Finally, a new video card

[Sunrunner]

Hello,

This is my first post although I have been a keen observer for quite a while, so hello !

My system is a P4 3.4 with 2Gb PC3200 RAM and I'm finally in a position to upgrade the graphics from the X600 PCI-E that came installed.

I'm interested in the Powercolor X1950XT 256, but haven't heard much about it on here which makes me a bit wary. It says it has a cooler which expels air from the case which would be ideal, so I'm imagining its similar to the HIS model. Am I right here or is it something else

Would this card be overkill for my system? I realise that the CPU will be a bottleneck but haven't the cash for a full system upgrade just yet.

Any opinions or alternate GPU suggestions would be gratefully received. I don't have any preference between ATI or Nvidia.

Thanks

Sunrunner

 

[melbourne720]

Have a look at my buyers guide, that has some info.

Do you have a budget in mind? An x1950 Pro would be good in that setup. Do you want a quiet card? And what res do you game at?

Also how powerful is the PSU that came with your PC?

 

[Sunrunner]

Hi there,

Yeah was looking for a quiet card as I was planning to have it as my HTPC in the lounge. It'll be hooked up to my Panasonic 32" LCD TV so it'll be running at 1368x768.

Don't think my 400W PSU will be up to it, so i was looking at the Antec TruePower Trio 550W PSU. Think that should do me OK for a while.

Is the performance difference between the XT and Pro worth the £60 ?

I've got a budget of about £250 for the GPU and PSU ?

Cheers

Sunrunner

 

[melbourne720]

The XT is powerful, but is DX9 (DX10 is out, but no games as yet) and noisy (so I've heard, unless you get the HIS one) so is a lot to spend.

I'd go for the HIS x1950 Pro

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-065-HT

and a Corsair or Seasonic PSU. Something like:-

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-005-CS

or

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-001-SS

And you should come in under budget as well.

 

[Sunrunner]

Yeah, I'd heard the stock cooler for the XT was noisy which was why I thought the Powercolor one would be better. From the description it seems that it has a similar cooler to the HIS.

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-066-PC

I have read about a problem with the HIS PCI-E power connector, has this been sorted out or was it just a few that were faulty ?

I suppose another possibility is waiting for the 8600's or 320Mb 8800's, but I'm feeling the upgrade bug, big time now !!!

What to do