Liquid Cooled X1900 XTX Card Reviewed 126
An anonymous reader writes "TrustedReview's Andrew Miller has posted a review of the new liquid cooled Radeon X1900 XTX card. There have been a few reviews floating around based on engineering samples of this product, but it sounds like the actual card turned out to be quite a sight to behold." From the review: "If you are seriously considering buying an X1900 XTX, then it is well worth paying the extra money for this card as the noise reduction is dramatic. The extra performance is just an added bonus. However, the 7950 GX2 is simultaneously faster and quieter for the same money. The X1900 XTX on the other hand has the option of HDR and FSAA as well as the possibility of running in Crossfire (assuming you can get hold of a similarly cooled master card).
But. . . (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:But. . . (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:But. . . (Score:1)
BZFlag!
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Re:But. . . (Score:1)
Re:But. . . (Score:3, Informative)
Re:But. . . (Score:1)
Re:But. . . (Score:1)
You named 2 linux versions and 1 emulated one...
(Oh Yea, Americas Army also has a Linux version)
Sure, Linux is great and all that, but dont try to advertise it as a gaming OS, since it is not, and usually requires a bunch of extra modules and trying to find a driver that works, as well as getting it to work in X11 and whatnot.
Re:But. . . (Score:1)
Re:But. . . (Score:1)
Much to our (Linux and Macintosh users) grief, America's Army was officially discontinued on these platforms: http://aaotracker.com/thread.php?threadid=132745 [aaotracker.com]
There's always Doom 3 and Quake 4, but as good as they are, they aren't America's Army. There is still a small but thriving community of Linux and Macintosh AA players, using the last (2.5) version, but I don't think it will last long.
Universities (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Universities (Score:1)
Re:But. . . (Score:1)
Re:But. . . (Score:2)
Re:But. . . (Score:2, Interesting)
Sometimes I wonder if "faulty drivers" isn't an excuse for actually sub-par hardware... How can anyone tell?
Re:But. . . (Score:2)
Re:But. . . (Score:3, Insightful)
Just ignore ATI (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Just ignore ATI (Score:1)
Nvidia does not have good Linux support.
A difference of degree (Score:3, Funny)
s/so much better/sucks less/
Re:And even if you're not a Linux guy (Score:1)
Perhaps you were referring to the "Chuck hotfix patch", which adds the ability to do AA and HDR simultaneous. It's currently hardware-incapable for nVidia to do both at the same time. In any case, it's hardly a required hotfix, and the
Re:And even if you're not a Linux guy (Score:1)
I just finished Oblivion and guess what? ATI Radeon 9800XT.
But then again, since when did anyone commenting on
Re:But. . . (Score:5, Interesting)
As long as you plan on staying with Xorg 6.8.x, you should be fine. Anything greater and you might be one of the many, many people (myself included) who suffer hard lock-ups when X shuts down or you switch VTs while X is running. I have tried many combinations of kernels and versions of fglrx against a couple versions of Xorg (6.8.2 and modular), and only 6.8.2 was stable. YMMV, but this has been a fairly common issue for a number of folks. Although this makes it sound like Xorg is the problem, I don't believe it is. IIRC, someone over at the Gentoo forums traced it to a call made within the driver.
I've since given up on running modular X with my ATI card and chose to mask it until my next upgrade (which will be NVidia, no doubt). It's been a month or two, so this may have been fixed (though I doubt it). If anyone has an update on that, please do tell.
Good luck.
Re:But. . . (Score:1)
Xorg 7.0.22, kernel 2.6.16.20, on Debian etch. But that machine uses integrated Intel video, not a Radeon system. Sounds like an Xorg problem, to me. I wonder if I can downgrade Xorg.
OTOH, my laptop has the same Xorg, kernel and Debian dist, but uses the open source Radeon driver with no problems.
Re:But. . . (Score:1)
Re:But. . . (Score:1)
A short-lived driver perhaps (Score:2)
ATI have a new policy of pulling support for their products even while they're still selling new in the stores. They recently dropped support of the R200 ( see http://www.rage3d.com/board/showthread.php?t=3385 6 854 [rage3d.com] ).
This may be marked as a troll, and maybe this wouldn't be out of line, but I still warn you:
Do not buy ATI products if you use or intend to use Linux . Otherwise you will be sorry.
Re:A short-lived driver perhaps (Score:1)
Re:But. . . (Score:1)
Besides, I don't know any self-respecting Linux geek who has ATI on the short list for their next card.
Unless they like playing Armagetron Advanced in flatland.
Re:But. . . (Score:1)
Step 1: Go to synaptic and select the drivers
That's it!
Re:But. . . (Score:1)
I could care less if later ATI cards work better. In fact, I'm typing this on a VAIO I just converted for a friend and the mobility Radeon 9700 is freaking sweet.
However, if a company fails to support their product adequately, it makes me very wary in the future. "Some of the time" don't cut it.
Glad it works for you.
Re:But. . . (Score:2)
Step 2: Rant and rave as the driver continues to suck ass like every other ATI driver.
I decided to try ATI again after years of avoiding them because of their drivers.
