Problems with Sapphire X1950 Pro.

[technicks]

Hi there.

I am having problems with my X1950 Pro. The thing is i think the card is bad.
When i try to use 3d applications, games/bench/overclocking,the card shuts down and i have to reboot.
It's not the temp because it's fine. Instaled different Ati drivers. No good. Also not the psu.
Just bought a Hiper 580 w.:confused:

I can't think of anything else.

Does anyone else have problems with the card?

Thanks

[ATIonion]

Hi there.
I am having problems with my X1950 Pro.


its a sapphire....sorry...


usually if you have removed the drivers right...and if you have installed good drivers then maybe the clock is too high for the card...if you havent overclocked it, then rma the card...but make sure you have deleted your old drivers...ati drivers can be a bisch to get rid of and can cause problems like what you have....

[technicks]

Did not know that Sapphire was so crappy.:laugh:

When i start ATT or Atitool. The memory is set to 1408. That is standard. It should be 702.
Then when i wan't to overclock it says that my memory is overclocked.:confused:
This was since the day i bought the card.

[technicks]

I think i will rma. I still have my X1900GT.
The X1950 XTX crossfire card is now for sale here for 330 euro's.;)

Think i will go for that one.

Crap, now i see that is also a Sapphire.

[Namslas90]

RMA the card, you've had nothing but problems since the begining, and how many threads now? If you removed the drivers properly, and loaded the right one's and stil have this problem; it's time to RMA, sorry.

[technicks]

Think you are right.

[AthlonX2]

ATI:shadedshu

[technicks]

ATI:shadedshu

This is the first time i have a problem with ATI. Had multiple with the N word.;)

[mitsirfishi]

:O nothing wrong with sapphire cards you made sure everything is seated correctly ?

[Mad-Matt]

Nothing wrong with the sapphire cards, but im sure theres some kind of block in place to discourage overclocking ;) My own sapphire x1950pro works fine unless i try to overclock the core. anything higher then default and the machine will blackout after a few mins in game and require a complete power cycle to use system again. overclocking memory is ok, but screen coruption occurs at anything higher then 735. 621 on the core (highest overdrive allows) works just long enough to get a few 3dmarks done :)

[mitsirfishi]

why dont you try using other program such as ati tool or tray tools

[Mad-Matt]

i dont think i need too. the card isnt stable occed even in the boundries of overdrive.

[Wile E]

Overdrive isn't the best ATI overclocking tool. On my X1800XT the best OC overdrive could muster was 675/775. With ATITool, I game at 709/819, bench at 725/850.

[szymas]

I have the X1950 Pro from Visiontek, simular problem, used drive cleaners to make sure all drivers where removed , reinstalled same issue, card runs fine outside of 3-D apps and games, but in about 1 -2 mins black screen, though PC was still functioning without monitor..

I went into Cataylist and reduced the AGP speed from 8x to 4x.. card runs fine on my pc, what in the world could cause this issue? The MB I have is 8X and I have 28 A on each rail .. any ideas?

[erocker]

I got a x1950pro agp HIS card. I set my agp voltage in my bios to 1.7v and everything is a ok!

[sbg1973]

well,
some people reported the problems you described when plugging the card to only one power cord. you need both of them and around 500w supply. you shouldnt split one cable, better would be two different ones. my saph is rock stable, bios from 06.12.06.

[mmx]

I alsow have a sapphire x1950pro.... and had no problems with it. The temps are a little high 50/75 in fullload, fan a little noisy, but rockstable.

[AshenSugar]

how you dissabled the pci-e overclocking thing in bios?

i have to on my m2n-sliu delux or my card does that, also may need to add some v to the pci-e, not the same card but easly could be that the cards not liking the board slot for some reasion :/ also helped when i started acctivly cooling my chipset insted of using passive cooling!!!!

