Radeon X1950 XT to launch on Friday

[Tefra]

ATI IS set to release two cards in the same week. Today it will announce the Radeon X1950PRO card based on RV570 chip and by the end of the week it will announce Radeon X1950 XT card. This is the new card for sub-$300 price segment clocked at 625MHz engine and 900MHz memory. When ATI says 900MHz that usually means 1800MHz in DDR mode. The memory is 256-bit DDR 3. The card is based on the R580 chip and has 256MB of memory. We believe that this one is set to fight Geforce 7950 GT cards while the RV570, Radeon X1950PRO should take on Nvidia's 7900 GS cards.

You should be able to grab Radeon X1950XT from Friday


Source: theinquirer.net

[GIBF4]

Got me one of these last week and installed it without any hassle, even installed the latest CAT 7.5 (drivers only together with ATT Beta v1.045) in fine order without any hickups . However - and here the point of asking - my PSU isn't quite good for the power juice this one is needing, I still have an low 350Watt PSU mounted in my casing. I learned (I searched on other forums (www.sapphire.com, etc.) that this really is way to low in order for this X1950XT to function the way it should. Sapphire is recommending at least an 450Watt... It is working now though and I get double the framerates in most of my games (some double, some less, but allways improvement). also, the quality has improved (I run 6xAA and 16xAF in all my games and I did this too with my other X1650Pro 256mb DDR2) and its running at low temps too (Max. 75 C.). But...
... What PSU do I need in order to get this one going properly? Anyone with a good idea is welcome!

[Tefra]

If it works ok with your current psu, no restarts, no bsod, no artifacts then you don't need to upgrade. Although x1950xt must really put some heavy load to your psu, which might later cause some trouble, even hardware damage.

As sapphire recommends anything above 450watt should be ok but it really depends on all the other components of your computer.

[beezee]

Hey Gib, first off gratz on the new card and trouble free install! Now the bad news... A 350w P/S with todays cards just isn't gonna cut it. "T" is right about the more components in your computer the more draw or load you're going to put on your P/S. You might not have any issues now but you probably will.

I would highly recommend a more robust P/S. You can pick up an Antec 550w with 3 12v rails P/S for just under $100.00. Anyway, just my 2 cents.

[Azrael]

ok I'm going to join in on the get a better PSU boat, even if it worka acceptably now, something might happen, and as Tefra said you could damage your card or another part of you computer. That would be a giant waste would it not?

As Beezee said that 550w psu looks pretty good and you shouldn't have a problem with it, and it's pretty cheap too. Hope everything goes well and no, mini explosions .

(yes I know, I just restated what you guys said, but it's always nice to reinforce good advice )

[GIBF4]

Hi all,

Thanks heaps for the response from you all! Much appreciated guys!
So...I shall get rid of this low-end PSU 350W as soon as possible for it to exchange with something more decent and more up to the job (i.e. starting with 550W or +). Frying is something that should be done in the kitchen, not inside a pc casing... . Thanks a lot guys, all the more reason to stay with 3DAccelerator!! Good people around here. Greetings from the Netherlands, Europe. And...no...Amsterdam is not a country... .

BTW: Got this one for € 150, = ($201,-), is that a good deal?
Also, for what Amp. do I have to look out for? 40 Amp. on a single rail over 12V or so with DC output being at least 550W or higher?

[Azrael]

Good stuff, I'll just give my two cents.

In my opinion, a single powerful rail is vastly superior to multiple lesser rails. This is because one rail is far more efficient. When you have multiple rails the PSU manufacturer presets what connectors go on which rails, most of the time they do a good job and it's not really noticeable.

Say you have 4 rails, one for your cpu and such like (Mobo), one for peripherals like cd-roms and storage, and the other two each for their respective graphics cards (ok so a shitty set-up and I don't think any body would do it that way).

Now say you don't have a second video card, some of those amps are wasted, and can't be distributed to other places. Ok so that probably won't happen, but what about only having one cd-rom and one HDD? there is much amperage that is lost in that rail, that could be used to help the video card rail or the mobo+ CPU rail, so that those rails don't have to work to max or worse, fail.

Now, I'm sure it's not as bad as I make it seem, but I'm a firm believer in single rail PSU. PC Power & cooling normally have single powerful rails, and yes, 40 Amps on a single rail seems very good. So if you have another in mind go for it (100-150 seems about right).

yes I have one, so I'm not a hypocrite, I even chose this PSU over one with 4 rails, and about 50$ cheaper, both were very good PSUs, highly rated and performed admirably under stress, but my current one beat the other one out, not always by a lot, but still. Added to that the safety of a single rail and well, my feelings, sure it's not scientific, but don't make a purchase you don't feel is better just because some random guy on a forum says so (Azrael = Random guy :P).

I'm sure if you take the Antec 550 you'll be very happy, and will probably have no problem, I'm just giving you options, which are always nice to have.

~Azrael

[beezee]

Azrael is absolutely correct in stating that multi-rail configured P/S can indeed have losses as much as 30% in distribution of power/amps. More is not necessarily better when it come to rail configuration in power supplies. Unless you have a dual card/SLi configured system. Then you might see the benefits.

[GIBF4]

Thanks all my friends! Well appreciated by me.
Well, to make a long story short, I have a single card in my PCI-e slot fixed and am not looking for a SLI configuration at all, a X1950XT should do finests on its own so I believe. Just checked at www.antec.com and had my minimum Wattage calculated over all the hardware components I do have in my casing. Turns out I am in need of at least 500W. A X1950XT on its own consumed 115W @ 9.6volts so this one is an Watt-eater to say the least!Anyway, a 40 Amp. single rail with minimum of 550W should do the trick I think, may well be I opt for a 620W but have to see how this one is doing money-wise Moreover, how can I tell a new PSU in fact is an single rail configuration?!?!? Yep, I am not an PSU expert, you all figured this out already. . Strange thing is my current 350W PSU handels my new X1950XT flawlessly up to this moment. But as you all stated, this is temporarly the case, problems shall come accross... Can you tell what could be damaged when running lower Wattage then required on any given hardware? I do not want to damage my brand-new X1950XT as you all suspect! Thanks in advance my friends!

[Azrael]

Well for one, it should say it in the description or specifications of the PSU you're looking at. if not directly said, if you look at the specs, it would show, if multi-rail, 12v1, 12v2 or some such thing indicating there were two 12v rails.

As for the damage, anything really is possible, but you'll probably more often get little hiccups or random restarts, so you could also lose important data such as, you guessed it, saved games :P .

always better to be on the safe side, just don't go an buy a 1kw PSU.. that's just silly :P