Just purchased X1950Pro AGP

strike-2 · January 10th, 2007, 07:19 PM

I actually chewed my way throught the official HTT documentation once, trying to determine which motherboard would be best for my system.

It's extremely confusing material, even for an electrical engineer (BSC)

Dyre Straits · January 10th, 2007, 09:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by strike-2

Keep in mind, that I have a Socket939 CPU and therefore PC3200 DDR RAM (not DDR2)

I'm still a bit confused with the whole HyperTransport thing.
(What's the point of a 1GHz northbridge, if it's only 250 MHz with x4 multipliers on each end?)

So, if I understand correctly:
The bus between Northbridge and the Southbridge should run at 200 MHz with a x4 multiplier. (but that's only 800 MHz out of 1GHz!)
So, is that 4x multiplier between CPU and Northbridge your HTT multiplier?

The Manual

I've attached 2 images:
DSCF0215-resize.JPG : CPU cooler
HTTP.JPG: How I recall the whole Architure Thing working...

You and I have the exact same motherboard. So, let me give you a few things I've already found out about this motherboard. I'm using a very similar CPU, too. A64 X2 4800+.

Per your piccy submitted, you have your RAM installed incorrectly. Putting it this way you can't achieve Dual Channel performance. Each matchiing stick has to be installed in the matching color slot to do so. I'm running Mushkin Extreme Gamers RAM XP4000 (2x1GB) at 500 Mhz (2x250 MHz) with no problems. I have my CPU OC'd presently just barely. I'm really not that big on OC'ing other than to run benchmarks. For everyday performance, I mostly stick with default settings as long as my programs/games run well.

Also, do you have the latest BIOS? 0602?

EDIT: To get a really indepth view of what's in your sytem, download the free Belarc Advisor and run it.

http://www.belarc.com/ba5.html?B

PUTALE · January 10th, 2007, 11:10 PM

the best agp card on the market, though I personallly may actually choose to save up and go for new system that supports pcie

.

Dyre Straits · January 11th, 2007, 04:20 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by strike-2

I actually chewed my way throught the official HTT documentation once, trying to determine which motherboard would be best for my system.

It's extremely confusing material, even for an electrical engineer (BSC)

Are you experiencing any sound stutters, cracks, pops, etc with your setup? Many people have reported that there is a problem when using certain audio cards. Just curious.

strike-2 · January 11th, 2007, 09:29 AM

I just noticed that RAM issue yesterday, when I went looking for the chipset lay-out in the manual (It's not in there!).

On page 2-11 they say that DIMM_A1 and DIMM_A2 form a channel.
On page 2-12 they say that the matching pair should be in A1 and B1

(I almost broke my RAM moving the RAMCoolers to this configuration.

I recently upugraded my BIOS and just checked with the BIOS Utility:
My current BIOS is up-to-date.

I Have an Audigy4 OEM/Gamer and I haven't experienced any pops/crackles (AKA PCI latency issues).
If you do have them, I suggest lowering the PCI latency of other devices.
(This is a known issue with Soundblaster cards)

I'll run that BelArc this evening, when I get back from work.
(Great tool!, I've used it before. I'm not posting my license info, though

)

phxz31 · January 14th, 2007, 04:55 AM

I flashed my BIOS with a CPC ON (memory CMD=1) version and installed the newest Catalyst drivers and got my 3DMark06 score up to 4073.

Catalyst 7.1 CP, ATI Tray Tools 1.2.6.977
CPU: 2388mhz, Mem/FSB: 227mhz CL2-2-2-11, AGP Bus: 87mhz
GPU: 633mhz, VMem: 1500mhz

My CPU score is still holding back my overall 3dmark score, but I guess I am somewhat satisfied knowing that my CPU is getting about half the score of a much newer, similarly clocked dual-core CPU... which seems pretty good actually considering its age.

http://service.futuremark.com/compare?3dm06=999717

Unixlord · January 14th, 2007, 09:28 AM

I still have my Athlon XP machine and I still love it. Wait a min, did I say love? I meant like... uh ...nvm

gumbo · January 15th, 2007, 09:16 PM

Hi all ! I googled up this tread and thought i should register and reply

I to am a bit disapointed about the NF-7s and X1950 combo.

I get close to 4000 in 3Dmark06, 7700 in 3Dmark05 and around 20800 in 3Dmark01.
With my overclocked Radeon 9800Pro i got araound 18500 in 3Dmark01.

It seems that the X1950 is very bottlenecked by the Mobo/CPU/Mem as overclocking it from default 574/688 to 608/749 gives almost no increase in scores (10-30 in 3Dmark06).

The strange thing is that overclocking my CPU from 2400 to 2500 also gives me little, same with going from cas 2.5 to cas 2.0 or upping the FSB from 200 to 220.

Other bios settings also seems to have little effect, it seems that the bootleneck lies in the mobo itself...

I was thinking something was wrong, but games are noticably faster even after i upped the resolution a notch to 1600x1200.

Here's my 3Dmark05 score (7699) for comparison, i uninstalled 3Dmark06 as i feel its for newer computers than mine...
http://service.futuremark.com/orb/re...=0&UID=7615988

(edit. changed 05scores to 2.4ghz, cas 2.5 200fsb, no X1950 overclock)
(edit.Added 3dmark05 comparison link)

strike-2 · January 16th, 2007, 01:12 AM

I think 3DMark01 actually can't handle the amount of processing power you threw at it.
I upgraded from 3000+ w/ 9800Pro to X2 4200+ w/ 1950Pro and there was hadrly any difference in 'Mark01.

Even going XFire didn't really influence that score...

I think we have simply reached the limit of what 'Mark01 can usefully handle.
There is absolutely no point in having 6000 FPS,
as long as it never drops under 40 FPS.

phxz31 · January 16th, 2007, 02:10 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by gumbo

Hi all ! I googled up this tread and thought i should register and reply [img]images/smilies/smile.gif[/img]

I to am a bit disapointed about the NF-7s and X1950 combo.

I get close to 4000 in 3Dmark06, 7700 in 3Dmark05 and around 20800 in 3Dmark01.
With my overclocked Radeon 9800Pro i got araound 18500 in 3Dmark01.

It seems that the X1950 is very bottlenecked by the Mobo/CPU/Mem as overclocking it from default 574/688 to 608/749 gives almost no increase in scores (10-30 in 3Dmark06).

The strange thing is that overclocking my CPU from 2400 to 2500 also gives me little, same with going from cas 2.5 to cas 2.0 or upping the FSB from 200 to 220.

3dmark01 is like dx7 or dx8 (can't remember which).... A new card optimized for SM3.0 code won't affect the scores of a SM1.0 benchmark all that much.

Your CPU is also really old. AthlonXP's are good old CPUs, but they don't support SSE2, and they are horribly bottlenecked by a slow FSB. In all actuality, the card is not really bottlenecked much by the nForce2/AthlonXP combo. With that combo, I got almost 4100 points in 3DMark '06, and my graphic benchmark scores were not much less than a newer Athlon64 X2 system... it was my CPU score that is keeping my overall score down... My CPU test score is about half of a more modern CPU, and unfortunately it keeps my total 3DMark score down about 800 to 900 points.

Other than 3DMark, my games run amazingly, and I'm very happy with my NF7-S/AthlonXP + X1950 Pro. I think this card just may give my 5-year-old box another year of life. We'll see.

Check back in a day or so, I'm gonna install 3DMark '05 and run the benchmark to see how my score compares to yours. Honestly though, I'm quite happy with my system now. Since upgrading from a X1600 Pro, my system has come back to life and I love it.