Video Cards

[CoM_Solaufein]

A couple of months ago, I bought a VisionTek XGE Radeon X1600XT card for my gaming computer. It comes with 1380MHz GDDR3 256MB memory, Shader Model 3.0 with the VPU at 590MHz.

 

Yesterday I bought card for my other computer, which I usually use for DVD movies, listening to CDs and the occasional game playing. This is a VisionTek XGE Radeon X1950PRO. It comes with 1380MHz GDDR3 256MB memory, Shader Model 3.0 with the VPU at 575MHz.

 

The features for both cards are nearly identical. Looking at the VPU, I assume the 1600 is faster because its clock speed of 590 is more than the 1950's at 575. I was going to put the 1950 in my game machine until I compared the two. I'll leave the 1600 in and put the 1950 in my other computer. I thought that the higher the model number, usually the faster the card is.

[Bokishi]

Not really, I mean a geforce 7300 is not faster than a 6800 ultra. I don't know much about ATI cards though so I can't give sensible answer to you.

[mkreku]

The difference between the 1600 and 1950 is not counted in MHz. It's counted in amounts of pixel shaders (36 for PRO, 12 for XT) and vertex shaders (8 for PRO, 5 for XT) and ROP's (only 4 for the XT..) and stuff. The 1950 also utilizes a 256-bit communication with the RAM, where the 1600 is restricted to a 128-bit bus. Even if the 1950 is clocked slightly lower than the 1600, you can safely assume that it's faster than the 1600. It should actually be plenty faster.

 

By the way, the 1950 PRO is excellent value for your money. Good choice.

[Pidesco]

According to this your new card should be a whole lot faster than the X1600XT

[metadigital]

YEAH!

[CoM_Solaufein]

I forgot about the shaders and the other stuff. I guess the other computer got the better card. I bought the 1950 at a cheap price. The local CompUSA store was closing its location in my city for good so they had a big sale on everything 20-50% off.

[metadigital]

Swap the cards!

[CoM_Solaufein]

The ATI 1950 was a pain to install, being a big card it was hard to install in a cramped up space in my HP. If it was in my gaming machine it would be easy as pulling it out of the slot, custom made tower cases are so much roomier. Its not a big deal the X1600 does just fine where its at.