PowerColor Radeon X1950 Pro SCS3

Overclocking:

We overclocked PowerColor's Radeon X1950 Pro SCS3 Edition using ATiTool 0.26 and then checked whether or not our clocks were stable in three hour-long gaming sessions using Company of Heroes, Quake 4 Deathmatch and Counter-Strike: Source. Our overclocking experiments should be sufficient to give you an idea of how far a typical PowerColor Radeon X1950 Pro SCS3 will overclock, but as always, your own overclocking mileage may vary and we cannot guarantee that our card isn't a particularly good or bad overclocker.

The stock clocks for PowerColor's silent-cooled X1950 Pro are 575MHz on the core, and 685MHz (1380MHz effective) for the memory. After several hours of frustration, we finally got the card running stably at 600MHz core, but the memory didn't want to move from its stock clock. Every time we pushed the memory clock above 685MHz, we were greeted with the infamous blank screen and the only way to get a signal back was to do a hard reset.

We also tried leaving the core clock at its default speed and then raising the memory frequency using ATI's OverDrive tool inside Catalyst Control Center too, but we had no success on that mission, either. You could say our overclocking experiences with this card were poor, but then we didn't expect much more given the fact it's a passively cooled card that's reasonably 'high-end' in the grand scheme of things. On the performance front, the increased core clock was the difference between just-about-playable (30.4 fps average, 10 fps minimum) and pretty unplayable frame rates (28.9 fps average and 9 fps minimum) in Company of Heroes at 1920x1200 0xAA 16xAF with maximum in-game details.

Temperatures

Earlier in the review, we made reference to the fact that PowerColor's Radeon X1950 Pro SCS3 looks a bit like a barbeque grill on first inspection, but the question that we're sure is on many people's mind is whether or not it gets hot enough to make yourself a freshly grilled bacon sandwich. Thankfully (or disappointingly, depending on whether you wanted to grill some bacon or not), the Arctic Cooling Accelero S2 is up to the challenge of keeping ATI's full-fat RV570 chip under control. In fact, it's actually better at the job than ATI's reference cooler -- this is no mean feat!

With an ambient temperature of 23 degrees Celsius, the Accelero S2 was able to keep the GPU temperature under 65 degrees, even with the core overclocked to 600MHz. With the clocks at default though, RV570's load temperature was 62°C. At idle, the core temperature hovers around 43°C, which is also mighty impressive. For reference purposes, the loaded core temperature is a full 10°C higher with ATI's stock cooler installed at the same ambient temperature!

Final Thoughts...

Although PowerColor's Radeon X1950 Pro SCS3 is not currently available in the UK, it's expected to hit the shelves very soon. Understandably, the retail pricing is going to be a little higher than a typical Radeon X1950 Pro, and thus we're expecting this to hit stores with a retail price around £130-140 (inc VAT).

Ideally, the Radeon X1950 XT 256MB is arguably a better choice for gaming on a budget at either 1280x1024 or 1600x1200, but that card will set you back an extra £20. While Connect3D's Radeon X1950 XT 256MB uses ATI's noisy reference cooling design, which we've often referred to as a bit of a leaf blower, PowerColor actually offers the same product with Arctic Cooling's Accelero X2 cooler installed -- the same cooler installed on the company's original Radeon X1950 Pro 256MB. In addition, it also comes with healthy increases in both core and memory frequencies, too.

Of course, while that card is going to be a better performer, it's not going to be completely silent like the Radeon X1950 Pro SCS3. Thus, if you're looking for a solid-performing, but passively cooled graphics card, you're really only left with a choice between this and XFX's awesomely-sexy GeForce 7950 GT, which will set you back around £160 (inc VAT).

Given the reasonable price differential between the two, each card has its niche and PowerColor's card represents a great buy if its performance is strong in the titles that you're playing. There are, of course, times where the Radeon X1950 Pro doesn't perform as well as it should do -- in texture-heavy situations in particular -- and that prevents us from giving this card an outright recommendation. That's not necessarily PowerColor's fault though, and as we concluded with Inno3D's pre-overclocked GeForce 7900 GS, you will not be disappointed if you purchased this card.