Asrock 775 Dual VSTA Incompatible with Nvidia 8800 series

7950GT is much faster than 8600GT in most older games. In newer shader intensive games, the gap isn't as wide.

With the gpu.bat timedemo, i get 48fps at 1440x900 with the medium custom config i pointed to earlier. The medium config is actually mostly high settings, though, with HDR, sun beams, high quality water, etc. Actually, the medium config looks better than the default Crysis high config. Those custom configs make a big difference and I definitely recommend trying them out.

With default Crysis settings (no tweaks) I can play at high settings at 1200x800 (i have a widescreen LCD) and it is very smooth through the whole map. 1440x900 is smooth for the most part on default High but it gets choppy in certain parts. 1680x1050 is smooth on default medium settings.

I have Vista 64 and WinXP dual boot but I haven't tried Crysis on Vista yet. I may try it out in the next day or so.
 
Thanks for the help...Im getting the Crysis/GTS package and going use that custom config you mentioned. Would you recommend me playing it on a 19 inch LCD at 1280 x 1024 or a 20 inch LCD at 1600 x 1200 ? I'd also be interested in the image quality differences with Vista as well as any slowdowns/lags, etc that you might have with it compared to XP.

I've seen it recommended that aero be disabled and "classic windows desktop" be enabled for max fps in games.
 
The resolution is going to depend on whether or not you can put up with some choppiness. If you turn on motion blur, it actually helps to offset some mouse choppiness when turning quickly but it reduces my timedemo scores by about 5fps. 1600x1200 is pretty hefty and would only be totally smooth with shaders set to medium. With the shaders set to medium you don't get HDR rendering and you lose alot of the effect that makes crysis look really cool. Crysis is the first game that you can run at lower resolutions with higher quality and it still looks gorgeous so 1280x1024 is probably going to be your best bet. 1280x1024 is about the same amount of pixels as 1440x900 so you should be able to get good performance with alot of the eye candy turned on including hdr, sun beams, water, etc. I would try out the HIGH config and if that isn't smooth enough for you, then try the MEDIUM config. I customized the medium config with some of my own tweaks to add some realism.

I only wished I'd waited a week for the Crysis bundle to come out, but otherwise, this is one sweet card.
 
Crysis sure is a FPS-killer. I beat the game on 1280x1024 with all settings "High" except for Shadow but I had to tone down the options to medium in a few levels because the lag and stutterings were so bad--especially the last level.

Now that I've beaten it, I'm replaying the game with 1024x768 with all settings at Medium except for Texture, Object Detail, and Shader (set to High) so I can play without any stutterings. According to Fraps, I'm getting average 75-80 FPS and gameplay is finely very smooth and makes it very enjoyable to play.

-Optimummind
 
Hi everyone!

I'm now a proud owner of a Inno3d GeForce 8800GT, but its incompatible with my ASROCK 775Dual-VSTA. I've downloaded the ASROCK BIOS from their page, set the setting in the bios from AGP to PCI-E Gfx, but still my computer dosent start if the 8800 is in the machine :(
I've read about EVGA bios here in the forums, but I cant download it from the EVGA homepage :(
And what is the other program I need?
Plz help me I'm desperate!! :)
Sorry about my questions, I tried to read back, but u guys are talking about everything, Its a bit chaotic for me :)
 
Smitiz said:
Hi everyone!

I'm now a proud owner of a Inno3d GeForce 8800GT, but its incompatible with my ASROCK 775Dual-VSTA. I've downloaded the ASROCK BIOS from their page, set the setting in the bios from AGP to PCI-E Gfx, but still my computer dosent start if the 8800 is in the machine :(
I've read about EVGA bios here in the forums, but I cant download it from the EVGA homepage :(
And what is the other program I need?
Plz help me I'm desperate!! :)
Sorry about my questions, I tried to read back, but u guys are talking about everything, Its a bit chaotic for me :)
Click to expand...

The BIOS you need is for the 8800 GT, not the Asrock board. You need to flash the 8800GT with the new BIOS on a different motherboard, because your 775Dual won't be able to start up enough to allow you to flash the graphics card. If you don't have another computer handy with a "normal" PCI-E slot, you'll have to either buy such a motherboard temporarily from a local shop and return it after doing the flash, or look for someone who will let you do the flash on their computer. Good luck.
 
Hi!

