New Video Card Help

[Raziaar]

Not sure where else I can post this. Not a member of any other forums, and I need a fast response.

I have this power supply unit: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817103937

And I am interested in getting this video card: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102071R&Tpk=X1950+Pro+AGP

Based on this review: http://www.firingsquad.com/hardware/sapphire_x1950_pro_agp_ultimate_review/default.asp

Question is... is that power supply enough to handle the new video card? I got the power supply not too long ago, just before my radeon 9800 pro burned up playing City of Heroes.

I'm currently stuck with a geforce 3 and not able to play many of the games I own, so help me out please.

 

[Gray Fox]

I think it is.
But go to this site and fill in your system specs and it will tell you.
http://www.extreme.outervision.com/psucalculatorlite.jsp

Also from this wiki: http://www.overclockers.com.au/wiki/Power_Supply_Unit

Antec: The first few revisions (before A3) of the neo HE series had lots of incompatibility issues with various motherboards, Asus in particular. Particularly the 430w model seems to be having issues even in latest revisions, so its probably best to avoid it altogether. Also the smartpower series is having high return/fault rates currently, so is not recommended. Finally both the smartpower and truepower 1.0/2.0 (3.0 is fine) series are all full of Fuhjyyu caps, so longevity is questionable. All other Antec psu's should be fine however.

 

[Asus]

The power supply has 2 12V+ rails with 17Amps and 19Amps so it should be good. And the card just uses regular 4pin molex connectors on the back which all power supplies have.

And power supply calculators are not exactly accurate. Mainly because a real PSU can't use all the power on each rail at the same time. It sorta has to balance the load between the rails.

 

[Raziaar]

Thank you. And I am aware of the dual molex slots and how it needs to be operated. Has to be run from two individual strings(or whatever they're called) from the power supply. Can't be connected from one single one.

 

[skarrob]

thats a AGP card make sure your motherboard has an AGP slot most newer boards are PCI-e.

 

[Asus]

thats a AGP card make sure your motherboard has an AGP slot most newer boards are PCI-e.

That's a good catch! But I bet he has an AGP slot seeing as he previously owned a 9800Pro and has a GF3 in there now.

 

[Raziaar]

Yep. My computer has AGP. Still the same computer I've had since 2003, designed for halflife 2, except for the radeon 9800 pro 128mb that died recently. I don't have the money to upgrade to a fully new system for PCI express, but when I do I'm going to go all out. This is just to keep me playing my games and some new releases for a while.

I decided not to get the sapphire one on newegg, only because it was an open box deal. I don't want to deal with missing accessories because I'll need the VGA adapter ones. So I went ahead and got the HIS version. Now I just have to wait a week for it to get here. Ugh.

 

[Hazar]

a week? my stuff got here in like 3 days from newegg

 

[Asus]

a week? my stuff got here in like 3 days from newegg

Yeah.
Newegg should hire Mr McFeely (from Mister Rogers show) as a mascot. Speedy delivery!

 

[Laivasse]

I have the HIS (not the Sapphire) model of the same card and it's great, a real beauty with a lovely cooler on it:
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-069-HT
And in the reviews section for where I bought it, one guy actually says that he's managing to keep it going on only a 350w power supply.

And it actually has a PCI-e power connector on the back despite the fact that it is an AGP card. I think it comes with a PCIe -> Molex adapter though (in the HIS package) so not to worry.

edit: the report of running it off a 350w psu was actually for the 256Mb version of the card. Still, 500w should be no trouble.

 

[Raziaar]

a week? my stuff got here in like 3 days from newegg

The weekend is upon us. They don't deliver on the weekend.

Heyas Laivasse. Thanks for telling me your opinions on the card! That's what I'm getting... the HIS version from newegg. People there say it runs a little on the warm side, but I hope it's nothing like how hot the Radeon 9800 pros got. The heat radiating from that thing eventually destroyed it, but at least it took nearly four years. Heh.

 

[Laivasse]

Heyas Laivasse. Thanks for telling me your opinions on the card! That's what I'm getting... the HIS version from newegg. People there say it runs a little on the warm side, but I hope it's nothing like how hot the Radeon 9800 pros got. The heat radiating from that thing eventually destroyed it, but at least it took nearly four years. Heh.

It does actually run a bit hot, although I think it affects some people worse than others.

There's an easy fix though: download ATI Tray Tools (it offers to install itself anyway alongside the Omega drivers if you use them, as I do).
Go to Hardware -> Overclocking Settings -> and on the fan tab bump the fan speed up for that sexy cooler fan.

Other users of the HIS x1950 recommended this on some forum I chanced across, and it can be a good idea. The default fan speed is pretty low from what I remember, but by cranking it up a little I managed to completely solve one problem on my end which seemed symptomatic of an overheating issue. This will make the card a little louder, but since it's generally almost deathly silent to start with it's not a big worry. ATI Tray Tools is also handy in that respect since you can save profiles containing different fan speed settings and load them based on what you're doing at the moment - or you can set it to adapt to the card's temperature or whatever.

 

[Raziaar]

hey, thanks! I might try that when I get mine. Do you think that will lower the fan ball bearing life by much?

 

[The Brick]

It's risky, but you can also try to lower the core and memory voltages with atitool. I do not recommend you this at all, because it can cause the card to be unstable, but doing this with my 1950xt brought the temps quite a bit.

 

[Laivasse]

hey, thanks! I might try that when I get mine. Do you think that will lower the fan ball bearing life by much?

Hmm, I'm no expert but I shouldn't think so, as long as you don't bump it up by too much or for too long.

On the speed slider for the fan, I think it was set by default to run at only 20%. If you crank it right up to 100 then maybe it would affect the longevity of the card, but there's no need to be quite that hekstreme IMO (and anyway that makes it noticeably loud). Having said that, from reading forums it does appear that a lot of people do crank the fan speed past eleven, but I haven't yet seen anyone say they've knackered the fan that way.

What I do is I have a profile setting saved in ATI Tray Tools where the fan speed is like 70-ish, and I have that profile set to load when Tray Tools starts. However I don't start Tray Tools with Windows - I only fire it up when I want to play something flashy, so most of the time when I'm doddering on my desktop the fan is at 20, until I fire up the prog. That way I'm not needlessly hammering the fan.