X1900XT impressions

Inside?
that's ridicules.
It should be atleast a foot or so outside the case.

 

You guys may want to look over this preview B4 jumping on this cooler.

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=85813

It looks to me like the VF900 with the 2 heatpipes ( out soon I heard) would be a much better solution.

 

Curiously, according to ComputerBase.de's X1900 review, the 6800U fan is louder than the X1900's (and I'm pretty sure the 5800's was louder than the 6800U's).

But, yeah, a squirrel fan is bound to be audible in an open case. Maybe find a case with a easier side panel access, or buy a usb2/firewire/sata enclosure for spare HDs.

The Accelero sounds promising, but really only in a case with excellent airflow (like one with push-pull 120mms).

 

Isnt the Toy shop demo and some Ruby avaliable, or do you mean even never?

 

Ouch. I upgraded my sig to change the gpu and memory amount but forgot to change the motherboard. And to make it worse, I even had a typo there. You'll find me totally ashamed in my cave workdays during office hours (gmt+2). But you know what? I never wanted to be a hardware enthusiast anyways. I really wanted to be... a LUMBERJACK!

Code:

I'm a lumberjack and I'm OK
I sleep all night and I work all day.

Chorus:
He's a lumberjack and he's OK
He sleeps all night and he works all day.

I cut down trees, I eat my lunch
I go to the lavatory.
On Wednesdays I go shopping and have buttered scones for tea

Mounties:
He cut down trees, he eat his lunch
He go to the lavatory.
On Wednesdays he go shopping and has buttered scones for tea.

Chorus:
He's a lumberjack and he's OK
He sleeps all night and he works all day.

I cut down trees, I skip and jump
I like to press wild flowers.
I put on women's clothing and hang around in bars.

Mounties:
He cuts down trees, he skips and jumps
He likes to press wild flowers.
He puts on women's clothing and hangs around in bars?!

Chorus:
He's a lumberjack and he's OK
He sleeps all night and he works all day.

I cut down trees, I wear high heels
Suspenders and a bra.
I wish I'd been a girlie, just like my dear papa!

Mounties:
He cuts down trees, he wears high heels?!
Suspenders...and a bra?!

...He's a lumberjack and he's OK
He sleeps all night and he works all day.

Huh? What just happened? Never mind, sig updated!

 

I double checked, it actually says:

Can you be 10 cms from the cooler and be outside the case?

 

This post in particular says pass on it.

 

But they do have those regular Arctic cooling models too, right? Ones that are compatible with x1900 too, I presume?

I was actually inches away of having that Accelero preinstalled on the card before buying it. The idea came to my mind just a few hours after they had the card shipped. Now I'm not sure if I should order it or not. Mixed reviews. In that negative review though, I gather that the guy had bad temperatures but did it cause crashes or graphics anomalies? I can't seem to find any info on that.

 

Well, I now realized that I've commented on almost nothing but the noise as thought that was my only impression about it. So let me get back to that "Yes, it makes 3dmark 06 smooth, but at what cost?" sentence and concentrating on what there is before the "but"

Yes, if anyone with a Geforce 6 GT AGP (such as the one that I had before this Radeon) is wondering whether or not these new GPU's can make the demo sequence of 3dmark 06 appear smooth, or merely just reduce the twitchiness to half, the answer is a resounding yes. Well, it isn't butter smooth throughout the whole demo, it gets as low as to around 10fps at times, but I'd still call it smooth and the demo is clearly rolling forward acceptably instead of seemingly rendering individual frames one after one. Though this can of course be very subjective, for me it was acceptable, impressive even. But this particular test wasn't among those that got most boost, I didn't even get double the score (though I think cpu test remaining the same plays a role there)

Other than that, I started playing F.E.A.R all the way through again and oh boy. I finally get to enable everything, all the bells and whistles, AA and AF all the way to the 4x and 16x respectively. I'm going to enjoy this!

I was hoping for similar performance jump as I had with my previous gpu upgrades:

Radeon VE ->Geforce 3->Radeon 9700->Geforce 6800 GT

And guess what? That's exactly what I got. Performance increase is regularly two to three times the previous scores if the test isn't cpu-bound. Even in Doom 3 I got more than double the framerate and that's supposed to be Nvidia's strongpoint. In some cases I get even a whole lot more of difference.

I've gone through quite a few stages with my impressions of this product... not totally different from what one could expect from an average Life in Hell strip:
First there was happiness, then surprise, horror, angryness, self denial, careful hope of better tomorrow, disappointment as tomorrow was just such as the day before, again hopefullness of probably better cooling solution in the future, lucid dreams where all the noise had gone away, discovery of better headphones, 10 hour marathon of trackmania nations, sore back and dreadful awakening to realize I gotta go to work with barely any sleep... and finally rational thinking about whether this is a solid product after all when considering all its qualities as a whole.

