I was thinking of replacing my X1800XL for an X1950 XT (256) or X1950 XTX (512).

I have a Seasonic S12-500 right now with an overclocked C2D at 1.3125V and Ram at 2.1V. Do you think sticking a X1950 XT or X1950 XTX or CF X1950 Pro would be okay?

Either one of those 3 Setups. Which one would you suggest?

X1950 XT: $300
X1950 XTX: $500
X1950 Pro CF: $420

Hi, do I think the PSU has enough power? Yes, absolutely, even heavily overclocked I guess the CPU is pulling <100w even allowing 50w for other things (plenty unless you have missive multi-disk RAID array) that leaves 350w which is more than enough for any one or pair of video cards you may wish to add.
As regards which card to buy you might find this round up helpful. Personally I wouldn't go with the X1950XTX when the X1900XT (does X1950XT exist?) offers 80-90% of the performance for 60% the price but of course if you want/need that power and prepared to spend the money then why not. Looking at the graphs X1950GT crossfire looks interesting as it offers equal or higher (sometime significantly) performance for less money (on your figures). Also the power figures have an X1950GT drawing 50w less at load than X1900XT (the X1950XTX is very similar) so maybe powering / cooling 2 of them wouldn't be too bad. Possibly as the power is across two cards it maybe easier than one high-power one.
If you're remotely serious about noise level (this is SPCR after all) then I would think it likely what ever card you buy you'll want replacement cooler(s) with the possible exception of HIS IceQ cards.
Regards, Seb

Yeah apprently the X1950XT does exist at one of my suppliers but I've been having a hard time finding info on it. It has 256MB instead of the 512MB not sure about the clock speeds though. But in comparison to the X1900XTX and the X1900XT the extra 256MB only seems to make a big difference in higher resolution so I don't know if it would be the same for the X1950 family.

I wouldn't mind CFing the X1900GT if I could so I'd have to stick with X1950Pro since I only have P5B Deluxe, I think. I'm not sure how CF works without the 3200Express chipset. I read somewhere that the X1950Pro does work for P5B.

Oh and I'd definitely get aftermarket cooling. I was thinking of getting the Powercolor X1950Pro with the AC X2 cooling if the price was right. Even my current X1800XL has X2 on it.

EDIT: Does anyone know how well the X1950Pro fairs against the X1800XL in comparison?

What GT, it's 1950 Pro so could you use right name, there's already enough mess.

As for power consumption:
X-Bit Labs got 33W as idle and 125W as peak 3D values for 1950XTX.
For 1950Pro they got 24W and 66W.
1950Pro crossfire is definitely interesting possibility instead of 1950XTX but there's couple drawbacks, first of all idle consumption with two cards is going to be higher than with one card, while max consumption peaks just little higher it's even more remarkable when remembering that cooling system of 1950Pro doesn't exhaust heat directly out from case unlike 1950XTX which means you need to increase cooling of case.
Also what I've checked reviews with 1950Pro Crossfire it looks like there's driver problems in some games (barely any speed boost from second card)... and only 256MB memory is going to limit amount/size of textures.


http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/video/display/ati-x1950xtx_7.html
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/video/display/x1950pro-gf7900gs_6.html

You should be able to do SLI with those cards even on a 500W Seasonic. And if you're spending that much money, just go buy a 8800GTS now....very quiet heatsink/fan, way more powerful and $450.

I think a simple formula is this: Good 300W = ANY single card system. Good 400W = Most SLI systems, Good 500W = All single cpu SLI systems. Key word being a good psu with a proper amount of 12v load. Of course this assumes no crazy power needs such as Peltiers or whatnot. I'd probably bump any system using the 8800 series up one notch.

Well for one thing lets not forget those are in Canadian Prices. So if the 8800GTS is $450 US that means it's well over $500. If that's the case then the XTX will probably go down in price with accordance to Price/Performance right? I also read that the 8800 sucks only a tiny bit more Watts than the XTX. And overall I doubt it's quiet. I don't believe I'll ever hear a quiet stock fan, they always need to be replaced. Whether I decide to put a CPU Heatsink on it or an Arctic Cooling.

Personally I'm an ATi fanboy as of this summer lol. And I rather stick to ATi. I'm sure once the 8800s come out the X1900 prices will drop again. I'm kind of leaning on the X1950 XT but I'm not sure how much of a difference will the lesser of 256MB ram will make. But for an extra $100 I could have CF X1950Pro which just looks cooler lol. Still deciding.

I did get my X1800XL at a good price, $220 CND. Although I'm not sure exactly if an X1950Pro would be much of an upgrade to it.