X1950XT, artefacts and VPU Recovery

[The_gas]

Thanks. Who's the PSU expert here? I'm pretty sure that my current card is acting up so soon because of a poor PSU, so I'm prepared to spend a bit more money this time round. I've heard that Antech, Thermaltake are good makes, but I need to know the exact specs. And if you get an extra HDD or something, does that need to be taken into account, or doesn't an extra HDD make that much difference? I probably won't get the HDD yet, but will do at some point soon.

When I've got my new card, I'm buying myself some decent GPU intensive games to test it out. I'm looking at CoD4 and Left 4 Dead!! I've really got into online gaming now, and I love it! We've got CoD5 on the PS3, the Nazi Zombie mode is amazing! My favourite thing to do online is to sneak around as a sniper...

Edit: When I get my new card, even though it's an ATI, I have to purge the X1950XT's drivers from my system to avoid conflicts, don't I.

Don't think there is one. Both those makes should be fine. I would probably look at getting a PSU with a power supply of 600W minimum. The 4850 requires a 450W power supply minimum. So that would leave you a little headroom for the future.

I currently have a 800W PSU, but my graphics cards were power sucking hoes.

HDD shouldn't make much if any difference.

I recently bought COD WAW on the PC, it is amazing, which is why i am getting a ATI 4870, because my 2900's struggle to run it with any aa. But 4850-4870's laugh in the face of such games.

Zombie made is amazing fun, surprisingly addictive. I would get it for the PC (COD5), so many new maps and mods out already.

Yeah, before you take out your old card uninstall the old drivers. Put the new card in, plug it into your psu, install catalyst 9.1 and you should be good to go.

 

[Kshitiz_Indian]

Who says so Matt?

Anyways, for your needs, this Newegg.com - COOLER MASTER eXtreme Power RP-550-PCAR 550W ATX from factor 12V V2.01 Power Supply - Power Supplies should be bloody sufficient. Amperage total on the 12v rails is 32amps, which is good. Total power - 550w - good enough. Considering I'm going on a 500w CM PSU with a 9600GT (Which consumes around only 10w less than a 4850) you should be fine with this PSU. This is however the bare minimum you need for the 4850.

 

[MasterBlaster76]

Who says so Matt?

Anyways, for your needs, this Newegg.com - COOLER MASTER eXtreme Power RP-550-PCAR 550W ATX from factor 12V V2.01 Power Supply - Power Supplies should be bloody sufficient. Amperage total on the 12v rails is 32amps, which is good. Total power - 550w - good enough. Considering I'm going on a 500w CM PSU with a 9600GT (Which consumes around only 10w less than a 4850) you should be fine with this PSU. This is however the bare minimum you need for the 4850.

$59? That's cheaper than I was expecting! Around ?41 in fact. Thanks, K.I!

Someone else said that PSU was 'utter crap', K.I. Are you sure about that one?

 

[MasterBlaster76]

I'd like to thank all your guys for your help. Unlike a certain other site, you haven't started replying with retarded, sarcastic comments, just because I want to make sure that I'm not going to do something that'll ruin my system!

Corsair TX650W Power supply 650 Watt :: evilgaming.co.uk

PC Power & Cooling Silencer 750 Quad Black Power Supply [S75QB-UK] from Overclock.co.uk - Overclocking, Performance Computer Hardware, PCs and Laptops

How are the prices for these two? They seem to come highly recommended, although the second one seems a bit overkill for my needs...

 

[Kshitiz_Indian]

The PC P&C is indeed overkill for your PC. The Corsair is a really good one, but then so is its price.

About that "utter crap" thing. Well I used the 500w CM PSU and haven't really found any issues with it. I have a 9600GT (Which according to reviews consumes around 20W less than a 4850), an E2160 clocked at 3Ghz, and 2 Gigs of ram, so according to these calculations, the 550W CM PSU should be sufficient. In regards to quality, I can't say much as I've only bought one CM PSU and it came out good enough for me.

If you have even the slightest doubts, and have the extra cash, I would recommend go for the corsair one. I've heard there can be some problems with the fan in some pieces of the CM one, so its best to stay clear.

 

[MasterBlaster76]

The PC P&C is indeed overkill for your PC. The Corsair is a really good one, but then so is its price.

About that "utter crap" thing. Well I used the 500w CM PSU and haven't really found any issues with it. I have a 9600GT (Which according to reviews consumes around 20W less than a 4850), an E2160 clocked at 3Ghz, and 2 Gigs of ram, so according to these calculations, the 550W CM PSU should be sufficient. In regards to quality, I can't say much as I've only bought one CM PSU and it came out good enough for me.

If you have even the slightest doubts, and have the extra cash, I would recommend go for the corsair one. I've heard there can be some problems with the fan in some pieces of the CM one, so its best to stay clear.

Thanks K.I. I think I'll settle with the Corsair.

 

[MasterBlaster76]

I will be upgrading my CPU later this year probably, but as things stand, will there be any bottlenecks if I get a 4850?