[Ketxxx]

can you try it in a different machine? have you tried reseating the hsf? its also worth trying to reflash your card in case its a dodgy bios, just remember to back up the current bios so u can flash it back and rma it if its not that ;)

[Zubasa]

Nothing wrong with the sapphire cards, but im sure theres some kind of block in place to discourage overclocking ;) My own sapphire x1950pro works fine unless i try to overclock the core. anything higher then default and the machine will blackout after a few mins in game and require a complete power cycle to use system again. overclocking memory is ok, but screen coruption occurs at anything higher then 735. 621 on the core (highest overdrive allows) works just long enough to get a few 3dmarks done :)
The thing about the X1950Pros are the bios, it have its fan speed set at ridiculously low...:respect:
I do get black out problems also, but that is only from ATiTool....
I can game for 6 hours and the card will run perfectly stable, but if I have ATITool active on the card crashes after 6 minutes:shadedshu

[yester64]

The thing about the X1950Pros are the bios, it have its fan speed set at ridiculously low...:respect:
I do get black out problems also, but that is only from ATiTool....
I can game for 6 hours and the card will run perfectly stable, but if I have ATITool active on the card crashes after 6 minutes:shadedshu

Hi,
i have similar problems with my card. Its a Sapphire X1950pro (256) and it stalls the system after 5-10mins. if i run HL2 with all features on.
I got a RMA from sapphire and i will send it in. Altough they charge 15$ for s&h. That is my first Sapphire card that actually made any problems.
I do got a better fan, but i will wait for that until i got my gfx card back.
Does this actually happen with these kind of card? Like i said, that really the first card ever that gave me problems.

[binormalkilla]

Everyone here having issues with there Sapphire X1950 Pro, take heed:

I had the same problem when I bought one. I could OC the core to 594 MHz, any higher would immediately cause the screen to turn black, but not a PC crash entirely.
So I set the clocks back to stock. Then after around 2 hours of gaming or so the screen would go black.
SOOOOOOO
I'm like WTF? So I get on the Sapphire message board and there are about 10 guys having the same problems. They discovered that it was the VRMs overheating. So one guy installed a heatsink on his VRMS, voiding the warrenty.
So I asked Sapphire for an Ultimate VRM heatsink, they said no. I asked to buy one, they said no. Their reasoning was that they didn't have parts laying around........ok I thought there was a Sapphire factory producing these heatsinks with their name on it.....anyhow to make a long story short I RMAd mine and bought an HIS, which has copper heatsinks on everything separately, including the VRMs.
The thing is that the reference cooler didn't make good enough contact with the VRMs, or maybe it just couldn't hold up to the heat after long periods of gaming, and Sapphire suggested that I buy an aftermarket fan such as the VF900, so I did. That didn't work because the VRMs were naked, and my PC crashed upon entering any 3d app, including the CCC 3d preview.
So I say RMA and buy the Ultimate version or get the HIS version.
If you are feeling lucky then buy an aftermarket cooler and get some of these RAMsinks for the memory and VRMs. They are great, I have them on my motherboard's VRMs.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16835108071

However, Sapphire does not suck by any means. They just have POS tech support. They didn't care one bit that I had a card that wouldn't operate under normal operating specifications, so I said F@#K them, I'm spending a little more and buying an HIS.
I have heard that the Sapphire Ultimate X1950 Pro has some problems too though.

[yester64]

So what i should do?
I bought the card on Feb 2 and i could still return it to zipzoom.
Returning to zipzoom cost me 30$, but maybe not many headaches. Or ship it to Sapphire, pay 15$ and i am not sure what i get back.


Everyone here having issues with there Sapphire X1950 Pro, take heed:

