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HIS Radeon X1950 Pro IceQ3 512Mb AGP Video Card Review

Videocards/VGA Reviews by jmke @ 2007-03-28

HIS brings us a highly overclocked X1950 Pro based video card with custom cooling for the AGP platform. Can it turn an aging system into a full blown gaming rig? Let´s find out.

HIS card up close

In the box:

The box contains almost everything needed to start using the HIS X1950 Pro to its full potential

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- one HIS X1950 Pro Video Card

- HDTV Output cable
- S-Video Out Cable
- DVI to VGA Dongle x 2

- Manual & Drivers CD
- Microsoft Dungeon Siege Full
- CyberLink PowerDirector 5 SE Plus
- CyberLink Power2Go 5 - CD
- CyberLink Medi@Show 3
- GameShadow
- ATI Demos

Quite an impressive package but it's lacking a vital component, older AGP systems rarely have a brand new power supply with all the latest connectors, since the HIS X1950 Pro requires a 6-Pin power pin, if you don't have a power supply with this connector, or a converter nearby, you can't make this card work. I hope HIS will include a 4-pin to 6-pin power converter in their box in the future as this can spare quite a bit of hassle for most end users.

The HIS X1950 Pro IceQ3:

The AGP version is very similar to the PCI Express edition, with of course the obvious difference in connection bridges, there are small differences with the location of components like the 6-Pin power adapter and fan header; the AGP version lacks the cross fire connectors visible on the PCIe one.

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AGP Edition

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PCI Express Edition

Cooling wise both cards use the same heatsink, but the AGP version has a double slot metal bracket, compared to seperate one of the PCI Express.

You get two DVI connectors on this AGP card with a (HD)TV-out in the middle:

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The GPU and memory is cooled by a copper/heat pipe heatsink, a fan near the end of the video card blows fresh air over the fins of the heatsink towards the rear and out of the case. The 6-pin connector is easily accessible near the top of the card:

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Let's get it installed our test setup:

Comment from jmke @ 2007/03/29

NVIDIA's 7800GS is no match for the X1950 Pro, the 7900GS was already behind the X1950 Pro, the 7800GS stands no chance, at this point in time, the X1950 Pro of ATI is king of the AGP hill

Comment from MENINBLK @ 2007/08/06

In your testing, did you note the power consumption of this card ?

I'm only asking because the product requirement states:

"HIS X1950 series requires a 6-pin standard graphic power supply
connection direct from your PC's internal power supply for operation.
A 450 watt power supply or greater with 30 AMPS current on 12V rail
is recommended to ensure normal system operation where a number
of other internal devices are installed."

This bothers me because most power supplies I've seen
only have 18 Amps on each of the 12V rails.
They do not state if they can be combined.

I am using an Antec TruePower Trio TP3-550 550 Watt PS
on a system with an Intel D875PBZ motherboard, 2GB Corsair TWINXMS Pro,
3.20GHz P4 Prescott, enough fans to create a small tornado, 2 DVD writers,
2 WD 250GB hard drives, and a Creative SB X-Fi Fatil1ty PRO audio card.

When I crank up the graphics in game, I get display errors when the board gets hot.
This usually only happens at 16x12 or higher. At 10x7 it is fine.
It takes a while to get to this point but I think it is because of the power supply.
I previously had a 450 watt Thermaltake power supply and it would happen almost immediately.
I think that I may need to upgrade to a 1000 watt supply to be safe.

Comment from jmke @ 2007/08/06

The AGP test setup has a 450W Coolermaster PSU (34A@12v line peak), it has no 6-pin adapter, so I used a converter to hook the card up. Found no issues with power, had a couple of hard drives, dvdwriter, 1gb of ram and bunch of case fans hooked up.

Comment from Robbo @ 2007/08/09

I bought this card and I have the same Problems with it. The graphics Corrupt after a short time even before the card gets hot and i have a 580W Power Supply with a Nominal 25A + & - (38 Peak) Bars on the 12V which is higher than what he tested it on.

I contacted HIS Tech Support and they just said Try the Driver on the CD> Of corse it Didn't work. I still have same Problems Even on the lowest settings in games and on low res.

I'm takeing mine back to replace it I feel I have a lemon card. I hope this don't Happen on the new card because it's a good looking Card and I don't want to change it.

Comment from MENINBLK @ 2007/08/13

Quote:

Originally Posted by jmke

According to this picture :
http://www.madshrimps.be/articles/CM...-jmke-4039.jpg
it is only 18A peak on +12V1 and 16A peak on +12V2.
I've never read anyting that states you can add the rails together.

Pete...

Comment from jmke @ 2007/08/13

I used a 6-pin adapter which converts two 4-pin plugs to one 6-pin plug, I made sure to connect each 4-pin connector to a different rail

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