X1950XT, artefacts and VPU Recovery

[MasterBlaster76]

Save it for F.E.A.R 2 maybe?

Or, hmm, I think you could just see the technical prowess of Crysis through its demo. For the money, COD4 would be nice but if you're into online.

Maybe GTA IV?

I've recently got into online shooters in a big way, so I might go with CoD4. Those temps are super cool, aren't they? It seems to top out at around 50 degrees, under heavy load!

Edit: You mentioned the 6 pin connector, would the card or the Corsair 650w PSU be likely to come with that?

 

[The_gas]

Call Of Duty World At War my friend.

 

[MasterBlaster76]

Call Of Duty World At War my friend.

Something else I like about the card is the design of the heatsink. Unlike the one on my X1950XT, it's circular, so that must mean it's going to clog up with dust more slowly? The X1950XT only has one opening at the back, so less space for the hot air to escape.

 

[Kshitiz_Indian]

I've recently got into online shooters in a big way, so I might go with CoD4. Those temps are super cool, aren't they? It seems to top out at around 50 degrees, under heavy load!

Edit: You mentioned the 6 pin connector, would the card or the Corsair 650w PSU be likely to come with that?

Yeah the Corsair would have it built in. Nevertheless, the card also will probably come with a Molex to 6pin converter, doubt you'd need it though.

 

[The_gas]

Something else I like about the card is the design of the heatsink. Unlike the one on my X1950XT, it's circular, so that must mean it's going to clog up with dust more slowly? The X1950XT only has one opening at the back, so less space for the hot air to escape.

Yes it seems like it should be an effective cooling solution. However, if you want the best possible cooling solution for the 4850 then you must get a HIS ICE 4 HD 4850. It is the bad boy of 4850's. :hpraise

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/512M...2200MHz-GDDR3-GPU-685MHz-800-Cores-2xDL-DVI-I

These things rock.

If you remember to hoover the back vent on your graphics card every week or two, it will never get badly clogged up.

 

[MasterBlaster76]

Yes it seems like it should be an effective cooling solution. However, if you want the best possible cooling solution for the 4850 then you must get a HIS ICE 4 HD 4850. It is the bad boy of 4850's. :hpraise

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/512M...2200MHz-GDDR3-GPU-685MHz-800-Cores-2xDL-DVI-I

These things rock.

If you remember to hoover the back vent on your graphics card every week or two, it will never get badly clogged up.

Thanks for that!

 

[The_gas]

No problem, your E-Penis will become very erect with one of those.

 

[MasterBlaster76]

Lols!

One other thing, I'll need the latest drivers for the 4850, so do I go with '4800 series' or '4850 X2' on the ATI site?

 

[The_gas]

Lols!

One other thing, I'll need the latest drivers for the 4850, so do I go with '4800 series' or '4850 X2' on the ATI site?

4850 drivers, the X2 is actually two 4850's on one pcb.

 

[MasterBlaster76]

4850 drivers, the X2 is actually two 4850's on one pcb.

Do you mean the 4800 series? There are no actual 4850 drivers, other than the X2.

This is getting so bloody annoying! All I can do right now is play old games like CoD 2 at about 800 x 600! Even at that resolution, new ones keep artefacting and then crashing to Windows! Roll on next week, when I'll have my 4850!

Edit: About any possible bottlenecking, I've read around a bit and most hardware forums seem to say there won't be much of a bottleneck and that it would be worse at low resolutions: I game at 1440 x 900, so should be ok, no? Why is the bottleneck worse at lower resolutions then?

 

[The_gas]

Do you mean the 4800 series? There are no actual 4850 drivers, other than the X2.

This is getting so bloody annoying! All I can do right now is play old games like CoD 2 at about 800 x 600! Even at that resolution, new ones keep artefacting and then crashing to Windows! Roll on next week, when I'll have my 4850!

Edit: About any possible bottlenecking, I've read around a bit and most hardware forums seem to say there won't be much of a bottleneck and that it would be worse at low resolutions: I game at 1440 x 900, so should be ok, no? Why is the bottleneck worse at lower resolutions then?

Yes the 4800 series is the correct option mate.

Btw, which 4850 version are you going to buy? If you do buy one, i would strongly advise you to buy one from where i just got my 4870, scan.co.uk. They really put most online retailers to shame, unlike the cowboy company i bought my cpu cooler from. They are very helpful if you phone them up, and they give you a tracking number so you can track your 4850 in transit, and they will deliver next working day (mon-fri), if you want it on a saturday, it costs extra.