Thanx for the help, but I went out and bought a Gigabyte P31-DS3L motherboard instead, cuz I heard by flashing the card I will loose my warranty....
All games run like heaven now, this card was worth it!!! :D
 
Any word on whether the new G92 8800GTS has the same gen2 incompatibility as the 8800GT? With the EVGA step-up from the G80 8800GTS SSC, i would pay nothing for this card. Free upgrades are nice!
 
Im going to inquire into the G92 8800GTS as I saw a very favorable review on tomshardware, even favorable compared to the GTX! They also say its a great overclocker:

http://www.tomshardware.com/2007/12/12/geforce_8800_gts_512_mb/

Im considering keeping both the 7950GT (AGP slot) and getting the 8800GTS (for pcie); Im going to try them both out in Crysis, since I saw a reviewer state that the 7950GT and Q6600 combo can play Crysis at 1280 x 1024 at all medium settings, except two at high (didnt mention which two.) It would be interesting to have two graphics cards hooked up to four monitors (AsRock Surround Display)...
 
the 7950GT is very close to the x1950pro which I had before the 8800GTS SSC and I could play at 1200x800 (equivalent to 1024x768) on medium settings and it was fairly playable. It is an entirely different experience with the more powerful 8800GTS card. I just purchased the full copy of crysis and I've played through the first three levels at 1680x1050 with all the fancy directx 10 feautures enabled and its still smoother than anything the x1950pro could do. The custom tweaked autoexec makes all the difference, too.

The G80 8800GTS SSC is EXTREMELY hot, as is the G92 variant from what I've read, and I wonder what the effect would be of having two cards producing that much heat in your case would be?

I think the newest version of Nibitor can change change the pci gen option in an nVidia bios so that may be an option for getting the new G92 version to work with the 4coredual boards.
 
stickboy said:
the 7950GT is very close to the x1950pro which I had before the 8800GTS SSC and I could play at 1200x800 (equivalent to 1024x768) on medium settings and it was fairly playable. It is an entirely different experience with the more powerful 8800GTS card. I just purchased the full copy of crysis and I've played through the first three levels at 1680x1050 with all the fancy directx 10 feautures enabled and its still smoother than anything the x1950pro could do. The custom tweaked autoexec makes all the difference, too.

The G80 8800GTS SSC is EXTREMELY hot, as is the G92 variant from what I've read, and I wonder what the effect would be of having two cards producing that much heat in your case would be?

I think the newest version of Nibitor can change change the pci gen option in an nVidia bios so that may be an option for getting the new G92 version to work with the 4coredual boards.
Click to expand...

Yup, Ive heard this as well. I wonder if it means I would still need another mobo to do it? Im definitely going to get the G92 version if so, otherwise I would probably get the one you have. BTW how much better is the image quality with Vista and DX10?
 
You would definitely need another mobo to do it in order to download the original bios, update, then reflash the card.

I'm not using Vista... running XP. I have the various effects like parallax offset mapping, god rays, sun beams, battle dust, etc., turned on in the autoexec file. Image quality is excellent and much better than the default high settings.

Here is a good review with comparisons of the new G92 8800GTS, GT and G80 GTS SSC.

The G80 GTS SSC isn't that much slower than the new G92 GTS but if the G92 worked without flashing, it would definitely be the better buy.

http://www.firingsquad.com/hardware/nvidia_geforce_8800_gts_512mb/
 
stickboy said:
You would definitely need another mobo to do it in order to download the original bios, update, then reflash the card.

I'm not using Vista... running XP. I have the various effects like parallax offset mapping, god rays, sun beams, battle dust, etc., turned on in the autoexec file. Image quality is excellent and much better than the default high settings.

Here is a good review with comparisons of the new G92 8800GTS, GT and G80 GTS SSC.

The G80 GTS SSC isn't that much slower than the new G92 GTS but if the G92 worked without flashing, it would definitely be the better buy.

http://www.firingsquad.com/hardware/nvidia_geforce_8800_gts_512mb/
Click to expand...

Ah, youre using a workaround to get past Crytek's artificially imposed limitation (which was probably put there to boost sales of Vista for MS anyway.) Tweakguides.com seems to be down (is it for you as well?) But I found a similar guide here:

http://ve3d.ign.com/articles/news/35259/Crysis-Tweak-Guide

another comprehensive guide:


http://www.incrysis.com/forums/viewtopic.php?id=11614


Is it just my browser or is tweakguides.com down?
 
