# Sapphire X1950 Pro Dual



## W1zzard (Apr 14, 2007)

Sapphire's X1950 Pro Dual is the world's first video card that uses two ATI RV570 GPUs on a single PCB. The board comes with 2x 512 MB of GDDR3 memory for a price of $349. In our testing the card shows that it has to potential to narrow the performance gap to NVIDIA's lineup until R600 is released.

*Show full review*


----------



## Casheti (Apr 16, 2007)

I was laughing at how much the 8800GTX got owned in X3.

Anywhooo, this looks like a pretty decent card, almost emulates real CF performance.

Not worth buying at this point in time though, with R600 drawing ever so close.


----------



## DaMulta (Apr 16, 2007)

That card is is a giant!!!

You can do Super AA with this one card right?


----------



## WarEagleAU (Apr 16, 2007)

Thanks for the review W1zz. Ive been waiting to see this. Not a bad price for a crossfire setup. Quad Crossfire is what whets my appetite. The 8800GTX didnt get pwned that much in X3 and lets remember, this is a dual GPU whereas that one is a single gpu. the 8800 Sparred well, though I was surprised to see some of the benches besting it like the x1900xtx and x1950xtx and even the 7900GTX


----------



## RickyG512 (Apr 16, 2007)

will ati tool ever be able to overclock this card


----------



## Tatty_One (Apr 16, 2007)

Seems very GX2ish to me although no doubts a very powerful card but is anyone really goiing to pay that kind of money for a DX9 solution today?


----------



## aximbigfan (Apr 16, 2007)

interesting. i was surprised to see that it wasnt the best card in every test...

i wounder how many amps that beast needs...

chris


----------



## RickyG512 (Apr 16, 2007)

this should of been released a long time ago, but at least if gave sapphire (best ATI cards) something to do untill R600 is out

yes seeing how many amps will be interesting coz thats wat its all bout these days

i traded my

Thermaltalke 560watt 22a on 12V rail which i paid like $150 for a
Generic $30  500watt 30a on 12V rail

would u of done the same ?


----------



## Tatty_One (Apr 16, 2007)

aximbigfan said:


> interesting. i was surprised to see that it wasnt the best card in every test...
> 
> i wounder how many amps that beast needs...
> 
> chris


Yes I know, I thought that, even the 7900GTX beat it in a couple although generally at lower res.


----------



## Tatty_One (Apr 16, 2007)

RickyG512 said:


> this should of been released a long time ago, but at least if gave sapphire (best ATI cards) something to do untill R600 is out
> 
> yes seeing how many amps will be interesting coz thats wat its all bout these days
> 
> ...



I did, check my specs, I just added an SLi ready drive bay PSU for my 2 8600GTS's in June.  The 2 combined were still a fair bit cheaper than a good quality 700+W PSU.


----------



## unsmart (Apr 17, 2007)

Did I miss it or is there no temps posted? I just skimmed the article and didn't see any.
 I really doubt it will be a mass production part, just like the dual x1600s. To little to late and I'm sure sapphire knows it. The highend DX9 market is at and end.


----------



## tkpenalty (Apr 17, 2007)

*Keeps laughing at the fact that 8800 got its assed whooped by old technology in X3*

Hahahaha my X1950PRO is faster than the 8800GTX!!! Honestly though wtf? I think the only time where the 8800GTX completely destroyed its competition was in the Nvidia optimized games...

EDIT: Lol this card would fit perfectly in my system..


----------



## newtekie1 (Apr 17, 2007)

That is one beast of a card.  Seriously, there is no point in spending more than $100 on a DX9 card at this point, IMO.  Just buy something to hold you over until the whole DX10 generation is in full swing.


----------



## Zubasa (Apr 17, 2007)

Tatty_One said:


> Seems very GX2ish to me although no doubts a very powerful card but is anyone really goiing to pay that kind of money for a DX9 solution today?


Well.
At lease it is ONE card and not TWO cards in one slot


----------



## Fleekar (Apr 17, 2007)

Wow when i saw that size comparison.... I'm hoping there will never be anything as big as that from here on since we are heading for multi gpu in next gen from what I've read.


----------



## theonetruewill (Apr 17, 2007)

newtekie1 said:


> That is one beast of a card.  Seriously, there is no point in spending more than $100 on a DX9 card at this point, IMO.  Just buy something to hold you over until the whole DX10 generation is in full swing.



Oh I don't know. Seems like a good time to get a bargain performer. OK so it won't be DX10 compatible but actually I'd prefer a X1950pro to an 8500GT which are going to be about the same price in the UK


----------



## Tatty_One (Apr 17, 2007)

tkpenalty said:


> *Keeps laughing at the fact that 8800 got its assed whooped by old technology in X3*
> 
> Hahahaha my X1950PRO is faster than the 8800GTX!!! Honestly though wtf? I think the only time where the 8800GTX completely destroyed its competition was in the Nvidia optimized games...
> 
> EDIT: Lol this card would fit perfectly in my system..



