Customer Reviews

ATI Radeon X1950 Pro HD PCI Express 256MB Video Card

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

So let me confirm what the first reviewer mentioned - driver issues. I'm running XP, brand new build of a gaming machine. Yes this card is longer than normal. Yes you will need a powerful power supply (>500 watts) with a 6 pin PCI-E connector. Yes this card is noisy. Yes this card is approaching bleeding edge, thus most systems will require some sort of upgrade. If you're not gaming on this machine - this card is going to be overkill. Save some money and back down a few levels (X1650). If you still want this card, look for the version with 512 Megs of RAM as the price upgrade is often marginal.

The stock fan on this card is awful. Once you begin taxing the card in 3D rendering (most games), this card can overheat and shut-down. Now, I have an Antec Solo case with 2x 90 cm fans at the front and water cooling the processor with a 120 cm fan at the rear. Not to mention a truepower PS with 2x 80cm fans. I have had to add a 120 cm fan blowing directly on the video card to have it remain stable for more than 40 minutes.

ATI has recently come out with CCC 7.3 drivers, which should help most Vista users, but they have not helped me. I'm now using the Omega drivers (3d party) that are working much better. I find the CCC console much too restricting over what ATI used to use, but this is probably fine for 90% of the users. One nice thing is that this version finally has a good utility for removing all sources of drivers. The past versions would leave artifacts in the registry that would affect future installations - a problem the first reviewer might have run into.

Now don't get me wrong - I LOVE this card! What it is capable of doing is wonderful. My gaming experience has never been better. Again, bleeding edge issues.

Something to also consider, this is not a DX10 supported card (Direct X). What this means is in 9-12 months, when games start hitting the market supporting this, you will be one version behind. With these cards now available for 1.5-2x the price, it's a financial decision. For gamers, this means a typical 1 year replacement cycle will still hold true.

I have been pleased with the performance of this card in a Windows Vista based PC. Great for supporting dual monitors with 2 DVI outs.

This card is much faster than my old 6800GS. However, for the first time ever, in the many PCs I have built, I have programs that run but with NO video. I have programs that only run after I deleted all software "updates" that I downloaded from their site. I even had to make adjustments to MS media player, to get it to play properly. Customer service consisted of the usual "technician" reading from a script, who told me I needed to upgrade to MS media player v10. I can't recommend this card, unless you want a fast card that MIGHT run all of your programs, if you're lucky. PS. it does get a bit hot.

A powerful video card, runs Command & Conquer 3 smoothly at the
highest level of detail, arrived without a scratch and has no
overheating problems, just remember to buy a power supply with pci-e connection.

I have a HP Pavilion a730n (3 years old) and bought this card to replace an older ATI card. During installation into the PCI Express slot on the motherboard I discovered that the 26 pin power supply connector was in the way. I removed the connector to find out after seating the board it prevented me from plugging the power supply cable back in. The card was now useless and I had to return it.



Before you buy this card make sure you measure how much room you have behind your PCI Express slot, you need at least 11" clearance...ATI shame on you for not considering older systems before making this long long card.

This is an excellent mid-range card for the price. I was limping in on games with an older 128mb ATI card and the differences are immense. If you don't need a top of the line card, are on a budget, and still want to nicely upgrade your gaming experience, this is the card you want!

If you don't have a DX10 card, this is one of the best choices in the market. Because the other cardss with support DX10 they're really bad with DX9, and de DX10 it's soooo far.

I read two hours worth of reviews on several web sites before I took the plunge and purchased this highly acclaimed graphics card by ATI (now owned by AMD). First, I had to replace my power supply unit. The card requires at least 450 watts of power. The PSU cost me $100.00. Moreover, my old power supply didn't have a six-pin power plug (ATI doesn't supply a dongle like Nvidia does). The new power supply is also a lot noisier than I had hoped. But back to the graphics card. It is long and cumbersome. I had to remove several power cables in order to put the ATI card in its PCI-E socket. And even then it didn't want to seat itself easily. My RAM and a resistor on my motherboard kept getting in the way. I finally got the card seated into its socket, and after an hour, I had my PC up and running. My Vista Operating System rated the card with a 5.9! I was happy. . . for a while. Then tragedy struck. ATI announced new drivers for Vista; I downloaded the software and installed it correctly. The card has not worked since then. I get one blue screen after another. Rolling back the drivers hasn't helped either. Tech support is only available until 5PM Monday through Thursday, and it closes at 3PM on Friday. NO WEEKEND support. I replaced the graphics card with another card that I had used previously; it's not as powerful, but it works always!