I'm not the sort of person who goes rmaing a perfectly fine product even if it has a basic flaw, I'm much more prone to tweaking and making the product work for me. Right now I'm all ears on news on the after market cooling market (d'oh)

Basically, I wouldn't find it hard recommending this graphics card to anyone that has the money to burn, but I would discuss the noise factor.








I just started typing and more came out than I intended.

 

but did you consider the comment from wireframe above that your cooler might not be tight enough so it might be running too loud, as the reviews did not show the card to be particularly loud.

Like this comment from Xbit

or this

nor did the X1800 users complain too much, so it might be your particular card having an issue.

 

Well, I think it is working somewhat as intended, because it's not that noisy all the time. During 2d use there's barely any noise. But when I start gaming or doing something, the noise starts pretty soon. For example, when running 3d mark06, the fan is running as loud as it is about to get at around the time the second test starts to load. It's not full speed though, it makes even more noise during the first second of post when starting up the computer.

From that table I would guess it would be running at that half-speed... and when I last checked the temperatures from the CCC it kind of confirmed this as the board was running at 71 degrees celsius.

All that said, I might as well see if I can somehow easily check the contact of the heatsink and I'll check the screws too. Though, I suspect I'll be getting some kind of replacement cooler anyways in the end. I want something that is not audible over the rest of the fans when running at 100%.

edit: I'd also like to point out that although X1900 and X1800 have the same cooler, the cooler noise is dependant on how much heat the card puts out, and this depends on the power consumption. Most of the reviews I've seen indicate x1900 consumes a whole lot more power than x1800 (up to around 60 W!) and all of this power will build up as heat, hence making the fan run faster.

In a finnish magazine article, noise levels of X1800 XL, X1800 XT and X1900XTX were measured. X1800XT was 4dB louder than XL and X1900XTX was 3dB louder still, "winning" the loudness contest easily. Again, remember kids, 3dB is twice the perceived loudness.
(Geforce 7800 GTX512 got the best award of 5 stars btw, was second in noise to only passive cooling solutions)

edit: Okay, if I'm going to report on some test, I should do it properly. x1900 xtx wasn't in fact the loudest card in that test I was referring to, I just checked. It was just the loudest high end card. Geforces 6600 GT and 6800 GS were just as loud as the x1900xtx and x1600 xt was even 6dB louder than that, "winning" the contest hands down.

 

LOL! Well, at least this is a lot more rewarding than running, say, a cheese shop. And now for something completely different...

 

That's very disappointing on the AC cooler.......I'm gona stay away for the time being. I'm still considering installing my waterblock o n my X1800....... but then I can't beat on Mendel anymore........

 

that makes sense, but if it is only 71 when gaming it seems you need to take the temp down only 2C... that is so close, but so far away eh... ah well, as you said, I guess some after market cooling solution is meant to sort it out.

 

This would make the Accelero X2 extremely quiet if both measurements were done with thought and care (some appropirate place relative to the fan and not the GPU). There is also the issue of "quality" of noise and I suspect the Accelero may be better there as well, not whining as much as humming.

PS. Is there a sound sample from the X1900XT stock cooler available anywhere on the Net? I'd really like to hear what it sounds like.

 

Perceived loudness is also dependent on frequency, the sensitivity of the receiver at those given frequencies, distance from source and the wave medium - as well as any changes in relative sound intensity. Reviews with sound level measurements, including our own, should always be regarded with caution because little information is given (or often know) about the sound meter and recording conditions.

 

You know.....itf the X1900 only had tubes...it would sound a whole lot sweeter....

BTW...Gold Lion KT88 rule........

 

I just received a Sapphire X1900XT. I will probably get round to putting it in tomorrow along with the rest of my shit on a new install of XP x64. I will post my impressions and a comparison with my current card, an Arctic Silence cooled 6600GT, over the weekend.

 

I read a few reviews of the Arctic Silencer I got for my X800, and some of them (and people on forums) complained it was noisy with an annoying whirring noise. One site even had a mp3 file that made it sound horrendous. Sure enough, when you put it in and ramp up the speed, there is a very annoying and loud whirring noise - if you put your ear right up against the fan. Put the lid on the case and the case on the floor, and it's completely inaudiable, even at full speed in a quiet case.

Using sound measurement in a lab is all well and good, but it doesn't always reflect the real life use, or how it was designed to be used and (not) heard.

 

Please!