My X1950 just arrived and was just installed! Already a problem though, the PSU is just not enough for LFS or any games. Any other information I might find useful for it? Its clocks are 580mHz (core) 705mHz (memory). I'll be overclocking. I heard the fan is crap so I have a AcceleroX2.

I don't know of any specific issues you might have with that card, but in general: make sure your PSU can handle your card, make sure you have the latest chipset and AGP drivers installed (this depends on whatever chipset your motherboard has), make sure your card works perfectly with every game before trying to overclock it (I don't think you should overclock it, as your CPU will limit you more than the video card), and monitor the temps of the video card at all times, make sure they're much lower than 100C.

Quote from shiny_red_cobra :

Make sure they're lower than 70C.

I think now it's OK... 100C is enough to burn it... Keep it under 70 and you'll be fine. If you can, try to get your fan as high as possible (100% of course). I'm not controling it manually, but I don't know have it ever passed 36% and it never gone over 60C. I think max was 56 or something like that... Not sure though.

I can overclock the old X800 - I'll be fine. G7 Extreme Power 680W for £29.99 .

Why is it so cool to OC something? Buy better, don't OC and you will get more performance and stability.

Quote from matijapkc :

I think now it's OK... 100C is enough to burn it... Keep it under 70 and you'll be fine.

lol my 4870 idles at 78C. When gaming it goes over 80C. These are normal temps btw.

Quote from shiny_red_cobra :

lol my 4870 idles at 78C. When gaming it goes over 80C. These are normal temps btw.

I wouldn't exactly say that's normal. :/
Even my laptop, which has been known to get hot quickly and many times, has an 8400M that idles at around 45C, only getting to 80C with a really graphically intensive program, and that's a laptop chipset.

Quote from TheAdmiester :

I wouldn't exactly say that's normal. :/

It's normal for the 4870, ask any 4870 owner and they'll have the same temps as me.

Quote from shiny_red_cobra :

It's normal for the 4870, ask any 4870 owner and they'll have the same temps as me.

Those temps are sick... Are you OCing it or is it on default?

It's not cool - it just runs faster and saves money.

Quote from matijapkc :

Those temps are sick... Are you OCing it or is it on default?

Default. The only reason it's so hot is cause the fan spins slowly to keep quiet. If I set the fan to 100% it cools down to 35C within a few seconds, but it's loud as hell. Anyway, these chips are designed to take temperatures of up to 100C. After that, a fuse will blow inside the chip and it will turn into a paperweight.

Surprised. Less smooth than the old X800 by far and lower FPS. Am I doing something wrong?

Can you run GPU-Z and post screenshots here from the main tab and the sensors tab.

The old X800 would run at 71degrees before going into a game. The clocks were 472mHz for the core and 446mHz for the memory.

It's not really the speeds I'm concerned about, it's the pixel fillrate, texture fillrate, and memory bandwidth that determine how much fps you get in a game. Do you happen to know what they were for your X800?

No, but I can soon. Going to be installed to my brother's PC.

Quote from shaun463 :

...Am I doing something wrong?

You have to install the best-latest drivers for that model of graphics card...that is the old 7.11 Catalyst version...
Trust me, I had one too (X1950XTX, terrific card as far as quality/price).
Everyone agrees on that driver version, btw.

So you're saying 7.11 offers better performance than 9.3?

Seems that it works quite a bit better in Windows 7. I need it to be good for XP!

Then it must be a driver issue. Like I said earlier, make sure you have the latest drivers for your motherboard (chipset drivers and AGP drivers). Also, you can try the Omega drivers for ATI cards, some people have better performance using those than using the official drivers.

I must add that I still only get 50-60fps in 7 in single player mode with just me in-game.

What 3D settings are you using? (AA/AF levels, etc) If you have Adaptive Anti-Aliasing turned on this might be why you're getting low fps.

Quote from shiny_red_cobra :

So you're saying 7.11 offers better performance than 9.3?

Yes (with that family of cards), but keep in mind that I am still on XP, and I was relating to 7.11 drivers with XP.
Don't know if Win7 makes it any different though.

Quote from shiny_red_cobra :

Default. The only reason it's so hot is cause the fan spins slowly to keep quiet. If I set the fan to 100% it cools down to 35C within a few seconds, but it's loud as hell. Anyway, these chips are designed to take temperatures of up to 100C. After that, a fuse will blow inside the chip and it will turn into a paperweight.

Maybe try a setting around 36-38% fan-speed and monitor the temperatures?
Running the card consistently at over 70C isn't very nice for the chip.

I did have a 4870 too, i had it run in games around 60-65C with 37% fan-speed. My older pc has now a 4890 which runs a bit cooler, although according to specifications it should not make a difference,

At the topic starter, always try the latest version of catalyst drivers which still supports your video-card.

Although 50-70fps with such an old card doesn't sound bad, just as "shiny_red_cobra" said, check the 3d settings, most likely there are some features enabled which the x800 doesn't even support.

Also double check your agp-settings in your bios, you need at least 4x mode to get maximum performance out of a X1950pro.

Just curious, why didn't you get a ati 4670? That is really a serious big upgrade from an old x800.

I didn't have the money. I was going to get a HD4650 but decided instead on the X1950 for budget and performance reasons. For my usage, X1950 beats it.

EDIT: Got 71fps just me on single player now. And 38-50fps with 7 other AI drivers. I still think it should be better.