Ditched my Radeon X1650 Video Card

Ex_Brit

Ex_Brit

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After a seemingly smooth period I suddenly started getting BSOD's all over the place in Vista (never in XP....of course) and after much troubleshooting I found that it was my ATI Radeon X1650 video card.:S
Now that I'm back to my old 9550 I still get Aero etc. but my Vista "score" has dropped from 4.2 to 3.1 and the amount of memory that Windows reports dropped from 3.35gb to 2.9gb (out of the 4gb installed).:angry:
Question - my regular RAM is DDR whereas the X1650 employs DDR2 - could that have been a conflict?
 
GPU Ram and PC Ram have nothing to do with each other - the PC can't even interact with the GPU Ram directly!

I have the 9550 too ("upgraded" to 9600, though); and I can't stand ATi's (errrr, AMD's) crappy drivers, software conflicts, and general bad performance.

I'm hopefully putting together a new PC as soon as the final Intel price-cuts kick-in, and I'll be putting all my hope (and most of my money) in an nVidia 8800.
 
Unfortunately I'm stuck with AGP (or regular PCI) unless I change my motherboard and processor, something that is beyond me, technically speaking. That nVidia card is nice but it's PCIe.
It wasn't so long ago that people were screaming about nVidia's problems with Vista - so who do you believe?
I never had any problems with ATI until the X1650 and it's issues with Vista. It's pretty well documented on the web, pity I didn't do more research.
The thing is, what graphics card could I move up to, or should I bother? I liked what the x1650 did for my RAM and my "score".
 
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I know what you mean.

AGP can handle higher graphics, but it's just a politics and business thing. I believe there is an nVidia 7900 (or 7600?) in AGP, but it's really not worth the money.

Everything about current rig is outdated and no longer even upgradable (from the 468-pin CPU to the AGP to the DDR1 memory and the 1.5GBps SATA).... I'm glad to see the back of it :smile:
 
Computer Guru said:
I'm hopefully putting together a new PC as soon as the final Intel price-cuts kick-in, and I'll be putting all my hope (and most of my money) in an nVidia 8800.
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Damn! I missed the party here. :grinning:

Guru, I'm thinking about taking 8600GT version this hot summer:smile: and I gotta warn you, I tested 8600GT and it FLYYYYYYS, so I gotta warn you, you wont be leaving your room in 2 weeks at least :happy: You'll be to lazy to do anything, you'll just play GAMES haha :grinning: you'll be getting more then a 100 fps with biggest resolution and max details... so be careful :wink:

Computer Guru said:
I know what you mean.

AGP can handle higher graphics, but it's just a politics and business thing. I believe there is an nVidia 7900 (or 7600?) in AGP, but it's really not worth the money.
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I know there is 7600GT and 7600GS AGP versions where GT is faster. And they are not bad.. but still not worth the money cause 8xxx series are almost the same price and lot faster.

Ex_Brit said:
Unfortunately I'm stuck with AGP (or regular PCI) unless I change my motherboard and processor, something that is beyond me, technically speaking.
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No, I don't think you need to change your processor, you just need a same socket and PCI-E :wink: just like me. And I found a motherboard with the 754 for Athlon. So look around, you might find something.

When I upgrade that again, I think I'll OC my processor, some guys made it from 1.8-2.8Ghz. I would go from 2.0-2.4Ghz with a default cooler. Cause that's 3000+ when I OC it it should be around 3400-3600+ :smile:
 
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Sarge, not sure if you read them, but all the reviews warn against getting an 8500/8600 since the performance doesn't stack up for the price. In some tests, the cheaper 7900 outperformed the 8600.

Actually, the 8800xx is the best price-to-performance card to hit the gaming market in the last decade! It's a bit more than what I was planning on paying, but if I get a 7900 I won't have DX10 support, and if I get the 8600 I'll have (relatively) poor gaming...

I dunno.....
 
Computer Guru said:
Sarge, not sure if you read them, but all the reviews warn against getting an 8500/8600 since the performance doesn't stack up for the price. In some tests, the cheaper 7900 outperformed the 8600.

Actually, the 8800xx is the best price-to-performance card to hit the gaming market in the last decade! It's a bit more than what I was planning on paying, but if I get a 7900 I won't have DX10 support, and if I get the 8600 I'll have (relatively) poor gaming...

I dunno.....
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Poor gaming? To be honest I didn't read any review... only statistics, hmmmm poor gaming, I might read a couple reviews then... hmmm.. :|

I played Oblivion at max detail and resolution and it was awesome... but hmmm... you never know...
 
Maybe I mis-worded that.... The 8600 has awesome gaming, but comparing the price you pay for the 8600 and the price you pay for the 8800, the 8600 isn't the best decision :smile:

8600 is good - 8800 is awesome. 8800 would be ok at DX10-heavy games; while the 8600 wouldn't be that impressive.... However, don't expect true DX10 games for a while :smile:
 
I know that you guys are saying that nVidia is the way to go, but what if I told you that I think that I can get a good deal on an ATI Radeon X1950 Pro?
From what I read the problems I was constantly having are restricted to the X1650.
 
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Peter, GF8600GT is faster then R1950pro, I can bet money!

Are you thinking about AGP version of R1950pro? I dunno does R1950pro supports Pixel shader 4.0 and maybe DirectX 10?
 
Ex_Brit said:
I don't think that comes in AGP. The X1950 doesn't support DX10 but is that SO important?
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No AGP? Look at this: http://goodblimey.com/archives/2006/12/21/visiontek-radeon-x1950-pro-agp-256mb-review/

Here is a quick rundown of the features:
  • ATI RADEON X1950PRO Visual Processing Unit at 575MHz
  • Oversized Active Fansink
  • Single Slot Solution
  • Dual Link DVI x2
  • 256MB GDDR3 Memory @ 1.38 GHz/ 1380 MHz
  • 256-bit memory interface
  • 512-bit ring bus controller
  • AGP 8x
  • 80 nanometer GPU (RV570XT)
  • Ultra threaded core 3D architecture
  • Avivo display enhancement technology
  • Shader model 3.0
  • DUAL DVI-I
  • Component HDTV YPbPr Output
  • S-Video and Composite Video TV-Out
Looks pretty nice..

DX10 is important only if you are planing to play games now and in a future (next 5 years at least). But if you are not a big gamer, this card will work perfectly for you.

I don't know how much for this card, but if it's more then GeForce 8600GT I would go for 8600GT :smile:
 
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I doubt it.... I mean, if there are 10k people using AGP now, there'll be 2k next year..... no?

If not - where's my PCI x1950!!?? :lol:
 
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