Customer Reviews

AMD ATI Radeon X1650 Pro 512MB AGP Graphics Card (100-437809)   

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

So here is my story:

I had a Dell Dimension, and bought Neverwinter Nights 2. My ATI Radeon 9550 had a lot of trouble running that game, so I ordered this card along with a power supply upgrade. However, my Dell case wouldn't allow the power supply upgrade(go figures). So I decided to finally build my own custom computer like I have been wanting to do. To make a long story short, I had already ordered and opened this card, and didn't want to return it, so I pretty much built my system around this card. The bad part of that, it's an AGP. That is my only regret on my newly built system, no PCI Express or SLI.

However, in relation to this card itself, my system is PRM800 Pro M7, 2 GB DDR2 533Mhz, PD 830 3.0Ghz, Zalman 9500 LED Ultra Quiet CPU fan, Ultra 550W x2 psu. This card with this sytem, even though agp 8x, runs killer. I can run Quake 4 and Doom 3 at ultra quality settings with full openGL settings enabled. FEAR and FEAR Extraction point run at near highest setting (volumetric lighting set to medium) flawlessly. And Neverwinter Nights 2 runs at near max perfect. I also use a Samsung SyncMaster 17" LCD with 200Mhz forced refresh rate.

So if you're are wanting to play the newest games at max or near max, for at least another year or two, this is a great card and a good money saver. But if you're building a system, spend the extra cash for PCI-Express, SLI compatable. It will be worth your money in the long run. I have a feeling AGP will be phased out soon.

Installed quickly, great image quality, but within three days the card started to overheat and cause the computer to reboot. I was told by others and ATI forums that the 1650 pro with ATI stock heat sink is KNOWN for its problems. Do not buy 1650 Pro unless sapphire or other upgraded coolant system on the card.

Also note, this may be an unrelated issue, after so many crashes the motherboard was fried and needed to be replaced. Cannot tell if related to video card or not yet.

If you are wanting an ATI stock card, there have been no known issues regarding stock cooling with the AGP 1800 & 1900 series cards.

The one star review is not for the quality of the card, but instead to serve as a flag for those reading reviews looking for reasons why customers were unhappy with this product. This review is just a note to owners of 1.5v AGP 2x/4x motherboards.The Radeon X1650 is a AGP 3.0 spec card, but according to the 3.0 spec it should work just fine in any 1.5v 4x slot since AGP 2.0 and 3.0 are by spec backwards and forwards compatible; unfortunately this card does not meet this requirement.

Aapparently due to ATI's error this card (and others in their Radeon line) are incompatible with several AGP 2.0 (1.5v 4x) motherboards, including those used in the popular Dell Dimension 4500 and 4550 lines. The problem does not effect all AGP 2.0 motherboards, but if you have a AGP 2.0 board be prepared to return it. The similar nVidia based AGP 3.0 (8x) cards do not have this problem.

I writing a one star review because ATI (now owned by AMD) does not make this limitations available anywhere on their website or on the products packaging. What's more, they make presale support very difficult, there isn't just a support number to call without registering a product with their site.

This is a very good video card. It's not the fastest in the world, but it is definitely at the top of the heap for an AGP model card.

I want to get a new 30 inch monitor and both of the ones I am considering require a video card with a dual link DVI-D port. I also game a lot so it needed to be a good 3D accelerator. There are some great ones out there, but they were mostly PCI express cards and my current gaming rig still only has an AGP slot. I don't want to build a new rig until next year, so I was looking for a good card I can use with my current system.

All of the reviews I saw said this card is the best AGP part on the market and it looks like they were correct. When I installed it and started trying various games, I was able to increase the resolution and turn on more of the bells and whistles that games supported. I didn't get the new monitor right away, but with this card once I get it I should be able to enjoy it a lot until I build a new computer.

I have an HP Pavilion a400n (Athlon 64 2800+) machine that's 3-4 years old now. The stock 250W PS finally died. Dropped in an Antec 650W PS and thought "good time to replace my very old and slow ATI 9600"

So, I grabbed the X1650 Pro with the new PS and installed both. My power budget climbed from 240-280 to almost 550W as the new card draws a stupidly high 160W under max load. Good thing I passed up the 500W PS for the 650W one!

The problem is that the factory heatsink/fan is far too wimpy. After an hour of medium use, going into Call Of Duty 2 or Toca 3 Racing or BioShock causes the Radeon X1650 to get blisteringly hot and the PC locks up. Powering down is the only option.

The tragedy of this is that COD2, etc. have never looked better! Being able to use AA and AF at a decent resolution is terrific. Unfortunately, I'll either have to mod the Pavilion case out with 1-3 fans, mod the card with a new cooler, or most likely, take it back and exchange it for an nVidia 7600 GS.

ATI should NOT sell this card without decent cooling, which it clearly does not possess. I liked the old 9600 just fine and had assumed I would get the same quality product with the new X1650. Sadly, that's just not the case.

I only give this card 2 stars and that's only due to the fact when it runs, the graphics are stunning....for a few minutes!

If you have a System that requires AGP, this card is for you. A bit pricey but well worth it!!!

I was looking for a video card because I was in the process of upgrading an older computer and I had installed the ATI HDTV Wonder TV card. I chose the ATI video card figuring that I would try to avoid any compatibility issues. The ATI Radeon X1650 was the latest 8X AGP card that I could find. The card definitely improved the graphics, however I was unable to install the software provided and had to download the software and drivers from the website. The install from the website was not a problem just an extra step. I have been using the card several months now and the picture and colors are noticeably better, however my computer occasionally crashes when I use the TV function causing me to uninstall and reinstall the graphics drivers.

Upgraded from an ATI Radeon 9800 Pro 256MB card to the ATI Radeon X1650 Pro 512MB card. In between I tried an nVidia 512MB card but was very unimpressed with its performance. Read reviews about the Radeon X1650 overheading, problems with compatibility, etc., initially that steered me away from the card and toward the nVidia card. That wasted time and money. The card is fast, made a big difference on the mundane (using Microsoft Money) to the more intense (FEAR, BioShock, etc.). I have 4GB of ram and an Xtreme gamer sound card, so my bottleneck was the video card. This pretty much removed the bottleneck. This is an AGP card, so it could not compete with PCIe, but for folks like me that don't have that option, this card is great. Price is all over the map. Shop well or wait for an Amazon sale, because you certainly don't have to pay ATI $200 for the card. I am suspicious that some of the problems people had with cards is due to buying what I would consider a knockoff from one of the less capable licensees. Install was easy, uninstall my old video drivers, shut down, crack open the case, take out the old card, slide in the new card, start back up, install the drivers, reboot and you're done. Even older games (Unreal 2004) looked better with the new card.

This card works exactly as advertised. I have a 20" wide screen LCD monitor and it looks beautiful on this card. Only complaint would be the useless driver disk that comes packaged with the video card. The drivers on it are corrupt and will not install; quick check of some message boards on the internet indicated others had this same problem & suggested downloading the latest drivers from AMD's website (owner of ATI, apparently) which I did; card then functioned perfectly. The big fan on it makes a little bit of excess noise but nothing you can't live with. Graphics performance is outstanding.

I bought this because I thought it would make my gaming experience better, instead of getting better video quality, I got either no video at all or the the basic color. Their customer support isn't any better, if your on the west coust, and you work during the days on weekdays your out of luck. They are open 8 to 7 eastern time. I don't recommend this product. Get a Nvidia card,they have never failed me so far.