Skuzzy, I posted this as a response for Dux in another thread, I thought I'd post a fresh one, maybe you could shed some light on the subject. I just replaced my ATI Radeon 9700 Pro with a Sapphire X1950Pro AGP 512Mb, here's some findings...
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Well, she's installed. I see I have much to learn about it. First off, I have a 460 watt PS, and only 2 12v rails, one at 15a, the other at 16a. The card runs excellent on this config, contrary to the 22a per rail recommendation. So, that quenches my big fear, thinking I'd need to drop another $150 on a good PS.
Next, it came in clocked at 581, with a memory of 702. it idles at 40C. My 3dmark2005 score was 4743 (1024x768,noAA).
It came with ATI's overclocking program, so I gave it a whirl. I've never overclocked anything before. The program said I could run at 621 clock, and 756 memory. It hung during the 2nd video test. So I turned the memory down to 736, and it ran fine. Score was 4912 (1024x768,noAA).
I only had 2 points of reference as far as games with FPS that I could compare. The first was AH, where I saw no difference. My point of reference was sitting on the runway in offline mode, 1280x1024, 512 textures, everything checked, FPS cap set to unlimited. I averaged 57-63fps. (Ground view was set to 3mi, I forget the other settings, but they didn't change when I tried the new card) It didn't budge with the new card. Not sure if the game prefers a powerful CPU over a video card, I'm going to post this somewhere where Skuzzy can see it. I also have to check on the AA, I know we could turn it on a while back, but that isn't an option anymore. I guess the fine line is do you crank up the game resolution, or do you use a lower resolution and turn on AA, which is more eye-appealing? We'll see...
The other game was Company of Heroes. I averaged 24fps with my 9700 Pro, I got 32fps with the new card. The system test went from Poor to Good. I don't think it's my CPU that's the bottleneck in that game, it's my RAM, I only have 1GB, and CoH uses 960Mb of it! So when I get some more cash I'll be adding another gig, that should dramatically help that game run.
I was hoping to see a huge gain in AH with this card, I went from a 325Mhz, 128Mb card, to a 621Mhz, 512Mb card. You'd think the change would be noticeable. Maybe Skuzzy can shed some light on it.
~CheezHed {Shillelagh}
Supermicro X5DAE motherboard
Enhance ENS0246B 460watt power supply
Dual 2.8Ghz Xeons, hyperthreaded
1GB DDR266 RAM
Sapphire X1950Pro AGP 512Mb overclocked at 621Mhz, 736Mhz GDDR3 memory(1472Mhz effective)
Seagate 120GB, 160GB, 300GB HD's
Sound Blaster Audigy 2
Klipsch Promedia 4.1 400watts
Samsung 48xCD burner/DVD player
Pioneer 109 Dual Layer DVD burner
CH Products USB Fighterstick, USB Pro Throttle, USB Pro Pedals
