Just purchased X1950Pro AGP

phxz31 · December 20th, 2006, 04:56 AM

Hey AGP users, I just purchased a Visiontek X1950Pro AGP. I've noticed that there aren't any reviews so I will run some benchmarks on it tonight or tomorrow and post some results.

I can tell you one thing right now: this card is freakin' huge!!

Mac Daddy · December 20th, 2006, 12:05 PM

Cool stuff keep us posted on the results

phxz31 · December 20th, 2006, 04:57 PM

So the first benchmark I ran was 3D Mark '06. I had to lower my CPU speed a little to 2340mhz (223x10.5), but the rest of my system specs are same as in my signature.

I didn't realize the free version of 3DMark '06 was so limited in terms of usable settings.
It would only let me run the benchmark at 1280x1024 noAA noAF, and my result was 3839 3DMarks. That seems a little low, but I've never run any 3D Mark version in years. I think my system is probably starting to show its age, as its an older nForce2 Ultra platform.

From a purely subjective point of view, my games have become dramatically more playable. Need For Speed Most Wanted framerates must have more than doubled from what I got with my x1600Pro, and I now can play with all of the graphics settings maxed out. I get much more consistent frame rates on HL2:E1 with 4xAA + 8xAF at 1280x1024. UT2k4 is MUCH faster even at 1600x1200 with 4xAA enabled.

Also, I feel I should point out that my AGP bus is running at 83mhz, giving a effective bandwidth of AGP 10x... still significantly less than PCIe 16x, but every little bit helps.

I'll post some more actual benchmark numbers after work today, but for right now I'm very satisfied with the in-game performance boost the card has given me.

**Regeneration** · December 20th, 2006, 04:59 PM

3800 Points in 3DMark06 is pretty good for your system.

phxz31 · December 20th, 2006, 07:10 PM

3800 just seems a little low I guess... I was hoping to be more in the 5000 point range like most PCIe x1950Pro systems seem to put out, but I guess my CPU and memory bandwidth is probably the biggest bottleneck on my box.

Dyre Straits · December 20th, 2006, 08:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by phxz31

3800 just seems a little low I guess... I was hoping to be more in the 5000 point range like most PCIe x1950Pro systems seem to put out, but I guess my CPU and memory bandwidth is probably the biggest bottleneck on my box.

I'm in the process of upgrading my own system with a X1950 Pro PCIe card. I just installed 3DMark2k6 and updated it with the 110 patch. Are you using the latest patched version, too?

At any rate, my first run result -- without any overclocking or tweaking at all -- is 4774.

http://service.futuremark.com/compare?3dm06=814825

I agree that your biggest bottleneck is your CPU followed by the RAM. Have you made absolutely sure you have the correct memory timings set in the BIOS? If you're using Auto settings, it may not be running as well as it could be.

EDIT: Changing all settings for my graphics card to PERFORMANCE gave me a slight improvement to 4800.

http://service.futuremark.com/compare?3dm06=814971

phxz31 · December 20th, 2006, 10:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dyre Straits

I'm in the process of upgrading my own system with a X1950 Pro PCIe card. I just installed 3DMark2k6 and updated it with the 110 patch. Are you using the latest patched version, too?

At any rate, my first run result -- without any overclocking or tweaking at all -- is 4774.

http://service.futuremark.com/compare?3dm06=814825

I agree that your biggest bottleneck is your CPU followed by the RAM. Have you made absolutely sure you have the correct memory timings set in the BIOS? If you're using Auto settings, it may not be running as well as it could be.

EDIT: Changing all settings for my graphics card to PERFORMANCE gave me a slight improvement to 4800.

http://service.futuremark.com/compare?3dm06=814971

My memory timings are 2-2-2-11 @222.8mhz, my videocard is stock frequencies right now because ATT doesn't seem to be compatible with it for overclocking yet. Also, I'm running the NGO Optimized ATI 1.66 driver, I had to modify the INF files to make it compatible with the X1950 Pro.

Yeah I'm thinking my biggest issue is the fact that my CPU doesn't support SSE2, followed by my available memory bandwidth. I can't add SSE2 support to my CPU, but I may be able to get a little bit more out of my FSB and CPU in terms of frequency that could help.

When I get home from work I am going to see if my card will run stable on a 99mhz AGP bus, that would bring my throughput to the equivalent of
AGP12x which is approaching PCIe throughput.

I realize my system is old, but it doesn't seem like I should be 1000 3DMarks behind...

Dyre Straits · December 20th, 2006, 10:19 PM

I just did a little more digging around and discovered that my DDR Memory is supposed to run at 500 MHz (2x250). Well, it was running at 400 MHz (2x200). So, I reset and adjusted only the DDR timings and got another boost:

4904 is the latest result.

http://service.futuremark.com/compare?3dm06=815425

EDIT: I almost forgot! I also boosted the X1950 to 607/715 OC.

phxz31 · December 21st, 2006, 06:25 AM

Well I did a little more tweeking, and I got my score up to 3884. Still not where I think it should be, perhaps I should try upping my FSB and CPU speed again. The only problem with that is that I have to raise the memory timings and I really like it at CL2-2-2.

phxz31 · December 25th, 2006, 12:09 AM

New results. With the NGO 1.6.12 I now get 3957 in 3DMark '06. Thats not a huge increase, but I think its about the best I'll get without a more modern platform. Thanks Reg for the new NGO drivers!

Oh btw, I now can actually overclock my board with ATT using these new drivers. I'm running the video card at 600/750 for core/mem respectively.

http://service.futuremark.com/compare?3dm06=845193