Why? It's a DX10 card, the 7950GX2 beats it in a couple of benches, nothing new there, bang enuff GPU's together and eventually you may even see a 1950Pro actually perform


----------



## Tatty_One (Apr 17, 2007)

theonetruewill said:


> Oh I don't know. Seems like a good time to get a bargain performer. OK so it won't be DX10 compatible but actually I'd prefer a X1950pro to an 8500GT which are going to be about the same price in the UK



But only until R600 comes out in a short while then the 8600's and 8500's will drop BIG I would guess.


----------



## eidairaman1 (Feb 9, 2010)

I know this topic is way old but id like to see a revisit of this board with the latest drivers


----------



## TIGR (Feb 9, 2010)

That could be interesting given the card's specs....


----------



## eidairaman1 (Feb 9, 2010)

This is the precursor to the 3870X2, 4800X2 and 5970. Id say it be pretty kick ass.


----------



## a_ump (Feb 9, 2010)

i bet it'd definitely blow away the 7950GX2 in todays games. ATI's 4:1 ratio of Pixel:vertex pipelines favors all the new games compared to nviida's 1:1 ratio. Would be interesting, but um would newer drivers really do anything? i'm sure support was dropped a long time ago since only sapphire made the card.


----------



## eidairaman1 (Feb 9, 2010)

the card is somewhat like the newer boards, so id say it be a worth a shot Id they had a AGP variant of this i would of grabbed it


----------



## newtekie1 (Feb 9, 2010)

Since it would be incredibly hard to find either card for a decent price in the market today, it might just be easier and cheaper to compre two x1950 Pro in crossfire with two 7950GTs in SLi...

Unless of course W1zard still has both cards laying around.  If thats the case I'll gladdly take them off his hands and do the follow up review for TPU.  I think it would be an interesting article also, see how older cards perform with newer games.


----------



## Tatty_One (Feb 9, 2010)

In any case the monster card would probably struggle to compete with the lowliest HD4850.


----------



## Flyordie (Feb 9, 2010)

Its alot like my HD2600XT 256MB GDDR4.

When compared to the reviews of the same card on release date... the newer drivers added 15-20% performance markups.


----------



## eidairaman1 (Feb 10, 2010)

thats the problem with alot of review sites, they dont revisit the hardware after initial release to see if gains are to be had or not, best way to test is to have them done at 1 year mark.


----------



## jehuty9800 (Jul 7, 2010)

*bit of a problem*

hello, im new here, i just bought this card, and put it into my computer, well, it works great, BUT, my computer only reads it as a 256MB card instead of the suppose to be 512MB.  im currently running legacy drivers 10.2.  and i tried running it with vista ultimate 64bit, and the crossfire does not work and it reads as 256mb. now i put XP Pro 64bit and the crossfire works great, BUT it still read as 256MB each card.  can anyone help me.  my MOBO is a MSI K9A2-CF 790X. cpu AMD athlon 64 X2 5800+.  now, anyone have any ideas?   is it just 64bit that acts like this? or should i try running 32bit?


----------



## Tatty_One (Jul 7, 2010)

jehuty9800 said:


> hello, im new here, i just bought this card, and put it into my computer, well, it works great, BUT, my computer only reads it as a 256MB card instead of the suppose to be 512MB.  im currently running legacy drivers 10.2.  and i tried running it with vista ultimate 64bit, and the crossfire does not work and it reads as 256mb. now i put XP Pro 64bit and the crossfire works great, BUT it still read as 256MB each card.  can anyone help me.  my MOBO is a MSI K9A2-CF 790X. cpu AMD athlon 64 X2 5800+.  now, anyone have any ideas?   is it just 64bit that acts like this? or should i try running 32bit?



64bit or 32bit should not make a difference, this is a strange one, could you download GPU-Z and dump the Bios, then Zip it and upload it here so I can take a look at it.

GPU-Z will also give you an accurate reading of memory size available.


----------



## eidairaman1 (Jul 7, 2010)

Are you sure you are not talking about the bus speed?


----------



## jehuty9800 (Jul 7, 2010)

eidairaman1 said:


> Are you sure you are not talking about the bus speed?



no, the bus speed posts at 256bit,  and then it say memory size 256mb


----------



## btarunr (Jul 7, 2010)

GPU-Z shows memory bus width / bandwidth of each GPU on a dual-GPU card, not the card's effective memory bandwidth.