I discovered that ATI still can't write drivers, a decade later.
I decided to put ATI off for another decade.
ALL ATI's drivers are poop, whether they're for Windows or Linux. People who buy an ATI card deserve what they get - headaches.
Re:But. . . (Score:1)
That's great ATI, but... (Score:1)
Oh, well. Looks like a neat card, too bad it's still slower than the top of the line nVidia board. Expensive as all hell too!
Maybe once they get the liquid cooling thing down we'll see a good bump in clock speed.
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Re:That's great ATI, but... (Score:1)
Re:That's great ATI, but... (Score:1)
Besides games, think of all the killer screen savers!
Re:That's great ATI, but... (Score:1)
No HDR/FSAA on 7950 GX2 - crap! (Score:1)
What a completely pointless statement. Not only does the GX2 have HDR and FSAA (as have all cards since the 7xxx and Xxx series - perhaps even the 6xxx series) but you can (probably) run a GX2 in SLI mode. Recently a friend was upgrading and we looked into Crossfire. The motherboards are hard to get (here in Oz), and they're exp
Re:No HDR/FSAA on 7950 GX2 - crap! (Score:5, Informative)
That's correct (Score:2)
Re:No HDR/FSAA on 7950 GX2 - crap! (Score:2)
"Officially" being the operative word, NVidia is working with some high profile builders (i.e. Alienware) for dual and quad SLI solutions with the 7950. NVidia has state
Re:No *simultaneous* HDR/FSAA on 7950 GX2 (Score:1)
Shocking metal nips. (Score:3, Funny)
/ probably at his sweet new ability to render metal nips [trustedreviews.com]
Extra performace not important anymore... (Score:1)
Noise is more important than better graphics. Can someone tell me WTF is going on?
Re:Extra performace not important anymore... (Score:1)
I think it's for the rich nine-year-old geek who doesn't want his parents to know he's up at 3 AM playing games. He also probably has headphones for these early-morning fragfests.
Re:Extra performace not important anymore... (Score:1)
Re:Extra performace not important anymore... (Score:1)
And people wonder where the stereotype of antisocial, bedroom closeted geeks comes from ...
Re:Extra performace not important anymore... (Score:1)
There are many people that often like to both see and hear their games. Wierd, I know.
Re:Extra performace not important anymore... (Score:1)
Re: (Score:1)
Re:Extra performace not important anymore... (Score:2)
Re:Extra performace not important anymore... (Score:2)
That said, Id personally take a hit to performance for a passively cooled card any day.
I'd never upgrade if I could. (Score:2, Flamebait)
It doesn't heat the room. It has no moving parts. (neither does the heat sink on my CPU -- damn hard drive moves though, until I replace it with solid state)
I'm completely happy with my video card. I will remain happy... until a Linux desktop requires a god-damn 3D accelerator just to display a few dozen xterm windows and a dozen Firefox windows. There is absolutely no reason I should ever ne
Re:I'd never upgrade if I could. (Score:2, Funny)
years (Score:2)
text console. 80x25 was OK for browsing the web
with lynx.
And yes, there were porno videos. There is a
great one out there called dirty.vt (google
will find it) that plays well at 9600 baud in an
80x24 xterm. On a Linux box with a 100 HZ clock,
the following code does a decent job of playing
it at the right speed:
#include <unistd.h>
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <string.h>
int main(int argc, char *argv[]){
int buf;
whil
Re:I'd never upgrade if I could. (Score:2)
Re:I'd never upgrade if I could. (Score:2)
What gets to me is that all the new OS software (Vista, MacOX X, X.org) is designed to run 2D stuff through the 3D pipeline. I don't want a space heater in my computer. My video card is perfectly fine for 2D. Apparently the 3D cards are not! Recent gamer cards have supposedly done such a bad job with 2D that it is actually faster to run 2D
Re:I'd never upgrade if I could. (Score:2)
Then there are the bad jokes like see-through windows, which we all get stuck with because somebody thought it was l33t.
I love translucent windows. I wish I could set the opacity of any window arbitrarily. It's incredibly useful when you're either copying text or using one window as a reference while writing in another.
I've also never had any noise or problems from the Radeon 9600 in my desktop machine, which has issues playing the latest games but which can do transparency and OS-level 3d effects with
your settings are wrong (Score:2)
Switch to focus-follows-mouse and autoraise disabled. This should be trivial for a Linux box. For Windows XP or Vista, I think you need to look for a "tweakUI" tool that Microsoft has available for download.
Now, put the window you want to read on top
Re:I'd never upgrade if I could. (Score:2)
Re:I'd never upgrade if I could. (Score:2)
Even if you do have the fancy card, it will run cooler (and thus last longer and save energy) if you avoid making it render silly compositing effects all the t
Re:Extra performace not important anymore... (Score:1)
The reviewer is blind.
Re:Extra performace not important anymore... (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
Re:Extra performace not important anymore... (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Extra performace not important anymore... (Score:1)
Assuming... (Score:5, Funny)
Indeed, my MasterCard will need some cooling off time after I purchase one of these babies.
