Advice please

GershomG

Greetings,

Here is your chance to showcase your superior technical expertise.  I currently use this system: 

Intel core 2 duo e6600 2.40ghz conroe 65nm

2.gb dual channel ddr2 @400mhz

Asustek commando lga775

monitor lcm-19w4 @ 1440x900 res

(2) 512mb radeon x1950 Sapphire (crossfire)

244gb seagate st3250410as  (sata)

audio soundmax intergrated digital hd

So, I recently upgraded to windows 7 ultimate 64bit version.  And i learn that Amd no longer

(or never did) support these cards for crossfire in a 64 bit environment.  Opps.

So, the question is of course, what  really powerful single card would be appropriate as

a replacement for these 2 older cards?  

Since crossfire is disabled with the standard microsoft video driver that i am using now, I am runnnin

on only one card.  In fact, it doesn't do too badly.  But, improvement would be beneficial.

Advice?

After rereading my post, and the replies, the question seems narrower.  Will the 64bit Vista compatible driver work to

enable crossfire in Windows 7?  Or, does a sensible single video card option exist on the market for this older system?

 

 

CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 @ 2.40Ghz Conroe 65nm

RAM: 2.gb dual-channel DDR2 @400MHz (5-5-5-18)

Motherboard: ASUSTeK Computer INC. Commando (LGA775)

Graphics: LCM-19w4 @ 1440x900

512MB RAdeon x1950 Pro (Sapphire/PCpartner) secondary is same

Hard Drives: 244GB Seagate ST3250410AS (SATA)

Optical Drive: ASUS DRW-1814BLT

Audio: SoundMAX Intergrated Digital HD AudioCPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 @ 2.40Ghz Conroe 65nm

RAM: 2.gb dual-channel DDR2 @400MHz (5-5-5-18)

Motherboard: ASUSTeK Computer INC. Commando (LGA775)

Graphics: LCM-19w4 @ 1440x900

512MB RAdeon x1950 Pro (Sapphire/PCpartner) secondary is same

Hard Drives: 244GB Seagate ST3250410AS (SATA)

Optical Drive: ASUS DRW-1814BLT

Audio: SoundMAX Intergrated Digital HD Audio

 

CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 @ 2.40Ghz Conroe 65nm

RAM: 2.gb dual-channel DDR2 @400MHz (5-5-5-18)

Motherboard: ASUSTeK Computer INC. Commando (LGA775)

Graphics: LCM-19w4 @ 1440x900

512MB RAdeon x1950 Pro (Sapphire/PCpartner) secondary is same

Hard Drives: 244GB Seagate ST3250410AS (SATA)

Optical Drive: ASUS DRW-1814BLT

Audio: SoundMAX Intergrated Digital HD AudioCPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 @ 2.40Ghz Conroe 65nm

RAM: 2.gb dual-channel DDR2 @400MHz (5-5-5-18)

Motherboard: ASUSTeK Computer INC. Commando (LGA775)

Graphics: LCM-19w4 @ 1440x900

512MB RAdeon x1950 Pro (Sapphire/PCpartner) secondary is same

Hard Drives: 244GB Seagate ST3250410AS (SATA)

Optical Drive: ASUS DRW-1814BLT

Audio: SoundMAX Intergrated Digital HD Audio

 

CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 @ 2.40Ghz Conroe 65nm

RAM: 2.gb dual-channel DDR2 @400MHz (5-5-5-18)

Motherboard: ASUSTeK Computer INC. Commando (LGA775)

Graphics: LCM-19w4 @ 1440x900

512MB RAdeon x1950 Pro (Sapphire/PCpartner) secondary is same

Hard Drives: 244GB Seagate ST3250410AS (SATA)

Optical Drive: ASUS DRW-1814BLT

Audio: SoundMAX Intergrated Digital HD AudioCPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 @ 2.40Ghz Conroe 65nm

RAM: 2.gb dual-channel DDR2 @400MHz (5-5-5-18)

Motherboard: ASUSTeK Computer INC. Commando (LGA775)

Graphics: LCM-19w4 @ 1440x900

512MB RAdeon x1950 Pro (Sapphire/PCpartner) secondary is same

Hard Drives: 244GB Seagate ST3250410AS (SATA)

