X1950 XTX review/performance

[FreeStream]

The reviews posted now have me hmming because at there settings I don't get anywhere near what they get FPS wise.

For example one says at 1600x1200 - 4xAA and 16xAF and quality then get min 100 FPS and max 130. Well for a start BF2 has a limit at 100 and when I play those settings with a X1900XT @ XT-X I get around 30/40 min and 50 average.

UNless the DDR-4 has very loose timings then the benefits should be much larger than in some reviews. I mean 100mhz on my mem at 650mhz core is about 5 fps in BF2...


IMO until we get user review without stupid bottlenecks like a AMD 3000+ at stock.

Gibbos test is a good start.

X1900XT in 2005 = 11k
X1900XT-X = 11.5k-12k

Gibbo can you do BF2/FS9/CoD2 tests matey?

 

[Jakus]

There are quite a few 1950XTX reviews around, Conclusions are pretty simular and I too am a little supprised the 1950 is at times no better than the 1900xtx. It would supprise me if ATI released a new product that was not better than what it replaced. Unlike some people I did not expect 10fps in everything but something like the XTX from XT gains on the 1900 series

 

[Gibbo]

Hi there

I tested an X1950 in our Conroe system which previous had an X1900 XTX in it. The results in 3D Mark series was a small gain that was quite reasonable with the card overclocked. But as others have said either the GDDR4 has very slack timings or the current drivers aint taking proper advantage of it.

With the Conroe System at 3.75GHz and the card overclocked to 680MHz and 2.1GHz memory it scored:-

3D Mark 2001 SE - 57,000
3D Mark 2003 - 24,500
3D Mark 2005 - 14,001
3D Mark 2006 - 7200

I'd say for a single card solution that is also quiet, runs cooler than the X1900 XT and is well priced its a very good product. What makes it not quite so tempting is the fact you can get X1900 XT and XT-X so cheap at the moment.

 

[ihatelag]

Dont know if this is the right place to ask, but how does performance fair when using this card in a Nforce motherboard - im worried about compatibility problems? In the old days, I had switched between Ati-->Nvidia-->Ati-->etc
without any issue or hinderance of performance problems.

 

[drunkenmaster]

memory speed is, well, either you are bottlenecked or not. aa/af are essentially free quality increases as long as the memory bandwidth is sufficient to move the textures in and out, if the bandwidth isn't enough then the frames get bogged down waiting and which is why same core speed a smallish increase in mem speed can do wonders. but likewise, if you have already gotten past the bottle neck then adding 500Mhz to the memory will simply get you nothing at all.

why anyone thought there would be a big increase in performance i have no clue. matching a card with two cores, whose having a laugh. its got the same pipes/shaders and JUST faster memory. timings are essentially not that important, its all about bandwidth on gfx cards as bigger bandwidth equals higher aa/af levels(over simplified but close to right). ATi haven't been saying this is a big next gen launch, its a product revamp which more than anything lets ATi just mess around with gddr4 which puts it in the "slightly more experience" camp than nvidia when it comes to the next gen cards. same way ATi have introduced their lower power/smaller process products before as practice for the next gen.

 

[FreeStream]

Dont know if this is the right place to ask, but how does performance fair when using this card in a Nforce motherboard - im worried about compatibility problems? In the old days, I had switched between Ati-->Nvidia-->Ati-->etc
without any issue or hinderance of performance problems.

1-2% at maximum.

People keep thinking that either side will knock out 50% or whatever of gfx cards/mobo sales because it doesn't work with other things. This is very very very unlikely to happen.

Eg buying a nvidia mobo that only works with nvidia gfx cards, isn't the case.

CR.


Edit:

memory speed is, well, either you are bottlenecked or not. aa/af are essentially free quality increases as long as the memory bandwidth is sufficient to move the textures in and out, if the bandwidth isn't enough then the frames get bogged down waiting and which is why same core speed a smallish increase in mem speed can do wonders. but likewise, if you have already gotten past the bottle neck then adding 500Mhz to the memory will simply get you nothing at all.

why anyone thought there would be a big increase in performance i have no clue. matching a card with two cores, whose having a laugh. its got the same pipes/shaders and JUST faster memory. timings are essentially not that important, its all about bandwidth on gfx cards as bigger bandwidth equals higher aa/af levels(over simplified but close to right). ATi haven't been saying this is a big next gen launch, its a product revamp which more than anything lets ATi just mess around with gddr4 which puts it in the "slightly more experience" camp than nvidia when it comes to the next gen cards. same way ATi have introduced their lower power/smaller process products before as practice for the next gen.

The X1900XT-X is mem limited. At 500mhz core you get passed it at about 725-750mhz mem speed. At 650 core that increases to 850-900mhz because I can keep increasing the mem and get ruffly the same 2005 points jump as before (700-750 = 750-800). As my XT is rubbish I can't get much passed 830mhz mem so I can't work out where the bottleneck ends.

G-DDR4 probably had very loose timings, which in ATIs chips, like AMDs chips affects performance more than mem B/W as with Intel.

If it was G-DDR3 @ 1Ghz then we would see 14.5k possibly, leaving mem B/W for another 50-100mhz on the core.

Im studied by X1900 to know it inside out ATi grabbed the chance to have G-DDR4 first.

Wait a few months and the cherry cores and G-DDR4 with 800Mhz + core overclocks will see a good improvement I hope. If not the core overclocks alone is worth buying one.

 

[ihatelag]

1-2% at maximum.

People keep thinking that either side will knock out 50% or whatever of gfx cards/mobo sales because it doesn't work with other things. This is very very very unlikely to happen.

Eg buying a nvidia mobo that only works with nvidia gfx cards, isn't the case.

CR.

Most appreciated! Looks like im buying one of these card then!