Mainstream liquid cooling. (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Mainstream liquid cooling. (Score:2)
Re:Mainstream liquid cooling. (Score:1)
Alienware I believe tried to fill the gap with fancy machines but in the end, I'd trust me coolermaster case more than that big alien-head case that can't lie down on its side.
Not liquid cooling, but... (Score:5, Informative)
Here are links to the company websites, look for "Silent-Pipe" or "Silent" in the name...
http://www.giga-byte.com/Products/VGA/Products_Li
http://www.giga-byte.com/Products/VGA/Products_Li
http://usa.asus.com/products2.aspx?l1=2&l2=8 [asus.com]
http://usa.asus.com/products2.aspx?l1=2&l2=6 [asus.com]
Re:Not liquid cooling, but... (Score:2)
One good place to look for people's experiences with these cards is the Silent PC Review GPU forum [silentpcreview.com].
Re:Mainstream liquid cooling. (Score:2, Informative)
There you go... [thermaltake.com]
It's not as if fitting a cooler to a graphics card were hard or anything.
Re:Mainstream liquid cooling. (Score:1)
1) you're effectively paying for two coolers (the stock one and the Thermaltake)
2) a good number of people who want a quiet graphics card would still be hesitant to pull bits off of theirs (even if it's easy for someone who knows what they are doing).
3) if the card dies you have the hassle of reinstalling the stock cooler before returning it.
The ASUS EN7800GT [pcstats.com] card mentioned by Rob above is just the
Re:Mainstream liquid cooling. (Score:3, Insightful)
As it is at the moment, each
get ready... (Score:2)
http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/295 [hardwaresecrets.com]
All this fish tubing crap is amateur hour. Switching to nitrile or metal hoses makes the system a lot more palatable and reliable.
I expect this Intel solution will be rolled out with Woodcrest. I can't see another way they're going to get two dual-core chips into any regular case and have it quiet. Apple will probably insist on a system like this for their towers anyway, because its quiet.
Re:Mainstream liquid cooling. (Score:1)
Pathetic. (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Pathetic. (Score:2)
1. hard drive platters
2. hard drive heads
3. keys on keyboard
4. mouse
5. speaker cones, as desired
6. DVD
That's it. Not even the power switch moves, as it is a capacitative switch that just senses the presence of my finger.
I intend to fix the hard drive problem. At least I got rid of the ball bearings with the last upgrade. I think I can cram all my stuff onto a 20 GB solid state device. That will run cooler, and the failures will be sector-by-sector instead of everything at once.
Wh
Re:Pathetic. (Score:1)
It moggles my bind to imagine someone buying that card within the same generation just for the noise it reduced versus framerate gains that's all.
Re:Pathetic. (Score:2)
It is good to have people like you around - it makes me feel that I'm not obsessive.
Re:Pathetic. (Score:2)
Why do you need to undervolt the fan further? Are you so cramped for space that you can't put your computer on the floor where 1,350 RPM should be silent?
Re:Pathetic. (Score:2)
Re:Pathetic. (Score:2)
I suppose that's one way to define it. I would say undervolting means providing less voltage than the device recommends or was meant to get. Since my CPU fan came with resistors to output 6V, 8V, or 10V, I don't see that as undervolting unless I go below 6V.
Re:Pathetic. (Score:1)
Re:Pathetic. (Score:1)
Re:Pathetic. (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Pathetic. (Score:1)
Re:Pathetic. (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Pathetic. (Score:1)
Re:Pathetic. (Score:1)
Re:Pathetic. (Score:1)
Energy consumption (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Energy consumption (Score:1)
Well, the only things that consume energy with water cooling is the pump (which, in the case of my Reserator 1+ from Zalman is a 5W aquarium pump) plus the fans (if any) you use to dissipate the heat from the radiator(s) - so it consumes probably less energy, but I guess the difference is negligible.
It's a fairly trivial difference (Score:4, Informative)
Rememeber all the power is needed for is moving things around, either air or water. There's not a compressor or anything.
Expensive Overkill... (Score:1)
The real question is how can I waste even more money now that I've water cooled my 4 multicore intel's and my video card, ive got a freon injector over my 48channel sound card and my LCD monitor requires three projector screen stands just to hold it in place...
Wait there's some external storage drives sha
Thumbs Down... (Score:1)
The Playstation 3's price is outrageous... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:The Playstation 3's price is outrageous... (Score:1)
It took me 4 years of upgrades to my computer so I could play MS Flight Simulator 2000 (in case you're wondering, parts are unconceivably ridiculously expensive where I live due to extreme imports taxes).
My last disappointment was Battlefield 2. I have to upgrade my video card again (and perhaps my CPU, but the box says it wil
thermaltake tidewave (Score:1)
For anyone who wants this for the cheap. It's what Saphire have used in this card and you can get them for about £45.
Warter is essential, haven't found a top end card yet which dosen't get too hot on a day like today.
slightly off topic (Score:1)
well i will tell you, i would be more impressed if they could develop a video card that has a common seris socket for the GPU and Ram like a Motherboard that way i can upgrade the Chip and the ram like i do with my computer !.
i mean come on Nvidia already has a Unified Driver Architecture so why not that too, a card like that woul