I've found that by using the medium computer config i pointed to you earlier, with some of the cooler effects turned on, like POM, battle dust, god rays, etc., I am getting excellent performance with crysis. I get most the eye candy and it runs as fast the default Crysis medium setting.

With 1680x1050 resolution, on the GPU.bat benchmark, I get an average of 30fps with the minimum being 21fps, which is definitely smooth enough for a satisfying experience, at least on the first few levels I've played. Things may change in the upcoming levels and I will probably have to drop the res.

and yea, i'm tweaking the config with custom commands.
 
Just recieved my Gainward 8800GT. Took my time to find any 8800GT in stock but I finally did! Now only 2 steps left... Flash and then replace my old one...
The thing is, my friend only has some time next week <_<
 
I'm getting an EVGA 256MB 8800GT, do they use the same BIOS as the 512MB GT's? If not, does anyone have a GEN1 256MB BIOS? Thanks for any help.
 
ArtCrazy said:
Try www.mvktech.net (the creators of Nibitor)
They have a nice archive of BIOS. I got the Gainward one from there and then Nibitored it to GEN1
Click to expand...

I checked there, unfortunatly they don't have any 256MB BIOS's. :( I'm kinda hoping it's just the same BIOS as the 512MB version. Once I get my card I'll be able to dump the BIOS and compare it to the ones mvktech has. If they're the same between 256 and 512 I'm all set. If not, I'm in trouble...
 
but doesn't the new version of Nibitor allow you to change the gen1/2 setting of the bios?
 
stickboy said:
but doesn't the new version of Nibitor allow you to change the gen1/2 setting of the bios?
Click to expand...

It did on the original versions of the 8800GT BIOS but they're all coming with a new BIOS version that no longer works with the gen1/2 setting in NiBiTor.

If the the 256 and 512 cards share the same BIOS I can just flash the 256 card with an old gen1 modified 512mb BIOS. If they don't use the same BIOS that would be a really bad idea.
 
Flashed it today and must say it works amazing, thanks everyone! (including the Nibitor team)
 
Can someone write up a little comprehensive guide on how to do this? I'm thinking of buying an 8800GT and flashing it. The thread is pretty damn long and I couldn't find links to the Gen1 bios. The 8800GT is an XFX 8800GT alpha dog edition
 
Hi,
I'm one of the lucky people who managed to buy both 8800gt (expertvision in my case) and asrock 4coredual-vsta before finding out they don't like each other very much.
So after vga wouldn't boot after few tries I searched the net and found the "solution".
Several people reported success after flashing gen 1 bios so I decided to give it a try.
Anyway, I flashed the card and this time the pc booted but it would always stuck at windows loading screen. Without vga drivers or in safe mode I can get to windows but that's about it,installing drivers in safe mode would result in screen flicks at the middle of installation (I tried several driver versions).
Any ideas how to make the card work without buying the new mobo?
 
ossir said:
Hi,
I'm one of the lucky people who managed to buy both 8800gt (expertvision in my case) and asrock 4coredual-vsta before finding out they don't like each other very much.
So after vga wouldn't boot after few tries I searched the net and found the "solution".
Several people reported success after flashing gen 1 bios so I decided to give it a try.
Anyway, I flashed the card and this time the pc booted but it would always stuck at windows loading screen. Without vga drivers or in safe mode I can get to windows but that's about it,installing drivers in safe mode would result in screen flicks at the middle of installation (I tried several driver versions).
Any ideas how to make the card work without buying the new mobo?
Click to expand...

When you installed the card onto the ASRock mobo, was it a clean install? If not, I suggest you run cleaning programs such as CCleaner and Driver Sweeper before trying to install the ForceWare drivers.

In my case, I had a HDD that already had Vista Ultimate on it with drivers for the ATI 1900XT 512MB PCIE. Before installing the 8800GT, these are the steps I took:

(1) Uninstalled the ATI driver and software from within Control Panel. Rebooted PC.
(2) Entered Safe Mode and ran Driver Sweeper and deleted all nVIDIA and ATI driver files.
(3) Ran CCleaner's Registry scan and deleted all recommended Registry errors. Shutdown PC and removed the ATI 1900XT and installed the eVGA 8800GT KO. Restarted PC.
(4) After getting back into Windows, I declined for Windows to search for drivers automatically for me.
(5) Ran CCleaner's Registry scan one more time.
(6) Installed the FW 169.02 driver. Rebooted PC.
(7) Re-entered normal Windows and everything worked, such as videos and games such as Hellgate London, Crysis DEMO, The Witcher, and Stalker v1.0004.