 

[The_gas]

I will be upgrading my CPU later this year probably, but as things stand, will there be any bottlenecks if I get a 4850?

Yes there will, as the 4850 is a good card.

However, your cpu should easily overclock to 3Ghz on stock cooling, which will help a lot.

 

[Kshitiz_Indian]

Moreover, the Gigabyte P35 board should make it a breeze for overclocking.

 

[MasterBlaster76]

I've always been a bit wary about overclocking, but now might be a good time to try it, since if you do mess it up, you only kill the CPU? Which means I'll just upgrade the CPU sooner than I would otherwise. So, taking my CPU into account, what sort of temperatures should it be running at normally, so I know whether it's not too hot right now to even think about O/C it? If I don't O/C my current CPU, are you saying that I wouldn't notice that much benefit from the new card, or just that it would be holding it back (which I can work with, as I'm upgrading the CPU soon anyway).

Is this:

Nabiltech UK Ltd

the low end price for a quad-core CPU? That's still the best part of ?200: maybe they'll come down towards ?150 or lower by the summer?

Edit:

This is a quote from a review of the card with the slot cooler:

This graphics card is just amazing, I've been running Elder scrolls Oblivion

with 8x Anti Aliasing, 1680x1050 resolution and max EVERYTHING, and due to the graphics cards performance only 60% of one of the dual cores is needed and 20% or the RAM. Anyone who is building a gaming PC should choose this model.



NOTE: It's a teansy bit hard to install into a MSI K9A2 Platinum, the card will either not go in the PCI-E slot due to the fan touching another PCI slot, or it will have to touch the copper heatpipe.

This is the first time I've installed a card into my system, so the last thing I need is one that won't fit into the slot. Will I have any problems fitting this one into my motherboard? The rest of the reviews say the card has a nice, low temperature, typically around 70 degrees under heavy load, and that it is far better than the stock ATI cooler, but I need to know if I'm going to have problems getting it to fit...

Edit: My case's length is 18in, its width is around 8in and its height is about 17in, if that's any help?

Just had a little read around, it appears that it occupies two PCI slots, instead of just one, which isn't a problem if that is the case.

 

[Kshitiz_Indian]

Depends, if the one you're buying is a single slot card or a double slot card. Check it out with the website.

And in terms of overclocking, for a 65nm CPU I would say that stress temperatures of around 58C should be the max you take. I'm sure you can go 3Ghz on the stock cooler without breaking this barrier. The only thing that can "kill" your CPU in overclocking is the core voltage and the VTT voltage(if you set the VTT VERY HIGH for long times). But to kill a CPU you need stupidly high vCores like 1.7V lol

 

[MasterBlaster76]

Depends, if the one you're buying is a single slot card or a double slot card. Check it out with the website.

And in terms of overclocking, for a 65nm CPU I would say that stress temperatures of around 58C should be the max you take. I'm sure you can go 3Ghz on the stock cooler without breaking this barrier. The only thing that can "kill" your CPU in overclocking is the core voltage and the VTT voltage(if you set the VTT VERY HIGH for long times). But to kill a CPU you need stupidly high vCores like 1.7V lol

Dual slot cooler, but the card fits in one slot. Just to make sure, I'll give the shop my mobo type as well, so they can tell for definite if it'll fit. I hope so, going by the reviews I've read, it makes it run a lot cooler than the stock ATI effort! By the way, is there any point going for a high end dual-core CPU, or is quad core definitely the way to go now, not later?

 

[The_gas]

I would not bother upgrading your cpu until you buy a better all round pc, including a monitor. You can overclock your cpu to a minimum of 3ghz (probably even higher, especially with after market cooling), and that will fit nicely with the hd4850 512mb.

 

[MasterBlaster76]

I would not bother upgrading your cpu until you buy a better all round pc, including a monitor. You can overclock your cpu to a minimum of 3ghz (probably even higher, especially with after market cooling), and that will fit nicely with the hd4850 512mb.

Monitor's a Samsung 931CW 19in widescreen, so nothing really wrong there. Are you saying my motherboard is holding things back? That can support all the way up to Core 2 Quad and has plenty of RAM slots (only two are used right now, there are still two free. I'm confused as to why I need a better PC if the motherboard can support all these things? I certainly don't want to get a whole new PC just yet, I've only had this one for a few years.

 

[The_gas]

Monitor's a Samsung 931CW 19in widescreen, so nothing really wrong there. Are you saying my motherboard is holding things back? That can support all the way up to Core 2 Quad and has plenty of RAM slots (only two are used right now, there are still two free. I'm confused as to why I need a better PC if the motherboard can support all these things? I certainly don't want to get a whole new PC just yet, I've only had this one for a few years.

Well imo if you overclock your cpu,to 3-3.2ghz then you won't see too much of a difference from upgrading to a Q6600 quad core at 2.4ghz. There is nothing wrong with your pc, i never said you should upgrade it now. Its perfect for current games and your monitor as things stand now.

If you have money to burn then the upgrade won't hurt performance, just don't expect to see a huge difference, unless you get a much better CPU than a Q6600.