*** The Official X1950 Pro Thread ***

[Vogon]

I don't suppose you have a friend who can try the card in his system to totally rule out anything else ?

Phone up and ask to speak to Andy Gibson or for his contact email.

 

[blurr]

Heh, I'm glad to see I'm not the only one. After a week since I RMA'ed my first one, I received "new" card shrinked wrapped this morning. Just put it in the system and it gives me corruption as soon as I hit Windows.

*sigh*

I think I'm going to give up and send it back for a refund. I've already spent £7.40 sending it back and I'm going to have to spend another £7.40 sending this one back to get a replacement. I don't think I could handle it if the third one was faulty too.

My setup is an AMD 3500 64bit, Gigabyte Nforce 3, 1gb Corsair, Enermax 500W PSU and my ENV temp floats around 41-45 degrees C. For reference.

Has any one had a sucess story with the HIS without having to underclock it? As it seems the whole batch are faulty.

 

[goosee]

Why not go for the Sapphires guys?

Spend the cash difference on a zalman VGA cooler. Clock it up yourself?

I know it's a bit of hassle, but it's quite fun too!

Fwiw, my Sapphire's been great.

 

[ShiWarrior]

I dont know why your temps are high

ENV = 36
GPU = 39

HIS X1950 PRO 256Mb PCIe

 

[Vogon]

It does seem as though the HIS are problematic.
I have the Sapphire, and although I havent done any in-depth testing (stock handles everything for the moment, and its a temporary card anyways) I have completed a a 3DM06 run with no problems on 640/775 completley stock cooling.
I actually got 2, one as part of a system upgrade for someone I know, and one for me as a tempory measure until R600 is out.
The second one didn't clock as well (locked up @ 640), but still managed 630/775 for a run.

**Edit** actually just ran @ 640/796.5(1592) no artifacts, for an '06 score of 5932

 

[spookywillow]

i have the HIS 256mb and mines been just fine, even overclocks quite nicely to 670/1540 (770) on the stock heatsink. not sure if those are the max clocks i can get but its all i've tried.

for ref,
GPU - 35c
ENV - 32c

i'd say your card is most likely getting too hot if it runs fine for the first few minutes.

 

[mart981]

I think I'm going to give up and send it back for a refund. I've already spent £7.40 sending it back and I'm going to have to spend another £7.40 sending this one back to get a replacement. I don't think I could handle it if the third one was faulty too.

Good luck I was told I can't get a refund because I've 'used' it.

Thank you and goodnight, good forum shame about the shop.

 

[Vogon]

I would phone and ask to speak to one of the managers.

 

[FUNTY]

It does seem as though the HIS are problematic.

Its not just the HIS cards, i have had to RMA my Connect 3d X1950pro back to OCUK due to the same faults as being described. Black screen of death + FX corruption. I have tried everything with no luck. I'm just hoping i get sent a new card that works and i dont have to go through all rubbish you have mart981

 

[honestjohn]

Good luck I was told I can't get a refund because I've 'used' it.

Thank you and goodnight, good forum shame about the shop.

Well, that's great. I guess I'm stuck too if they don't find a problem with my card which also needs to be underclocked to work properly. I had previously used a Visiontek X1950 Pro for a week, and a Sapphire X1950 Pro for 3 weeks, so I know for a fact that there is nothing wrong with my system. I knew I was pushing my luck getting a third card, but I read so many great things about the HIS ICEQ3 cooler and always wanted A HIS card. Oh well, whatever happens, I learned my lesson the hard way as usual. First lesson, never buy something like this overseas, no matter how good the deal is.

 

[honestjohn]

Its not just the HIS cards, i have had to RMA my Connect 3d X1950pro back to OCUK due to the same faults as being described. Black screen of death + FX corruption. I have tried everything with no luck. I'm just hoping i get sent a new card that works and i dont have to go through all rubbish you have mart981

You're right and I totally agree. I think the biggest problem with the X1950 Pro's, AGP or PCI-E, is quality control. If the heatsinks aren't seated properly, the card is useless unless you're prepared to fix it yourself. Doesn't matter what card it is, fancy cooler or stock heatsink, Sapphire, Powercolor or HIS or whatever, they all need the heatsink attached properly. Tied for second place, are bad driver loads and users running the card with inadequate power supplies. Unfortunately the symptoms for all these issues seem intertwined.

As far as the magnitude of the situation goes, I think it's way too soon for any kind of blanket statements saying the X1950 Pro's are bad cards. Right now the cards are new and popular. More cards sold equals a higher perceived failure/problem rate and if no one was buying them, we wouldn't hear a thing about them much less be discussing them for thread after thread.

 

[aircooled]

I feel your pain people, because I know it could happen to me next! What should be one of those happy days is turning into a nightmare and its just not a bad dream.Three hundred dollars spent to be unhappy. There must be some thing that can be done , take it to the next level! These poor chaps need some real help!
I only wish I could do more to help !

 

[mattpj]

I just had A replacement x1950pro and i am still getting a similar problem but not as bad where the system will stay on and the card will stop displaying.

The other card would trip up after a minute in 3dmark and then stop but now its about 3 minutes.

The card was tested by OCuk and was faulty. So could my Artic Jeantech 600w could be the suspect. I dont want to replace the PSU and then find the same problem I am absolutely sick to back teeth of it! I had a faulty mobo and this problem aint going quick!

 

[honestjohn]

I just had A replacement x1950pro and i am still getting a similar problem but not as bad where the system will stay on and the card will stop displaying.

The other card would trip up after a minute in 3dmark and then stop but now its about 3 minutes.

