Colorful X1950GT 512MB
August 11th, 2007 | This article was viewed 605 times so far...
The Appearance
A nice looking red-colored card with an aluminum finned heatsink, no signs of copper on the heatsink. The card uses solid capacitors, comes with dual DVI output and a TV output connector and requires power to be fed from the PSU.
The Bundle
- The card.
- HDTV output cable.
- S-video output cable.
- Power cable.
- Installation guide & driver CD.
Card Details
Here’s a summarized detail of the card.
| GPU | X1950GT |
| GPU Code Name | RV570 |
| Memory Type | DDR3 |
| Memory Bandwidth | 256-BIT |
| Memory Capacity | 512MB |
Test Setup
Processor : AMD X2 3600+ @ 2.5ghz
RAM : 2GB DDR2 667
Monitor : 20″ Dell Ultra-sharp Wide-screen LCD
Operating System : Windows XP (SP2)
Driver : Omega 3.8.360
The Performance & Overclocking
The Colorful X1950GT comes with default core speed of 500mhz and RAM speed of 600mhz (1.2ghz DDR speed).
The card performs well on it’s own, capable of playing most games at high resolution and high details. The card has no problem achieving an overclocked speed of 614/708, and that’s slightly higher speed than an X1950 Pro with 575/690.
3Dmark06
Default setting.
| Core / Memory | Score |
| 500/600 | 4457 |
| 614/700 | 5167 |
F.E.A.R.
CPU performance settings to minimum while the graphic settings to maximum.
| Core / Memory | Resolution | Lowest | Average | Highest |
| 500/600 | 1152×864 | 22 | 52 | 122 |
| 614/700 | 29 | 63 | 143 | |
| 500/600 | 1400×1050 | 18 | 37 | 84 |
| 614/700 | 22 | 44 | 98 |
Need For Speed : Carbon
Maximum settings for every graphic detail. Screen resolution was 1280×1024.
| Core / Memory | Lowest | Average | Highest |
| 500/600 | 25 | 31 | 38 |
| 614/700 | 28 | 37 | 47 |
Command & Conquer 3 : Tiberium Wars
Maximum settings for every graphic detail. Screen resolution was 1680×1050.
| Core / Memory | Lowest | Average | Highest |
| 500/600 | 16 | 24 | 31 |
| 614/700 | 16 | 26 | 31 |
The boost in Core and Memory speed did help in 3Dmark scores and F.E.A.R. benchmark a lot while NFS:Carbon, had quite some framerate boost from it too.
Additional core and memory didn’t boost the maximum and minimum framerates for C&C3 by far BUT based on the average framerate, the game does gain a little on framerates in general.
Conclusion
This is a great card in terms of value. I like the fact that it is overclockable to the speed of an X1950 Pro. The only thing I didn’t like about the card was that it lacks a temperature sensor. While cards are meant to operate well even without temperature sensors (how many of you actually monitor your card temperature?) - it’s not helpful to people like myself who likes to overclock. Would’ve scored higher in my book if it weren’t for that one.
Other issues would be that it’s quite a power hogger and of you may not like it because it’s red. Lastly, I like the heatsink but I didn’t like the fact that it was so tight I had to use a Black & Decker drill with a tiny 3rd party screw-driver just to unscrew the heatsink mounts.
The thing is mine my devices aren’t “cap...
so far no problem with me. sp1 ofcoz :p but like u say, i got some trouble...
August 11th, 2007 at 6:20 pm
argh…u didnt state the OCed temps in idle and load…and so is the non OCed temps T_T
August 11th, 2007 at 11:26 pm
Like i said - “The only thing I didn’t like about the card was that it lacks a temperature sensor.”
I did use a thermal probe however I’ve decided not to publish the results.
Rest assured it’s at a temperature that does not affect its operation.
August 12th, 2007 at 1:18 am
im using an X1950GT as well..been serving me well…
really performs even without OCing…
p.s: mine is a XpertVision one
August 13th, 2007 at 12:37 am
x1950gt w/o overclocking is like driving a ferrari at 40kmph at the highway lol….but goldfries there is another edition of ur card which is the full sized x1950pro pcb…any ideas if it comes with the temp sensor?
August 13th, 2007 at 6:16 am
It’s actually pretty helpful to OC a GT. you get much more value out of it. It’s more like a down-clocked PRO.
I’ve no idea about any other edition. It was tough enough hunting for the card alone.
August 14th, 2007 at 10:42 am
The XpertVision one comes with temperature sensor, and the price is just slightly more expensive than Colorful one.
But anyway, do you notice slight performance drop when you increase the core from 600 to 615? My card would give lower frame rates if I OC further beyond 600MHz, with the RAM is held at 700MHz.
August 14th, 2007 at 4:39 pm
Yeah, unfortunately for me XV wasn’t available on my shopping day.
As for the slight performance drop, I didn’t notice it on this one but I do experience it before on some of my previous cards.
August 14th, 2007 at 6:55 pm
xpertvision is using 1.4ns samsung’s….
for colorful, if ur lucky and patient enough, there is a 1.0ns samsung for your cherry picking >8)….and use a probe instead of relying on the sensor =D
August 20th, 2007 at 11:01 pm
why red color PCB is not nice? I dont understand.
August 20th, 2007 at 11:17 pm
who said it’s not nice?
I have no problem with PCB colors. After it goes into the casing, it’s beyond sight already anyway.
August 21st, 2007 at 9:09 am
So goldfries, you are selling your GC on lowyat now eh…. colourful gc looks ugly as its performance. You have to run it overclocked all the time, unclocked, it dont makes any difference….
August 21st, 2007 at 9:57 am
HeLieD, color is entirely up to personal preference.
without overclock, it is still an X1950GT in performance.
September 22nd, 2007 at 2:21 am
[...] From what I observed, I only face problems with games and applications released prior to 2007. I had problems testing overclocked performance for F.E.A.R and 3dmark06 as they both refuse to run. S.T.A.L.K.E.R. on the other hand worked equally fiendishly with this card, just as what it did with my X1950GT. [...]
September 30th, 2007 at 9:41 am
Hey there,
Since it’s about X1950, I’ll ask some questions here,
I played FEAR, and the testing gives me the full and maxed out details, something which my 7300GT card couldn’t acheive.
But, it’s hitching in the gameplay! The framerates are very good, but I’m pretty sure it’s hitching periodically. Then later when I leave the game to the main menu, the game became extremely laggy until it’s just only 1 frames per second. I restarted the game, and to my horror, when I retested the benchmark, all of the textures are missing. The same thing actually went to the Medal of Honor where all of the models are ‘texture’less. I’ll test again the games and let you know the progress.
Is my card overheating or driver problem? I heard that Catalyst drivers are extremely problematic - some of the people chooses Omega drivers as an alternative.
September 30th, 2007 at 3:10 pm
hehe. I used the Omega 3.8.360
try it.
September 30th, 2007 at 7:09 pm
Thank you for the advice and the drivers!
I’ve installed the latest Catalyst and solved all of the problem! But, haven’t fully tested yet. FEAR is just nice in max details with only short-term choppyness in ‘checkpoint’ areas.
September 30th, 2007 at 8:59 pm
Heya, glad it all went well.
October 3rd, 2007 at 10:17 am
[...] S1’s product page indicates that it works with X1950, I couldn’t get it to mount on my Colorful X1950GT at [...]