[JimB]

I was going to put a BFG 7950gt 512MB card in my build, but was advised to go with ATI for better performance at that two hundred to two hundred and fifty dollar price range. N**E**.com has x1950xt 256mb ddr 3 for Two hundred fifty dollars US, and a $30 dollar rebate to boot. Sounds like a pretty deal to me.
However, I also saw an x1950xt 512mb ddr4 card for about a hundred dollars more. I play mostly FPS. What makes the 512/ddr4 card more valuable? Is it worth spending the extra $100 on that card, or is there a better card in the three hundred to three seventy five range?

the rest of the system is:
E6600
2GB OCZ PC2-800 Platinum Revision 2
Gigabyte 965p-s3 mobo
250 GB Western DIgital HDD 16 mb cache
DVD/CD RW drive
OCZ 600W PSU
OS=XP
Custom case (an old radio from the 1920s- it's sweet)

Thanks.

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Personally i would wait and not even bother with the X1950XT due to the fact that DX10 has been released i would save your money and purchase a DX10 card even a mid range DX10 card would severly outpower the 1950 for the amounmt you would be paying for already outdated hardware is not worth it

save your money and as hard as it is be patient and find a better card that is up with the new technology and be more value for your money

but as far as your question goes 512Mb of RAM is a big difference compared to 256Mb and i believe you would notice the difference on a high end card

thats my opinion

troppo

[troppo]

Personally i would wait and not even bother with the X1950XT due to the fact that DX10 has been released i would save your money and purchase a DX10 card even a mid range DX10 card would severly outpower the 1950 for the amounmt you would be paying for already outdated hardware is not worth it

save your money and as hard as it is be patient and find a better card that is up with the new technology and be more value for your money

but as far as your question goes 512Mb of RAM is a big difference compared to 256Mb and i believe you would notice the difference on a high end card

thats my opinion

troppo

[JimB]

The cheapest card is $215 after rebates.

The difference between the 512mb ddr4 would have to be a huge difference to justify spending about $155 dollars more than the price of 256MB version. I'm not quite willing to spend the $200-250 more that it would take to get a DX10 card, especially since there's very few games that I play out that are DX10. The next UT isn't slotted until late this year (Q3?) so I need something to get by for now. My old card is AGP so I have to buy for this build.

I guess I'll just get the cheaper card in order to tide me over until the DX10 furor settles out unless someone ca n sell me on the performance boost for the higher end DX9 card.

[Dan1887]

If you can wait until march, when the dx10 cards come out, they will be expensive however they will decrease the price of the dx9 cards. I would not go with an x1950xt, of either kinda, wait until march and go with an x1900xtx. The difference between the two
x1900xtx
256 mb gddr4
48 pixel shaders
12 vertex shaders
x1950xt
256 gddr3 or 512 gddr4
36 pixel shaders
12 vertex shaders

basically the x1950xts are x1900xtx's with their gpu's laser cut to remove 12 pixel shaders, so definitely the x1900 series is better then the x1950 and i would definitely go to the x1900 series before even thinking about the x1950

[warriorscot]

x1950s have 48 pixel shaders and use a better GPU than than the 1900s they are faster and cheaper, the pros have 36 and are the slowest x1950 but they are very cheap.

Release date is going to be February unless there are major problems reviewers are supposed to get some more R600 based cards closer to the final product around valentines day or earlier, apparently they are making them with up to 2Gb of memory a board, And 2Gb of DDR4 is amazing although they will be another month and cost and arm and a leg(ddr3 and 4 are expensive its where most of the money on the card goes). They are releasing a full range though so there will be low end and mid range dx10 cards to choose from.

[Dan1887]

I would like to know where you got that information warriorscott, because on the ATI website it clearly shows that the x1950 pro and xt both only use 38 pixel shaders, the x1900 xtx uses the r580 and the x1950 xt uses the r570 which according to my research is the r580 core that is laser cut. If you could link me to where you have found that info i would like to see it.

[SuperSam]

If DX10 doesn't bother you too much, get an nVidia 7600GT! I bought one for my PC around a month ago until I get my ATi Crossfires (DX10) in. It was £100, so $200~ plays all the newest games on medium detail and is a very, very suprising card.

[warriorscot]

I got that info off the sales sites lots of them, review sites lots of them too, the XTX is just an XT with DDR4 memory the cores are identical the AMD website even says that they have 48 pixel shaders with the pro having 36. I don't know where you do research but google i find works well for finding things. You might be getting confused between the pro and XTs the pros use the R570 with 36 and XTs use R580+ with 48 and some other tweaks over the standard R580 core, its also sometimes called an R590 core. But if you employ some logic why would the fastest card in ATIs range use a lower performance core than its previous fastest card?

If i was buying now and had to get something i would go for the 1950 pro ate £135 for 35 difference between that and a 7600 is huge. 7600GTs though run for £80 if you shop around though its only the more expensive brands that stretch to 100.

[troppo]

you mgith wnat to look at this thread i posted not long ago it may give you a slight comparrison between cards and how they perform

http://www.geekstogo...00-t147596.html

could help or it could not

troppo

[warriorscot]

Yeah that review is actually quite old and done with one of the few prototypes from the first pre production runs the final cards should be even better, we will see some time around valentines day when all the reviewers get one.

[JimB]

Going with a 1950PRO 256 with Rainbow 6 vegas game bundle at NEWEGG. Total cost after rebate $185ish. There were a bunch of reviews that talked about overheating problems, and bunch that said the fix was to go into the card settings and up the fan speed. Who's telling the truth?

[warriorscot]

Cooling depends more upon the cooler the card manufacturer(Powercolor, saphire, etc.) puts on, most these days realise people will pay a little more for the better cooler and it doesnt cost them that much more because it makes the cards work better and more reliably.