Ati gfx cards

Dogboy73 · 21 Oct 2007 at 17:34

I recently bought an OC Ati X1950 512MB Pro, which at around £70, I thought, was a very reasonable deal. It also seems to be very well regarded around these parts.

But what about the other gfx cards in the current Ati range. Obviously the HD2900 is king. But what about the HD2400 & the HD2600 cards? How do these shape up against the X1950?

The HD2400 range are very cheap (£30-£46 on OCUK) & you can get some very good prices on the HD2600 cards as well (£52-93). But then the HD2800 cards jump up quite a bit in price (£162-£317).

TheRealDeal · 21 Oct 2007 at 17:40

The 1950pro is the best low budget card atm. The only draw back with it is you can't play in dx10 mode.

Dogboy73 · 21 Oct 2007 at 17:44

TheRealDeal said:
The 1950pro is the best low budget card atm. The only draw back with it is you can't play in dx10 mode.

Do all the ATi HD cards support DX10 or is it just the top of the range HD2900?

Lightnix · 21 Oct 2007 at 17:45

All of the HD2600 and HD2400 cards are weaker than the X1950 Pro, with the possible exception of the HD2600X2 Gemini.

Edit: The HD2400/2600 cards all support DirectX 10, but they're so weak it'd be a slideshow, or you'd have all the settings turned down anyway so what's the point?

Tute · 21 Oct 2007 at 17:46

The 2600 does support Dx10, however it's slower than the 8600GTS from nVidia (which is also Dx10) which in turn is slower than the X1950 Pro.

I'd take the X1950 Pro personally. Dx9 to Dx10 isn't a big visual difference, and none of the cards below the 8800/2900 ranges are really quick enough to plow through Dx10 games anyway.

Dogboy73 · 21 Oct 2007 at 17:50

Tute said:
I'd take the X1950 Pro personally. Dx9 to Dx10 isn't a big visual difference, and none of the cards below the 8800/2900 ranges are really quick enough to plow through Dx10 games anyway.

So in terms of price & performance it sounds like I made the right choice with the X1950 Pro. From what you guys have said I can certainly now see why it's so well regarded. When the NVIDIA 8800/ATi 2900 cards come down closer to the price of the X1950 I'll take another look

Tute · 21 Oct 2007 at 17:52

I think the 8800s will be EOL before that - and I know for a fact the 2900s will.

gareth170 · 21 Oct 2007 at 17:57

the 2900's will be EOL at the end of october

Dogboy73 · 21 Oct 2007 at 17:59

So what will be replacing them?

gareth170 · 21 Oct 2007 at 18:01

Dogboy73 said:
So what will be replacing them?

3000 series..

same card as 2900 but cut down bus to 258bit, added dx10.1, 55mm

Dogboy73 · 21 Oct 2007 at 18:03

So the 3000 will be ATi's new flagship gfx card? What's going to replace NVIDIA's 8800?

gareth170 · 21 Oct 2007 at 18:06

Dogboy73 said:
So the 3000 will be ATi's new flagship gfx card? What's going to replace NVIDIA's 8800?

yes

3870 and 3875

Dogboy73 · 21 Oct 2007 at 18:06

Do you think they will keep the X1950 cards?

gareth170 · 21 Oct 2007 at 18:10

Dogboy73 said:
Do you think they will keep the X1950 cards?

if u mean support/drivers then yes... also they'll still support the 2900's

thefishdude · 21 Oct 2007 at 18:36

yes the 1950 was a good choice since its launch last yeat it has been king of the budget card by a long chalk the performance for pice is huge. and as said above the only opnes on ati side faster are the top of *** range ones wich cost a lot more. i believe t hey have stopped making the 1950pro now but it will continue to be supported in the drivers.

Dogboy73 · 21 Oct 2007 at 18:44

thefishdude said:
I believe they have stopped making the 1950pro now.

That's a shame. I wonder what will replace the X1950 Pro as the top performing budget card when supplies of the chip dry up? Obviously it won't be a cheaper HD2900 or NVIDIA 8800 because, as discussed above, these are for the chop as well before long!

Greebo · 21 Oct 2007 at 18:54

Dogboy73 said:
That's a shame. I wonder what will replace the X1950 Pro as the top performing budget card when supplies of the chip dry up? Obviously it won't be a cheaper HD2900 or NVIDIA 8800 because, as discussed above, these are for the chop as well before long!

Well a 8800 GT 256Mb should come in at around £90-£100 so I guess that will be the closest replacement.

And it ought to be faster than a 1950 pro as well.

Dogboy73 · 21 Oct 2007 at 19:10

Greebo said:
Well a 8800 GT 256Mb should come in at around £90-£100 so I guess that will be the closest replacement.

And it ought to be faster than a 1950 pro as well.

What about the 256MB of RAM? The X1950 Pro I have has 512MB. How much difference will that make?

I noticed the price difference between an OC 256MB X1950 Pro & one with 512Mb is only about 8 quid.

Alex R · 21 Oct 2007 at 19:53

Dogboy73 said:
What about the 256MB of RAM? The X1950 Pro I have has 512MB. How much difference will that make?

I noticed the price difference between an OC 256MB X1950 Pro & one with 512Mb is only about 8 quid.

From all I've read the extra memory really doesn't make any difference at all in real life.

Dogboy73 · 21 Oct 2007 at 20:20

Alex R said:
From all I've read the extra memory really doesn't make any difference at all in real life.

Interesting. I remember when Doom 3 came out (all those years ago now) a 512MB card was said to be required to run the game at max texture settings. At that time there were no 512MB cards! But I guess things have moved on some way since then & the actual graphics processor takes care of most of the hard work. So, do we really need 512MB gfx cards?