Hope this helps.

-Optimummind
 
Optimummind I followed your instructions but the same thing happened again, after installing drivers,restarting pc and setting back normal mode,windows loading screen got stuck. Only difference this time was that the screen didn't have corrupted colors, it just got stuck....
:((((
 
ossir said:
Optimummind I followed your instructions but the same thing happened again, after installing drivers,restarting pc and setting back normal mode,windows loading screen got stuck. Only difference this time was that the screen didn't have corrupted colors, it just got stuck....
:((((
Click to expand...

Are you overclocking your CPU/RAM by any chance? If I set my overclock too aggressively on my ASRock 775Dual-VSTA, I get the same "stuck" syndrome at times. I also get the "stuck" screen if my Windows files have been corrupted. Happened to me a few times. In those cases, I had to reformat and do a clean install to fix it.

If you suspect that the problem is GPU-hardware-related, perhaps you can try installing it on a friend's PCIE mobo and see what happens.

Hope you fix the problem.

-Optimummind
 
A-L-E-X said:
Optimum, how is your graphics card/mobo combo working so far?
Click to expand...

It's still good. :D My CPU is at 2.66GHz and the 8800GT under water + PCI-slot fan has allowed me to clock it at 738MHz/1784Mhz/2000MHz. I've beaten Crysis, Hellgate London, and Stalker with this setup and I'm currently on The Witcher.

Replacing the 1900XT 512MB PCIE for the 8800GT has been a good investment for me.

-Optimummind
 
Optimummind said:
It's still good. :D My CPU is at 2.66GHz and the 8800GT under water + PCI-slot fan has allowed me to clock it at 738MHz/1784Mhz/2000MHz. I've beaten Crysis, Hellgate London, and Stalker with this setup and I'm currently on The Witcher.

Replacing the 1900XT 512MB PCIE for the 8800GT has been a good investment for me.

-Optimummind
Click to expand...

Wow, sounds like it! I bet it would beat the new 8800GTS as well. You might get near 10K in 3DMark06!
 
Optimummind, have you played FEAR with your setup? I am able to overclock my 8800GTS SSC to 630/930 and play every game with no problems except for FEAR. I get BSODs unless I run at the stock speed.
 
stickboy said:
Optimummind, have you played FEAR with your setup? I am able to overclock my 8800GTS SSC to 630/930 and play every game with no problems except for FEAR. I get BSODs unless I run at the stock speed.
Click to expand...

I haven't played FEAR since 2004! :p Back then, I was running it on the 6800GT.

-Optimummind
 
yea but could the 6800GT run it at 1680x1050 with 4XAA, 16XAS and everything on max?

I'm just wondering why this is the only game that seems to cause a BSOD when the card is overclocked.
 
I forgot to ask you guys using 8800 series cards and windows xp something:

Under windows xp, can you enable both hdr and antialiasing in most games, or is that something relegated to direct x10 and vista, even with 8800 series cards?

Thanks!
 
Yes, the 8800 series can do AA and HDR with most games in windows xp. I don't believe it was ever an issue about DirectX or the OS.

Some games, STALKER for example, cannot do HDR and AA no matter what card you use.
 
Thanks man. That was why I was asking... I saw a bunch of stuff saying people couldnt get hdr+aa to work in oblivion, no matter what the OS and graphics card. Some people got it to work with the x1950 series, but they reported unplayable frame rates. Thats why I had never gotten the x1950pro, as I had seen many reviews stating the frame rates were so low as to be unplayable in oblivion @ 1280 by 1024 with hdr and 4x aa. You had the x1950pro so you would probably have first hand knowledge of how well hdr+aa worked in that card.
 
You have to enable AA in the driver control panels for both the ATI and Nvidia cards to do AA with HDR in Oblivion. Performance with the x1950 was okay but not great. With the 8800, i run oblivion at 1680x1050 with 4xMSAA,16xAS, HDR and everything turned on and maxed out and its very smooth.

Gotta love these cards.
 
whats everyone 3dmark 06 score with THIS m/b?
my config is :
e6600 @ 2.66
2 Gigs DDR2 667 (PC2 5300)
evga 512 8800gt

my score is pretty crappy at 9100
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top