believe to be the fact. AGP is, essentially, no more, due in large part to the efforts of motherboard, chipset, and video card manufacturers.
 
Mark_Warner said:
I will amend my statement: AGP is dying. It has a terminal disease, and that is obsolesence. Is it planned, artificial obsolesence? Absolutely. Could AGP, along with continuted support and development from ATI and NVIDIA, still provide us with more good stuff in the future? Absolutely. But it won't happen, because they won't do it. PCI-Express is the way it is going to be, for better or worse.
Click to expand...

This will only be true until PCI Express 2.0 comes out in the next few months.

My point was that if I can get the same performance with a single AGP x1950 Pro vs a single PCI-e x1950 Pro and keep my current system, I can live with delaying the inevitable for a while.
 
Mark_Warner said:
...
I mean not to offend AGP users. I am just stating what I believe to be the fact. AGP is, essentially, no more, due in large part to the efforts of motherboard, chipset, and video card manufacturers.
Click to expand...

No offense taken, thanks for the response!
 
Mark_Warner said:
I mean not to offend AGP users. I am just stating what I believe to be the fact. AGP is, essentially, no more, due in large part to the efforts of motherboard, chipset, and video card manufacturers.
Click to expand...

I'm not offended, I'm just in denial. :(
 
This makes me wonder how the Accelero X2 compares to the VF900 that my Sapphire Ultimate X1950Pro came with. I also haven't had much success with overclocking it, although using the CCC I was able to overclock it to about 608/790, it didn't work too well. Rivatuner didn't work for me before, I'll try it again.

edit: Was able to get it to about 675/796 using Rivatuner, although I didn't have any time to do much scanning, it doesn't look like it's F@H-stable at anything above 620 core. Bah.
 
Expected. The X1950 Pro and XT are great buys and both overclock very well. I think the memory overclocking is a bug, maybe a GPU BIOS update? Do they even release those?

If you guys would be so kind as to add OC'd results, to see how much of a REAL world performance gain..I mean telling me how much percentage it is from stock is nice, but that doesn't always translate perfectly to programs.

~Ibrahim~
 
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