The card was tested by OCuk and was faulty. So could my Artic Jeantech 600w could be the suspect. I dont want to replace the PSU and then find the same problem I am absolutely sick to back teeth of it! I had a faulty mobo and this problem aint going quick!

Matt, returned my card in the same condition as yours and haven't gotten it back yet. My PSU was working fine with a Visiontek and a Sapphire X1950 Pro so I know that's not my problem. Anyway, sorry to hear of your problems mate, looked up your PSU and it looks like a dual rail with 19a on each +12v rail. That's close to being in spec and should work OK. How long have you had it? PSU's will degrade over time, so a PSU problem is still a possibility. Is there any place you could go that has a good return policy in case a new PSU doesn't work? Or a very good friend that could loan you one.

How were you hooking it up by the way, PCI-E, Molex, or Molex/PCI-E adapter? Where in 3DMark were you locking-up? Mine would do this on Firefly Forest Test 2 everytime when Fan was on auto. When I had fan set to always on, it would kick off after the second run of 3Dmark05/06, same spot though, the FireFly Forest.

 

[Sean_UK]

In my opinion the reason these keep breaking is quite simply overheating whilst in game without people knowing, the trays suggested max operating temp on each gfx card is tbh load of bull****. These X1950's are well documented on the web to run a tad warm under load, more so than 6800ultras even. Think about it...anything above 70c to touch will burn your skin after a couple of secs, CPU's really don’t like anything over 65c on the whole so imagine what close to 100c is doing to the GPU's health. My bro has this card and we didn’t like the temps, took the stock cooler off to check the thermal condition; was good contact from stock after inspection.

We cleaned GPU, applied AS-5 thermal paste & made dam sure the contact was still good with cooler. Temps came down 1c afterwards. So next stage was for my bro to-do same as what I did with my GS+. Buy the Zalman fan bracket and attach one high quality 120mm fan directly sucking warm air away from GPU heatsink. Dropped my GS temps from 51 to 43c. Bro went a step further and he's using two 120mm fans, don’t recall the temp drop exactly but was somewhere over 13c iirc.

Remember just my opinion and not a sure thing method, but my bro's now more than happy to cain his X1950 without any worry.

 

[fullspizz]

Its not just the HIS cards, i have had to RMA my Connect 3d X1950pro back to OCUK due to the same faults as being described. Black screen of death + FX corruption. I have tried everything with no luck. I'm just hoping i get sent a new card that works and i dont have to go through all rubbish you have mart981

My Connect3d X1950pro had to go back as well, grafix corruption on the boot screen and never even made it into windows. Also got the black screen of infinity a few times.
Just waiting on my rma from them

 

[honestjohn]

In my opinion the reason these keep breaking is quite simply overheating whilst in game without people knowing, the trays suggested max operating temp on each gfx card is tbh load of bull****. These X1950's are well documented on the web to run a tad warm under load, more so than 6800ultras even. Think about it...anything above 70c to touch will burn your skin after a couple of secs, CPU's really don’t like anything over 65c on the whole so imagine what close to 100c is doing to the GPU's health. My bro has this card and we didn’t like the temps, took the stock cooler off to check the thermal condition; was good contact from stock after inspection.

We cleaned GPU, applied AS-5 thermal paste & made dam sure the contact was still good with cooler. Temps came down 1c afterwards. So next stage was for my bro to-do same as what I did with my GS+. Buy the Zalman fan bracket and attach one high quality 120mm fan directly sucking warm air away from GPU heatsink. Dropped my GS temps from 51 to 43c. Bro went a step further and he's using two 120mm fans, don’t recall the temp drop exactly but was somewhere over 13c iirc.

Remember just my opinion and not a sure thing method, but my bro's now more than happy to cain his X1950 without any worry.

Well I agree with you in one respect. Problems are likely due to overheating, but not of the GPU. It's probably the VRM's. Those of us who are having the signal-loss to monitor problem with the HIS card shutting down are having GPU temps of 49c-54c. My card for example was dying when my GPU was at 54c under 3D load with or without side off my case. I also have decent air circulation throughout my case. My last card, which was a Sapphire X1950 Pro, could go into the low 70s and work just fine under the same conditions. I guess the big difference here is the HIS comes overclocked the Sapphire doesn't. The HIS could also run underclocked just fine at stock speeds all night doing benchmarks. There lies the rub me thinks. Perhaps some of these R570 GPU's are rated to run at higher speeds than others when they come off the production line and they used a few of the lower rated ones on the ICEQ3 Turbo editions when they were meant to go on the HIS Cards with the stock heatsinks. Yeah, just another crazy theory.

 

[aircooled]

HIS ICEQ3 cooler is great as is , unless it not making contact.
With the case open it should work the best it can, with the case closed it could be in a battle with the other fans for air... air flow could slowed down and even stop flowing in the HIS ICEQ3 cooler, if air entering into the case does not balanced with the output volume of air, this would cause low pressure in the case. This could happen if the HIS ICEQ3 cooler is the weakest of all the fans blowing out and air inlets are not sized as needed.

So test it with the case open first.

 

[Sean_UK]

HIS ICEQ3 is kinda an exception to method we used tbh and yes it has great stock cooling, simular design to A/C attached to my GS+ from stock and i even saw further temp drops with just one 120mm fan sucking air (mine and bros cases are decent ones btw) Most who buy the x1950 and will no dought attempt o/c which is when the tears will flow due to heat if it's not HIS ICEQ3 model.

 

[aircooled]

Most who buy the x1950 and will no dought attempt o/c which is when the tears will flow due to heat if it's not HIS ICEQ3 model.

True, sorry to say many hearts have been broken