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Its a long story, but my sister's computer was at her ex's for a long time, he wouldn't give it back until today....

I believe she has this card
Visiontek XGE ATI Radeon x1950 PRO

Just from the price of the card (Around $200 new), how old is this card? I believe its AGP, not PCI, is it worth it to keep this card or upgrade it? The ex built it from parts he already had, my sister only had to buy ram and something else... So we both dont realyl know how old this is... Any suggestions/tips?

That card probably came in around 05-06 so really it is not that old , if it still works I would just keep it . its a fine card.

Radeon X1950Pro will play all currently-available games. It's not quite fast enough for many of them at 2560x1600, but with a 1680x1050 display, it's not bad.

Well, the Radeon X1950Pro was released in late 2006, and it was a fairly high-end card back then, but really, your question shouldn't be how old it is, just how well does it perform? And that question, in turn, depends solely on what you plan to use it for. That card should be able to handle all but the latest games at decent settings, so unless you (or your sister) really want to be on the cutting edge for gaming it should be fine. However, if you do plan to upgrade the card, you may have to upgrade the whole system, because if the motherboard only has an AGP slot you're not going to find anything better performing that will actually work with the mobo, because everything now has PCI-E. That's the reason you may have seen the card going for $200: it's not because of the performance, it's just because AGP cards are rare to find these days.

But the bottom line is, if you're wondering whether to upgrade or not, throw it in the system and try it out on the things you want to use it for. If it works well enough for you, great! If not, you can come back and if you need more specific advice we'd be happy to help.

It's probably the best thing you're going to get into an AGP system. Certainly there's nothing that would be worth the price of upgrading.

Ya, she is having problems with it, shes having problem with her monitor, keeps falling asleep...

I would suggest you to check that card in other computer, if that card is still failing, go get a HD3850 AGP version.

prodigy2k7 wrote:

Ya, she is having problems with it, shes having problem with her monitor, keeps falling asleep...

Loose cable?

Okay basically my dad got a new computer and it came with a monitor, it had two cables, DVI and VGA, he didnt use DVI so we had an extra cable lying around... My sister used this cable (ex boyfriend forgot cable) to connect from her monitor to the graphics card, the monitor doesnt respond, we tried both DVI ports on the graphics card, no loose cables, all tight, She said it used to have an adapter or something, im thinking... video card dvi output -> dvi dable -> dvi to vga adapter -> vga port on monitor

Monitor ports: (1) DVI, (1) VGA
Graphics Card ports: (2) DVI, (0) VGA
Mobo ports: none? (no onboard video i think)

Motherboard: GIGABYTE GA-k8nsc-939
Graphics Card: Visiontek XGE ATI Radeon x1950 PRO


Any suggestions?
Thanks!

I'd trouble shoot that monitor with another computer to make sure the monitor wasn't faulty.

I'd try to keep that s939 system going without an upgrade if at all possible, saving dollars for a bigger overhaul of mb,cpu and ddr2 (or ddr3 depending on the timeframe)

Ex boyfriend messed around with a few settings? It could be possible....

Sorry forgot to mention, the monitor works using VGA on another computer with onboard video

Stupid question: when you plug the monitor in did you change the input to DVI? Don't think a lot of monitors will do auto input selection.

No idea how to do that, as if the monitor doesnt stay on, i cant go to menu or anything...

Okay, well I did it, atl east tried to, i plugged the monitor into a computer with working video, went into the menu changed it to DVI, screen went black disconnected it plugged it into sister's computer, no work

Your DVI cable could be defective.

Have you tried both DVI ports on the graphics card?

If your resolution and refresh rate are completely outlandish, your DVI input may give up on them, but you should still be able to see the POST information.

When you say it doesn't stay on do you see it post, and get to windows mess around for a while then goes off? Or do you see it post and then when it gets to windows you lose video, or when you start up the PC you never see anything come up at all?

EDIT: I think JAE is onto the same thought as I was thinking there.

THE DVi cable is new, never used, yes I tried both dvi ports on the card, what POST information are u talking about? The screen shows nothing, did i mention it says... Wow am I that stupid? Did I forget to mention that the screen says "No signal detected", i dunno if i did, if i didnt, sorry....

Do you have the auxiliary power connector plugged into the graphics card?

If that is the 6 pin connector, yes

Edit: I was thinking maybe its the table, arent there different types of DVI cables? DVI-I single and dual link..., DVI-D and DVI-A for instance

prodigy2k7 wrote:

If that is the 6 pin connector, yes

Edit: I was thinking maybe its the table, arent there different types of DVI cables? DVI-I single and dual link..., DVI-D and DVI-A for instance

Don't know if it matters, but the card in question is not AGP. 6-pin power connector => PCI-Express.

Edit: I guess that isn't the correct conclusion judging by the motherboard..

Nevermind!

Hmm im confused then:
http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/Products/Mot ... -K8NSC-939

1. 1 x AGP slot (8x/4x-AGP 3.0 compliant), supports 1.5v display card only
2. 5 x PCI slots (PCI 2.3 compliant)

I see 5 PCI slots then a green slot, im assuming its AGP cuz the website says there is another slot...

Maybe im mistaken... Thanks for your input

prodigy2k7 wrote:

Hmm im confused then:
http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/Products/Mot ... -K8NSC-939

1. 1 x AGP slot (8x/4x-AGP 3.0 compliant), supports 1.5v display card only
2. 5 x PCI slots (PCI 2.3 compliant)

I see 5 PCI slots then a green slot, im assuming its AGP cuz the website says there is another slot...

Maybe im mistaken... Thanks for your input

See above edit. Sorry about that.

Well I did notice something, the plug itself is 6 pins (the plastic part), but there are only 5 wires plugged into it...if that makes sense

Okay the boyfriend said you need to use a DVI to VGA adapter
In this case, DVI (female) to vga (male) adapter and plug that into the monitor's vga...

Okay so its been awhile messing with it, this is what we tried, we took a VGA(d-sub) cable and connected a male-DVI to female VGA connector (adapter) on the graphics card, then connected the vga cable to the adapter, then the vga cable to the vga port on the monitor, no success!!!

FYI -> the first day it actually worked for about 1 minute, it then auto-rebooted and since then nothing has shown up on the screen...

Is this a bad graphics card now? its AGP which leads me to believe it *could* be old... (Remember the ex boyfriend put it together, he already had the graphics card, so we dunno how old it is)

This is the current setup...
VIDEO CARD -----> DVI TO VGA ADAPTER ------> VGA CABLE ------> MONITOR
doesnt work, any suggestions? We have like 3-4 computers in the house including my sister's that doesnt work, umm ya none of them have an AGP slot...

I told my sister to buy a cheap $35 graphics card from circuit city to test it, then return it to see if it is indeed her graphics card that is the problem...

I dunno what else to me...

bump

WOW DONT WE FEEL STUPID!!!

Somehow we DIDNT check all the cables, the CPU power cable wasnt plugged in all the way, so when u pressed it, CLICK! and computer works....

I guess when i tapped the computer it nudged it out enough, maybe it became unclipped in the car ride and didnt come out far enough to where the pins wernt touching...yet until i smacked it!

prodigy2k7 wrote:

WOW DONT WE FEEL STUPID!!!

Somehow we DIDNT check all the cables, the CPU power cable wasnt plugged in all the way, so when u pressed it, CLICK! and computer works....

I guess when i tapped the computer it nudged it out enough, maybe it became unclipped in the car ride and didnt come out far enough to where the pins wernt touching...yet until i smacked it!

I mentioned that in another thread not too long ago:
http://www.techreport.com/forums/viewto ... 13#p877813

I usually forget that step