About the bottlenecking, not sure to be honest. But with that card you want your cpu at 3ghz if possible, otherwise the card will be held back somewhat by the cpu in certain games even at 1440x900. But 3ghz should be possible with ur cpu, just may need a new cooling solution.

 

[angryangy]

In terms of drivers, it should rarely matter. Let me demonstrate;

I go to the download page
Drivers & Software

And for example I select an operating system, Vista 32, then the family, Radeon, and the type, 4800 series; it recommends ATI Catalyst display driver 9.1 for Vista (32 bit)

If I chose the 4870X2, it takes me to a different page, but still offers the Catalyst 9.1 package. These drivers have been WHQL Certified, but that doesn't mean it's not the same driver on the main page. Windows Hardware Quality Labs testing can be handy for drivers that tend to be buggy, but locked in competition, both ATI and nVidia are directly answerable to a vocal army of nerds and if they make a driver that doesn't work, it's a big publicity storm.

If I choose the 4670... ATI Catalyst 9.1 again.

If I choose the 3870... ATI Catalyst 9.1!

What about an old 9700... I had one of these 3 and a half years ago, surely support doesn't go back that far... no wait, ATI Catalyst 9.1!

The driver packages by nVidia and ATI (ForceWare and Catalyst, respectively) are designed to be an all-in-one package that avoids confusion. Most videocards are not different enough to require a wholly new driver, with new cards never throwing away all of the features of the last generation. As a result, it's only if you're working with an unbelievably old card or a unusual mobile device that you might need to look for a specific driver.

 

[Kshitiz_Indian]

I think angryangry just had the driver bit covered. About the bottlenecking thing, mate it depends on game to game. Some games are heavy on the CPU, some are not. Bottleneck is a situation where your video card is sitting idle while the CPU is still processing stuff to either feed to the video card or the AI. It did happen with my 1.8Ghz E2160 in quite a lot of games (I game at 1680x1050) even on my measly 9600GT. One example is Crysis. And the 4850 is twice as powerful as my 9600GT. So its best you overclock to atleast 2.66Ghz, should be fairly easy.

 

[MasterBlaster76]

In terms of drivers, it should rarely matter. Let me demonstrate;

I go to the download page
Drivers & Software

And for example I select an operating system, Vista 32, then the family, Radeon, and the type, 4800 series; it recommends ATI Catalyst display driver 9.1 for Vista (32 bit)

If I chose the 4870X2, it takes me to a different page, but still offers the Catalyst 9.1 package. These drivers have been WHQL Certified, but that doesn't mean it's not the same driver on the main page. Windows Hardware Quality Labs testing can be handy for drivers that tend to be buggy, but locked in competition, both ATI and nVidia are directly answerable to a vocal army of nerds and if they make a driver that doesn't work, it's a big publicity storm.

If I choose the 4670... ATI Catalyst 9.1 again.

If I choose the 3870... ATI Catalyst 9.1!

What about an old 9700... I had one of these 3 and a half years ago, surely support doesn't go back that far... no wait, ATI Catalyst 9.1!

The driver packages by nVidia and ATI (ForceWare and Catalyst, respectively) are designed to be an all-in-one package that avoids confusion. Most videocards are not different enough to require a wholly new driver, with new cards never throwing away all of the features of the last generation. As a result, it's only if you're working with an unbelievably old card or a unusual mobile device that you might need to look for a specific driver.

Thanks for clearing that up mate.

MasterBlaster76 added 0 Minutes and 48 Seconds later...

Yes the 4800 series is the correct option mate.

Btw, which 4850 version are you going to buy? If you do buy one, i would strongly advise you to buy one from where i just got my 4870, scan.co.uk. They really put most online retailers to shame, unlike the cowboy company i bought my cpu cooler from. They are very helpful if you phone them up, and they give you a tracking number so you can track your 4850 in transit, and they will deliver next working day (mon-fri), if you want it on a saturday, it costs extra.

About the bottlenecking, not sure to be honest. But with that card you want your cpu at 3ghz if possible, otherwise the card will be held back somewhat by the cpu in certain games even at 1440x900. But 3ghz should be possible with ur cpu, just may need a new cooling solution.

This is the card I'm getting:

ASUSTeK Computer Inc.

 

[jkartik]

ok....i want some help here.....if my config is the following :-

Intel Quad core Q9550
Intel DP35 Motherboard
6GB DDR2 800MHz RAM
Sapphire TOXIC HD 4870 1GB
1 Terabyte HDD
Arctic Freezer Pro 7

what kind of a cabinet and a PSU / SMPS would i require ??