I had the same problem when I bought one. I could OC the core to 594 MHz, any higher would immediately cause the screen to turn black, but not a PC crash entirely.
So I set the clocks back to stock. Then after around 2 hours of gaming or so the screen would go black.
SOOOOOOO
I'm like WTF? So I get on the Sapphire message board and there are about 10 guys having the same problems. They discovered that it was the VRMs overheating. So one guy installed a heatsink on his VRMS, voiding the warrenty.
So I asked Sapphire for an Ultimate VRM heatsink, they said no. I asked to buy one, they said no. Their reasoning was that they didn't have parts laying around........ok I thought there was a Sapphire factory producing these heatsinks with their name on it.....anyhow to make a long story short I RMAd mine and bought an HIS, which has copper heatsinks on everything separately, including the VRMs.
The thing is that the reference cooler didn't make good enough contact with the VRMs, or maybe it just couldn't hold up to the heat after long periods of gaming, and Sapphire suggested that I buy an aftermarket fan such as the VF900, so I did. That didn't work because the VRMs were naked, and my PC crashed upon entering any 3d app, including the CCC 3d preview.
So I say RMA and buy the Ultimate version or get the HIS version.
If you are feeling lucky then buy an aftermarket cooler and get some of these RAMsinks for the memory and VRMs. They are great, I have them on my motherboard's VRMs.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16835108071

However, Sapphire does not suck by any means. They just have POS tech support. They didn't care one bit that I had a card that wouldn't operate under normal operating specifications, so I said F@#K them, I'm spending a little more and buying an HIS.
I have heard that the Sapphire Ultimate X1950 Pro has some problems too though.

[yester64]

haha.. i qoute myself here.
But, i requested a RMA from zipzoom. I will see if i get with them, so i could order a different card.
btw. i do have a vga cooler, do you need that for the his card?

So what i should do?
I bought the card on Feb 2 and i could still return it to zipzoom.
Returning to zipzoom cost me 30$, but maybe not many headaches. Or ship it to Sapphire, pay 15$ and i am not sure what i get back.

[binormalkilla]

They will charge you the restocking fees even if you tell them that it's defective? I would say try to get them to waive the restocking fees bc it's defective, then get an exchange.
Go ahead and order the VF900 with that set of Swiftech RAMsinks and use the Zalman RAMsinks on your VRMs and other chips, then use the MC14s on your memory. This way you will have a solid overclocker no matter what.

[binormalkilla]

btw. i do have a vga cooler, do you need that for the his card

No way dude, the HIS cooler freaking rocks. It's made by Arctic. Just make sure that you get the IceQ3 cooler. The only thing that sucks is that I sent my rebate in early December and still haven't got it back. WTF that is insane.
Which reminds me I'm going to send an email to them and ask about that.

http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=323821
DAMN! Free shipping. I paid $239.99 plus shipping for mine.

Just food for thought:
I haven't seen any other people from here, Overclock.net, or Xtremesystem.org forums running a higher OC than me. I know of a few other HIS owners that have the same OC, and I read a review that got a higher OC, but that's it!

[binormalkilla]

overclocking memory is ok, but screen coruption occurs at anything higher then 735

LOL dude you need to either RMA that card, or get a better cooler with some good memory heatsinks because those memory chips are rated at 800 MHz, which is what the Ultimate edition comes at stock.
My HIS memory is rated at 700 MHz and I have mine clocked at 823 MHz. All you need is some cooling!

I know a guy running fairly high clocks on naked ICs! I can't remember how high, but I remember that I was suprised that he was running that on naked chips. He was watercooling, not retarded:p

[yester64]

no, only if you want refund.
but i am not sure, if i should get the same card again (no restocking) or get instead the HIS or straight ATI.

They will charge you the restocking fees even if you tell them that it's defective? I would say try to get them to waive the restocking fees bc it's defective, then get an exchange.
Go ahead and order the VF900 with that set of Swiftech RAMsinks and use the Zalman RAMsinks on your VRMs and other chips, then use the MC14s on your memory. This way you will have a solid overclocker no matter what.

[binormalkilla]

The ATI reference is ok, but they charge more than the HIS (I think)
Trust me, the HIS is the best one if you want to OC. Hell, it comes OCed out of the box at 635/743 and I have mine at 661.5/823. I think that I can get my core higher with the PCI-E bus speed increased, but I haven't messed with it that much. I'm happy with it right now. I can play all of my games with all of the video settings on high, plus 6x AA, 16X AF with high quality enabled, quality adaptive AA, etc.

[yester64]

is it actually worth it to get the XT version of the 1950? its about 70$ more and i wonder if you could expect a significant boost.