which x1950 Pro (AGP) and what cooler?

[Seriema]

Hi!

For the holidays I'm buying myself a new x1950 Pro AGP, as what I've seen it kicks all other AGP's in the behind. ^^ But I can't decide on two points.

Which x1950 Pro (AGP)?
1) What brand to get?
2) Does the 512mb have that much over the 256mb? If so, there's only the Sapphire and Powercolor what I've seen and they seem to have different specs.
3) I won't use crossfire, if that's even possible with the AGP.
4) Is there any difference when overclocking?

What cooler?
I want a quite computer, and those giant coolers scare me... What I've seen it's the Zalman VF900 fan or the Thermalright HR-03 passive cooler that seem to be the replacements of choice. Even though I have several (quite) fans I don't think my computer's that cool.
1) So I'm a bit worried about the HR-03 damaging my card.
2) Also, since I'm considering overclocking the card I'm guessing I can't use a passive cooler?
3) How would the HR-03 work with a fan? Just place a fan near it? Should it "push" or "pull" the air, in view of the card?

[ryboto]

I own the pcie version made by sapphire, based on my knowledge, I'll try to answer your questions as best I can.

Which x1950 Pro (AGP)?
1) Sapphire and Powercolor have decent reputations, but they should all perform the same anyway. The biggest difference between cards seems to be the cooler that the manufacturer uses. So, if you plan on swapping, just do what I did and get a card with the standard cooler.

2) The 512mb versions seem to be given a factory overclock, nothing too insane. I have the 256mb version, I play FEAR, BF2, NFS:Carbon, all details high, 4x anti aliasing, and this card never chokes. I would imagine more video ram would allow me to push some of the AA and AF a little higher. I've heard more video memory will actually make a difference if you plan on folding with the card. When I fold with mine I notice significant lag with just about everything, so maybe more video ram helps?

3) They all support crossfire, though, some don't come with the cable(asus, i believe)

4) Are you talking about overclocking the card? cause in my experience, and others, this card doesn't really overclock well at all, the only software that seems to work with it is the Catalyst Control Center, and it doesn't let you push the core very far.

What cooler?

1) As far as the HR-03 goes, I wouldn't get it, just because it takes up so much space around the slots, and it is pretty beefy.

2) Like I said before, this card doesn't have a reputation for overclocking well, if at all. It's not that it can't be done, it's just that current software doesn't really work well with the card. But, I'd also agree, if you do plan on pushing the card, passive might not cut it.

3) Again, I can't comment on the HR-03, but I have a zalman vf900 on mine. I've attached it to 2 fanmates. This slows the fan to 1000rpm, but at very minimal airflow. The card never goes above 50-55C, depending on ambient temperature. I used to manually increase fan speed during gaming, but I forgot to a few times, and had no issues, so I did an artifact scan with ati-tool. Power color is coming out with a passively cooled x1950 pro, i forget if it's agp or pcie only. Might be something to check out.

[Talz]

I don't think I've ever seen a dual AGP board so crossfire support seems pretty impossible.

Powercolor comes with a cooler from arctic cooling so I'd consider trying that and then decide to upgrade it or not. I've never used that model of cooler but it should be a lot better than the standard one and pricing is supposed to be the same. I haven't seen any benchmarks to show significant gains to more than 256 MB of video memory on the 1950 pro so I wouldn't worry to much about it. If you can get it for the same price I would, but it seems like it will cost $50 more.

[Kozure]

I own the pcie version made by sapphire, based on my knowledge, I'll try to answer your questions as best I can.

I just picked up a Sapphire x1950Pro 256MB PCI-E over the holidays. My old MSI 6600GT had a Zalman HP-80D which was completely silent so the new card is adding a small amount of sound to the case by comparison - not a lot, mind you, but noticeable by comparison.

When you picked up your VF-900, did you look at any other VGA cooling options? I was a little disappointed with the amount of fan noise from the stock Zalman fan on my CNPS-7700 Cu, so I'm in the process of replacing the fan. How's the noise with the stock zalman at 1000 RPM?

[ryboto]

I can't hear the vf900 fan over ambient noise when it's spinning at 1000rpm. At 1300, it is a little noticeable if you have a quiet system. I am in the process of looking for a cheap 80mm fan to attempt a fan swap. I've already swapped the stock slim fan blades of the vf900 fans with standard 80mm fan blades, so, more air is being thrown around the top of the fins at no increase in noise levels. I would have considered other cooling options, but for it's size, the vf900 does a pretty nice job, and this card never really gets that warm, so it's safe to keep the fan spinning pretty slow.

[Anodyne]

I own the pcie version made by sapphire, based on my knowledge, I'll try to answer your questions as best I can.

ryboto, how large is this card? Will it fit in a Solo/P150? Also, have you had any driver issues?

I am a long time nVidia card owner, but lately I've been getting a bluescreen error caused by 'nv4_disp.dll' in an 'infinite loop' at startup. Apparently this in not an uncommon problem. I'm considering switching to an ATI card, and this one would be my preference, but I'm not sure it would fit into my case!

[ryboto]

the card is the same length as other x1900 series cards. it's no longer than the width of the motherboard, actually, i think it's shorter, not sure if that helps, I personally don't own a solo, so i couldn't say for sure. As far as driver issues go, I haven't had any. The Catalyst 6.9's originally didn't support the x1950pro, but as of the 6.10's it's officially supported. If you plan on folding with the card, the 6.10 and 6.11 drivers work with the FAH clients, I haven't tested the 7.1 driver yet. I've never had any blue screen errors with this card installed.

[Anodyne]

In case anyone else is wondering, I ended up purchasing an X1950PRO card (the Gigabyte model that has the Zalman fan) and it does fit in a Solo case, just barely. The card is exactly 9 inches/23 cm long. It ends short of the hard drive cage, however if you are using more than two hard drives it might be tricky to make it fit and still be able to install the PCI-X power connector and the HD cables. But if you only have two hard drives, you can make it fit.

[kaange]

Can you let us know how noisy it is (or isn't)?

[Anodyne]

Well, my previous card was a Gigabyte passively cooled 6800. I had just moved everything into a brand new case, with new PSU, mobo and CPU (only carryovers were the video card, RAM and HD's). So what I am saying is that I am still getting used to the decrease in noise level from my previous build!

However, I would say that so far I can't notice any appreciable difference between the new card with the Zalman cooler and the old passive card. I don't think the video card is the noisiest component in my system - I believe that honor goes to the Zalman AlCu7000 CPU cooler that I recycled, or else the 120mm Antec TriCool exhaust fan.

My system also currently has two 92mm front fans that are likely overkill; I had them mainly to provide cool air to the passive video card that died anyway. If I disconnect those two fans I may be able to hear the new card, but so far I'd say it's quiet enough that I can't hear it over the other fans in my system.

[Mike81]

I think the sapphire X1950 Pro and Zalman Fatality FC-ZV9 cooler would go wel together. The fatality cooler is the same as a VF900-CU cooler, but with slightly higher speed fan.

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