PowerColor Radeon X1950 Pro 256MB

Overclocking:

We overclocked the PowerColor Radeon X1950 Pro using ATITool 0.25 beta 14, which comes complete with support for the Radeon X1950 Pro. First, we had a play with ATI’s Overdrive utility, built into the Catalyst Control Center – we didn’t get much further than we did with the Sapphire Radeon X1950 Pro, so we went in search of a better utility. Our overclocking experiments should be sufficient to give you an idea how far Radeon X1950 Pro should overclock. As always though, overclocking mileage may vary in your own experiences and we cannot guarantee that this Radeon X1950 Pro isn’t a particularly good overclocker.

The stock clocks for PowerColor’s Radeon X1950 Pro are 595MHz for the core, and 1390MHz on the memory. After overclocking, we managed to attain a stable and artifact free 632MHz core speed and a 1580MHz memory clock. When we set the memory clock above 1580MHz, we were greeted with artifacts and hard locking in games like Oblivion and Half-Life 2: Lost Coast.

Because PowerColor opted for the Arctic Cooling Accelero X2, the fan didn’t spin up above its default noise levels, even when the card was overclocked at the maximum stable clock speeds we found during our overclocking experiments. This is great to see, and we applaud PowerColor for moving away from the reference cooling design, even though the reference X1950 Pro cooler appreciably better than some of the coolers that ATI has come up with in the past.

Final Thoughts...

PowerColor’s Radeon X1950 Pro is another good example of a Radeon X1950 Pro, even though its appearance is somewhat different to Sapphire’s card that we looked at two weeks ago. Oblivion is a strong point for the Radeon X1950 Pro, while Battlefield 2 is another scenario where the Radeon X1950 Pro keeps pace with BFG Tech’s overclocked GeForce 7900 GS OC. Quake 4 still ATI’s its downfall though, even though Catalyst 6.9 appears to have solved the stuttering problems that have plagued the Quake 4 experience for some time now.

Generally speaking, there were small gameplay advantages delivered by PowerColor’s card as a result of the slightly higher default clock speeds. We also really like the fact that PowerColor has moved away from the norm and included an Arctic Cooling Accelero X2 as the standard cooling solution, but one has to wonder whether it’s worth the additional £20 that the card will cost you over Sapphire’s Radeon X1950 Pro. That will come down to whether you are planning to overclock or not.

The problem we see is that Sapphire’s Radeon X1950 Pro comes in at just under £130 including VAT on Scan, while you can purchase Connect3D’s Radeon X1900XT 256MB for a mere £165 including VAT on Ebuyer. PowerColor’s Radeon X1950 Pro is listed on pre-order for £152.74 including VAT on Overclockers UK, with stock arriving in “early November”.

You can buy the Accelero X2 separately for £16.39 including VAT on OcUK, so it’s a question of whether you think the better cooling solution is worth it, or whether you think that the additional £35 over Sapphire’s Radeon X1950 Pro is worth paying for the additional performance benefits you get from the Radeon X1900XT 256MB. With that said though, if you care about your ear drums, you’re probably going to want to change the noisy reference cooler on the Radeon X1900XT 256MB. Add another £16 to the price for an Accelero X2 and you’re looking at an extra £50 over the cost of Sapphire’s Radeon X1950 Pro.

The cooling solution on Sapphire’s Radeon X1950 Pro isn’t too shabby if you are just looking for a card to run at the stock speeds, but if you’re looking to overclock you are probably going to want to change the cooling solution for something a bit meatier, like Arctic Cooling’s Accelero X2. I guess what it comes down to is whether you want to fit the aftermarket heatsink yourself or have it fitted and fully warranted by PowerColor for a couple of quid more.