ATI's Radeon X1900 Video Card Series Part II

[BiGg RiE]

I'd like to stay @ or under $100, it's funny you sugested that psu before the holiday I was seriously considering getting the blue one with the leds but the seller told me that it didn't light up. this killed my want for it since the ultra x series is just as good with a higher output rating for a cheaper price.

I know my previous post may lead some to believe that my budget is massive, however nothing could be further from the truth. I just believe that when it comes to certain things you get what you pay for. And i think that you can get a good quality sli psu for 80~100 duckets. I mean i got the psu I use now http://www.xoxide.com/logisys-mesh-500w-psu-blue.html for 40 bucks brand new and its been great. but with 2 optical drives, 4GBs of ram, 3 sata2 drives 2 ide hdd, 2 7800gt's, athlon 64, floppy, 750 zip, xbox.ps2.gamecube controller adapter, neons, led kits, 4 120mm fans and A partridge in a pear tree. I need a little more juice and I am not willing to try my luck with the one I have now.

Memory is another thing you can't skimp on hence my comment on not caring about the price.

Thanx.

[zachig]

Thanks Apoptosis for a wonderful review. I liked this one of yours as well as others. Keep 'em coming.

[BiGg RiE]

Hey Kenc51 do you think if I just use the 2x512MB of ram in dual channel & remove the 1GB dimm, I'd get better performance in games & 3dmark?

[Bwall]

In 3d mark yes you'd notice a difference in scores. In gaming there will be a difference, but will be more noticeable on some than others.

[kenc51]

Hey Kenc51 do you think if I just use the 2x512MB of ram in dual channel & remove the 1GB dimm, I'd get better performance in games & 3dmark?

As wickedld9 said, 3Dmark etc. will work better with 2x 512mb --> even some older games...
2GB will give smoother gameplay in games though......

2x512mb will give better memory performance BUT when gaming the GFX card is the bottleneck, so memory performance is not too important
Memory capacity is way more important.....esp. in games like frear and quake4.

Unless your going to overclock, stick with 2gb
If you plan on overclocking, then see how high you can get using 2gb....if it doesn't work, then consider 2x 512mb

K

[BiGg RiE]

So it's better to have 1GB running in dual channel than have 2GB not running in dual channel? I know that some games have a great benifit from extra ram for things like textures, Doom 3 for example uses over 500MB for textures in ultra quality mode. Would I be better off just keeping the 2GB in? Would the performance gain be significant enough to sacrifice the extra room in ram?

[BiGg RiE]

ok so i'll just keep the 2GB in there and add another 1gb dimm then i can run all dimms in dual channel, if I'm understanding correctly then this should yield a "best of both worlds" scenerio. Should i load the 2x1GB dimms in the first slots or the 2x512? I'd think that the smaller dimms would give me better performance in the first slot since that's where most of the accessing would be going first. When I'm designing would be the only time the rest of the dimms would be accessed, when using photoshop for example.

[kenc51]

2x 1GB sticks is the best!!!!
This should be enough for Photoshop too!
Unless your dealing with uber high res photos and ALOT of filters etc.

Switching to 2x 1GB sticks will not give great performance compaired to your current setup...but will make life easier IF you plan to overclock

Running 3GB might help with photoshop etc. but not with gaming...

[BiGg RiE]

ok, thanx. any suggestions on a great cpu cooling solution both air & water cooled?