----------



## jehuty9800 (Jul 7, 2010)

Tatty_One said:


> 64bit or 32bit should not make a difference, this is a strange one, could you download GPU-Z and dump the Bios, then Zip it and upload it here so I can take a look at it.
> 
> GPU-Z will also give you an accurate reading of memory size available.



heres a pic of what gpuz says, im not sure how to dump the bios, never done it before.


----------



## btarunr (Jul 7, 2010)

jehuty9800 said:


> heres a pic of what gpuz says, im not sure how to dump the bios, never done it before.



Everything seems fine? 256 MB over 256-bit per GPU? That's the correct reading. Click on the dropdown to see two GPUs and read values of each GPU.


----------



## erocker (Jul 7, 2010)

Perhaps ULPS is getting in the way. ULPS is Ultra Low Power State in which Catalyst basically turns off the 2nd GPU/RAM to save power. Try running the card under load and then check GPU-Z.


----------



## newtekie1 (Jul 7, 2010)

I'd contact Sapphire, but I'm almost postive there were two versions of this cards when it was released.  One with 512MB of RAM(2x256MB) and one with 1GB(2x512MB), you seem to have gotten the 512MB version. I can't seem to find anything on these cards since they are so old.


----------



## eidairaman1 (Jul 7, 2010)

ok the Sapphire x1950 Pro Dual Came with either 512MB or 1024MB ram, meaning each GPU had 256MB or 512MB of ram

aka GPU1=256, GPU 2=256 which is the Sx1950PD512

GPU1=512, GPU 2=512 which is the Sx1950PD1024

It also says Crossfire with ULPS is enabled on GPUz.


----------



## jehuty9800 (Jul 8, 2010)

the guy i got it from show me it running with 512mb on each adapter,  i put it into my computer, installed drivers and its say 256mb per gpu.


----------



## eidairaman1 (Jul 8, 2010)

whats your system specs and what was his?  Also was this guy trustworthy? He could of modified the software code to show it has more than advertised, or modified it after-wards before he showed you.  Only other Option is to check the service tag on the board itself, Or he Sent you 1 that is not what he advertised.


----------



## erocker (Jul 8, 2010)

I have a feeling it's something to do with the drivers or with XP x64. It could even be some sort of system bios issue not addressing the memory for some reason but I don't know what motherboard you are using. What drivers are you using and what drivers did you have installed before this card?


----------



## eidairaman1 (Jul 8, 2010)

another thing to try, make sure the powersupply is strong enough to provide juice needed on both 6 pin connectors and also ensure the board is fully seated in a PCI Express X16 Speed Slot


----------



## jehuty9800 (Jul 9, 2010)

well, my psu has one 6pin pic adapter and im using the 1 molez 2 6pin adapter that came with my X1900GT. it only has 3 wires going to the plug, would that affect anything? or should i get the 2molex 2 6pin pci that has 6 wires?  would that change anything?


----------



## eidairaman1 (Jul 9, 2010)

Gonna tell you this now, Provide all and I MEAN ALL System Specs.


----------



## jehuty9800 (Jul 9, 2010)

okay, motherboard  MSI K9A2-CF
         cpu-  AMD athlon 64 x2 5400+ AM2+ cpu
         5BG ram at 533mhz


----------



## jehuty9800 (Jul 9, 2010)

okay, motherboard  MSI K9A2-CF 790X NB   SB600
         cpu-  AMD athlon 64 x2 5400+ AM2+ cpu @2.8ghz
         5BG ram at 533mhz
         GPU    sapphire X1950Pro dual
         750W PSU
         seagate  320GB hdd
        640GB hdd
         OS  XP pro 64bit sp2
   graphic driver  ATI legacy drivers 10.2
         thats all i can think of for right now


----------



## erocker (Jul 9, 2010)

jehuty9800 said:


> well, my psu has one 6pin pic adapter and im using the 1 molez 2 6pin adapter that came with my X1900GT. it only has 3 wires going to the plug, would that affect anything? or should i get the 2molex 2 6pin pci that has 6 wires?  would that change anything?



It might and is worth trying at this point.


----------



## jehuty9800 (Jul 17, 2010)

hi, okay, ive been messing around for a bit, but i still have not gotten the card to read as 2 512 mb cards. but I did notice this, i was looking in the box i got with it and there is a adapter. it has 2 vga ports on it and 2 connectors on it. now, the video card also has the female connector ports on it. now, for curiosity i went into my display icon in control panel and went to settings.  it shows 4 monitors! now i clicked each one and did a adapter check. its reading as 256mb per each monitor.  so now i've been trying to figure out how to make the card have only 2 monitors instead of 4.  it does explain the 256mb issues. my computer reads it as having 4 256mb video cars instead of 2 512mb. now HOW DO I MAKE THIS SHOW ONLY 2 MONITORS???????


----------

