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OCC Review: Sapphire x1950 PRO Ultimate Edition


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OCC Review: Sapphire x1950 PRO Ultimate Edition

 

 

Is your video card's fan too loud? Do you want to be able to play your games in almost silent conditions to allow you to focus and dominate the competition? What if I told you that there was a video card that was silent but still gave you great framerates to play the graphically challenging games you love? Let's see if Sapphire's X1950 PRO Ultimate Edition, with a Zalman heatsink and fan, is the card you're looking for. From past experience with both Sapphire and Zalman, I have a feeling that this will be a deadly combination. We're going to find out how well this card does against other mainstream video cards, as well as some high-end video cards.

 

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I am very impressed with Sapphire's X1950 PRO Ultimate Edition video card. It was completely silent, even when it was being stressed for an extended period of time. And what about the numbers it shelled out? The X1950 PRO definitely held its own and took over its rival, the eVGA 7950 GT KO, in some of the benchmarks. The card took the lead, in my mind, when it took over the 7950GT in 3DMark06 since that is a very good benchmark to gauge a video card's performance. Not only is this video card silent, it pushes out good numbers in some high resolutions. I would use this video card over the 7950 GT not only because of how quiet it is, but how it really keeps up with, and in some cases out performs, the 7950GT in a number of benchmarks. I was suprised to see how well this card did in Direct3D games such as Microsoft Flight Simulator X. This card is a DirectX 9 card, so it's not geared for DirectX 10 games. Being a mainstream card, this product definitely performed very well. What really caught my attention was the price. A card that is silent and performs great for a price like that? Don't pass up the Sapphire X1950 PRO Ultimate Edition video card. Great job to Zalman and Sapphire for creating an excellent product that stands up to the claim of being "The Ultimate Silent Solution".

 

 

I was reading this article thinking that it seemed very well done, but when I got the conclusion page I was some what suprised to see that the author would recommend this card over the 7950GT. The reason he gives is that the ATI card "" According to my count the ATI card only beat the 7950 in 1 resolution in one game, Need for Speed: most Wanted at 1024x768. It looses at both the higher resolutions. The other benchmarks that the ATI beats the 7950 in are the 2 resolutions of 3D Mark 06. So based on the ATI card beating the 7950 in 1 resolution in real world testing he is recommending the ATI card. While I dont think that I could have done a better job with the article itself, I think that he seems to have come to his conclusion prior to his testing and worded his conclusion to match his notion of what *should* have happened instead of what really happened. Now maybe the decible level or power usage could come into play when you recommend something, but he didnt mention any of that. I started this reply about 1hr ago and got busy as hell here at work ad I completely lost my train of though.. I just couldnt figure out why the recommendation went like that.. Or is it just me? :unsure:

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Thank you for your feedback. All feedback helps and I really appreciate constructive criticism because that makes me a better reviewer and helps me get to you what you want to see. I respect all of what you said but here is my response to you:

 

The 7950GT KO is a 512MB card and is pre-overclocked. This 1950 pro is a 256MB card that is not overclocked. The 7950 costs more than the 1950 but what really got me about the 1950 pro was how silent it is. It truly is dead silent. Although it lost to the 7950 it definitely hung with it and for the price difference I'd take the 1950 pro. I guess it comes down to personal opinion really, I mean, the 7950GT is a great card but this card is dead silent - something I love to have in my computer. For the numbers to not be far off, you're really not losing much by taking the 1950 over the 7950 in my opinion.

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