ATI 1950 and Windows 7

[compound65]

Just bought Windows 7 Home Premium, and wonder if I need to change my graphics adaptor - ATI Sapphire X1950XTX.
Ran the Windows7 upgrade advisor and this says the 1950 will not support Aero user interface.
If I need to change, my budget would be in the range of $100 - $150. (UK £60 - £100)

 

[Maziar]

Other system specs ?

 

[outlw6669]

Welcome to the forums!

32bit Drivers
64bit Drivers

Note: AMD’s DirectX 9 ATI Radeon graphics accelerators are not officially supported under Windows 7. If the user chooses to, they can install the ATI Catalyst Windows Vista graphics driver under Windows 7. Please be aware that none of the new Windows 7 graphics driver (WDDM 1.1) features are supported (as the Windows Vista level graphics driver is limited to WDDM 1.0 level support). Using the ATI Catalyst Windows Vista driver under Windows 7 is not officially supported by AMD, and as such AMD will not provide any form of customer support for users running in this configuration

Enjoy!

 

[compound65]

Other system specs ?

MBRD - ASUS P5WDH Deluxe
PROC - Intel E6600 Core2 Duo
MEM - Corsair XMS2 2GB PC6400 800MHZ
Graphics - ATI Sapphire Radeon X1950XTX/512/DDR4
PSU - Antec NEO HE550GB
2 x 240GB drives
2 x DVD drives
WIN XP PRO 32bit

 

[compound65]

The Radeon X1950XTX is old now, retire it!

If you're in the UK consider the ATI 4850, 4770, 4830.

Best bang for your buck is probably the new 5770 and 4890 but they'll probably be held back by your processor.


ATI HD 5770 1GB GDDR5 £118.98

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/176938


PowerColor HD 4770 512MB £71.99

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/164568

Thanks for reply. I agree the 1950 is a little long in the tooth !
Forgot to put the screen on my spec - Samsung T220 22 inch widescreen in 1680 x 1050 res.
I'm looking at the 4770 / 4850 / 5750 all as possibles - any feeling as to which ?
Don't need X11 yet, but future proofing may be worth doing ?

Re processor - I suspect the P5WDH Deluxe mainboard would not support a processor good enough to stretch any of these graphics cards - and I'm not ready yet to do a total rebuild - perhaps next year.....

 

[compound65]

Performance wise the 4770 and 4850 are very similar so I'd get the cheapest of the two and in most cases the cheapest is the 4770. The 5750 is also similar to the 4770/4850 in terms of performance, some games its faster and in some games its slower!

Price/performance the 1GB 5750 costs like £99, you'd be better off spending £18 more on the 5770. However if your budget does not extend that far the 5750 is a good choice. Remember these cards are mid-high end cards NOT high end cards, a resolution of 1680 x 1050 should be fine for a year or two on either card.


I recommend reading this review: (Scroll down to change the game)
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Powercolor/HD_5750_PCS/30.html


You might be better off overclocking your E6600, they can normally hit around 3 GHz- 3.2 GHz with ease, even on stock cooling. But according to Asus' website your current motherboard can accept ANY core 2 duo or core 2 quad upto Q9550!

Thanks again
I was / am tending towards the 5750 as I think this would suffice for a couple of years at least !

re processor / mainboard compatibility - according to the PW5 DH specs in my manual, this only mentions the older 65nm processors (E6xxx series) and Q6600-Q6700 65nm quad cores. No mention of 45nm processors at all, duo or Quads (it does makle a reference to Intel next generation multi core though...) The other restriction seems to be the fsb on the PW5 only runs at 800mhz or 1066mhz, whereas the better processors seem to need 1333mhz fsb. Would they run on 1066mhz ?

Ask a simple question !!! ?

 

[Kari]

http://www.asus.com/product.aspx?P_ID=m4cR4iaPdABNLtQa

looks like you'll just need a bios update for the 45nm cpus...

 

[compound65]

The manual is old, it was probably printed the same time in which the motherboard was released, numerous of bios updates have been released for the PW5 DH since giving it added stability and support for the newer 45nm processors. Just make sure you update your bios before dropping in the new processor but it is 100% compatible.

If you need help updating the bios just ask.

There is a BIOS update prog on the ASUS MB support CD - I presume that will do the trick B4 I fit the new processor.
Would the upgraded BIOS allow the MB to operate at 1333MHZ ?

Next question - what would be the best / cheapest processor which would allow the 5750 / 5770 to operate fully - bearing in mind I will probably be doing a total rebuild late 2010 - with a new MB ?