Optical Drive: ASUS DRW-1814BLT

Audio: SoundMAX Intergrated Digital HD Audio

jawali

ati 1950 crossfire is compatibile with windows 7 64 bit

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/compatibility/windows-7/en-us/Details.aspx?type=Hardware&p=ATI%20Radeon%20X1950%20CrossFire%20Edition%20512MB%20Graphics%20Card&v=ATI&uid=100-435846&pf=4&pi=0&s=ati%20x1650&os=32-bit&vd=all

 

if you want to change this card to something "newer" I can suggest you gf 9800/ 250 or aati 3870 (or 3870x2) the problem is that newer (stronger) gpu will be slowed down cause of your cpu

nomss

it depends on your price range. what is it?

GershomG

What you say is true as far as the x1950 cards themselves being compatible with windpws 7 64 bit version.  However, if you read the note at the bottom of the page you will see that the amd legacy drivers needed to enable the crossfire feature were produced for Vista and are not "officially compatible" with windows 7.  The wording in the note implies that you are on your own installing  it on windows 7.  This is my best understanding.  So, i am a bit reluctant to use this driver.  Perhaps I overlook something important?

The new ATI products that promise compatibility with Windows 7 64 bit that i find at my corner component dealer are

5550, 5570 model numbers that begin with 5.  I realize that my motherboard/cpu  are older, but my OS is not.  Therein seems

to be the problem.  I found several products labeled for crossfire ready motherboards with system requirement label showing them compatible with XP and Vista 64 bit.  This is my concern, finding a product compatible with windows 7 that will actually improve my graphics performance.  If I could be assured that the legacy driver product that is labeled as compatible for Vista

would actually work on my shiny new OS,  then I would simply download it and return to my twin x1950 crossfire configuration and be very happy.  I hope I am not looking for something that doesn't exsist.  Correct me, I would love to be wrong about the

legacy driver.  

Thanks so much for the replies however.

In answer to the second post, my price range is ruled by what is prudent.  My system is a jewel, but is 3 years old.  And, as

the other person pointed out increases in performance are limited by the system cpu.  In reality. 

GershomG

Is 3 year old system, a card that is an improvement over a single x1950 would be worth the price.  It is a low end gaming system as well.  I expect my options to be limited.

Quizzical

Basically, if you have some ancient video cards, drivers don't keep getting updated forever.  Those aren't merely three year old cards.  Three years ago, they were already obsolete by two generations.

You could try the Vista drivers and see if they work.  No guarantees, obviously.

Or if you don't mind mail-in rebates, you could try something like this and get a lot better performance than you'd get even if CrossFire did work on the old cards:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814161338

GershomG

Thanks for your reply.  I am sick of fighting with drivers that don't work.  Trying one of the mentioned cards

seems to be the safe choice.

 

again thanks.

Quizzical

The cards that Jawali listed are all ancient by now (over three years old), and probably not what you'd want in a new card.  If today's mid-range matches the high end of a couple of years ago in performance, but is cheaper, uses less power, and is actually for sale, then today's mid-range card makes more sense than trying to track down a high end card from a few years ago and overpaying for it.

The modern cards are that AMD is in the process of replacing the Radeon HD 5000 series by the Radeon HD 6000 series.  Nvidia is in the process of moving from the GeForce 400 series to the GeForce 500 series, but the latter is merely respins of old chips, so they might not bother for the lower end chips that weren't completely broken in the first place, and just do a straight renaming like they did endlessly with G92.  The Radeon HD 5450 and GeForce GT 430 aren't meant for gaming, so you might want to avoid those.

Eladi

Ati 57xx is worth the money, not to expencive set of cards and way stronger then you have now.  as for your system, yes its no Icore super machine, but screw those. your still able to play about anyting you like on that machine whit a new videocard. 

I got myself a simple duocore machine (2.8) and a 5770 1gb model. it costed me 100 euro and it runs fine whit my 350w powersuply.

So I dont have the latest, (not even needed for mmo's) and play MMO's daily on medium-high setting and CoD:BO on Medium+ settings.

 

One thing tho, Add 2gb more mem. its worth it if you run 64bit anyway.  and gaming improvement will be huge.