 

[compound65]

To update the bios file you need to go on Asus' download page.

http://support.asus.com/download/download.aspx

From the drop down list select Motherboard > Socket 775 > P5W DH Deluxe > Windows XP > Bios > Version 3001 (2009/10/29)


Presuming that the Bios update program on the CD is designed for your motherboard you'll have to load " bios Version 3001" into the program and flash it. Its one of those things that you have to be 100% correct that you are doing right otherwise you'll end up with a dead motherboard.

Presuming that you update the firmware correctly your motherboard should operate at a bus of 1333MHz.

I'm not sure which country that you are in so it makes it difficult to recommend you a CPU based on price. I'd say the fatest dual core is the E8400/E8600 and the fastest Quadcore is the Q9xxx series. Bare in mind that (atleast in the UK) a Q9xxx processor costs more than an Athlon II X4 and a AM3 motherboard combined - performance will be about the same but you'll have a better upgrade path with a newer AM3 socket. - just something to think about.


PS. I think you need another 2 GBs of ram.

I'm in the UK.

Don't want the hassle of a total rebuild at present - changing the processor, graphics and adding 2GB will be enough.
Thanks for all the info -= now got a bigger job than I expected.

 

[compound65]

The problem is the costings price/performance.

One of the fastest core 2 duos is the E8400 £126.14

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/173968

One of the fastest core 2 quads is the Q9550 which is £200

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/152394

For cheaper you can have an AMD alternative that



Athlon II 630 is £84.53

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/176579


ASUS M4A77TD AMD77 is £63.38

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/181964


Crucial 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 1333MHz/PC3-10600 is £69.99

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/166996

That is approximately £217.90 and you'll get a new socket with upcoming processors coming, 4GB DDR3 memory and similar processing performance. That is £17.90 more than JUST the Q9550 processor alone. - You can then sell your current proccessor/motherboard/ram on ebay for about £90 and recoup.

Now if you are on a complete budget you'll like this!

Athlon II 630 is £84.53

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/176579

ASUS M3N78-VM GeForce 8200 Socket AM2+ is £46.83

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/152752

Kingston 2gb DdD2 1066mhz/pc2-8500 Hyperx Memory Cl5 is £40.97
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/165306

total: £172.33 - its a AM2+ motherboard so its not as new as AM3 motherboards, but AM2+ is still getting new processor support such as the upcoming hexacore processor next year, you are also getting an additional 2 GBs of ram and performance. all that is about £46.19 more than a single E8400 processor and the Athlon II 630 would be faster at 90% of tasks. Also this build is about £17 cheaper than a single Q9950 drop in, granted the Athlon II 630 is only slightly slower than the Q9550 but you benefit from getting more memory (2GBs), a better upgrade path with AM2+ whilst saving a bit of money.


So its your choice, you can go for a drop in Core 2 CPU, but you can practically get an entire AMD build for about the same price which similar performance.

Thanks for the detailed reply. Guess I'll have to bring the rebuild forward as the job has now got much more than intended !!
My present setup was built in Feb / Mar of 2007, so Feb 2010 is its 3rd anniversary - time to go !!

For my immediate need to get Windows7 up I will order / fit a 5770 1GB graphics card. Do you have a favourite type - I've used Sapphire in the past rather than the generic ones.

Then, I need to open up a new thread for a full PC spec - which forum is best for that ? I think I went on the ASUS one last time in 2007, but this one seems pretty good.

Once again, thanks for the detailed info.

 

[compound65]

Just posted on Homebuilt Systems Forum - New system Build

Timed at 12-04-2009 05:01PM

CU there later

 

[compound65]

Make sure you buy the 64-bit version of windows 7, in case you decide to buy 6 or 8 GBs of ram in the future. Nah, no need to create a new thread, I'm happy to help you in here, but you'd probably get more support from other people if you do create a dedicated thread. Create a new thread and send me the link so that I can find it

I wouldn’t be too concerned with branding of GPUs, in terms of performance/reliability the brand doesn’t matter, the only difference is warranty, you'd typically get from 3 years to lifetime warranty anyways regardless of brand. Personally my Sapphire and ASUS video cards were the most reliable, XFX video cards were very unreliable and eventually broke down and the RMA process was poor, but I still got my replacement card. But I'd normally go for the cheapest brand (not generic though)

see Homebuilt Systems - New System Build forum - timed at 21-04-2009 05:01PM

CU there ?