Asrock 775 Dual VSTA Incompatible with Nvidia 8800 series

http://www.asrock.com/mb/vga.asp?Model=775Dual-VSTA

According to this link, only the 320 mb version of the 8800gts is supposed to work on the 775Dual-VSTA motherboard. But based on posts within this thread, it sounds like the 640 mb version works as well. Any reason why Asrock would not list 640 mb versions of the card as being compatible? Does this mean the 640 mb version is not officially supported?
 
My brother bought one of these boards to pair up with an E4500 (2.2ghz), 1GB DDR400, and a 6600GT. The thing runs like a friggin' champ.
 
http://www.asrock.com/mb/vga.asp?Model=775Dual-VSTA

According to this link, only the 320 mb version of the 8800gts is supposed to work on the 775Dual-VSTA motherboard. But based on posts within this thread, it sounds like the 640 mb version works as well. Any reason why Asrock would not list 640 mb versions of the card as being compatible? Does this mean the 640 mb version is not officially supported?

I can personally confirm that the 640 meg version works with the Dual VSTA. I notice that Asrock is somewhat too specific when saying what cards work, they may call out a specific brand rather than a family. But that's their choice. They probably only want to claim compatibility where they have personally verified, and I can understand that.

If I was in the market today for a transition board from the DDR + AGP era to the DDR2 + Pcie era, I would recommend the 4coreDual VSTA. Transfer your AGP + DDR, buy a nice inexpensive C2D and your on your way for less than $200 shipped.
 
Can't find any 320mb MSI 8800GTS so I'm hoping the eVga one works. No reason it shouldn't right? Its the same card..
 
I can personally confirm that the 640 meg version works with the Dual VSTA. I notice that Asrock is somewhat too specific when saying what cards work, they may call out a specific brand rather than a family. But that's their choice. They probably only want to claim compatibility where they have personally verified, and I can understand that.

If I was in the market today for a transition board from the DDR + AGP era to the DDR2 + Pcie era, I would recommend the 4coreDual VSTA. Transfer your AGP + DDR, buy a nice inexpensive C2D and your on your way for less than $200 shipped.

That's exactly what I've done, and partly because this thread confirmed that I would be able to get in on some G80 goodness when the time was right. As a nice side-benefit, until the time IS right, my E4300 at 2.6 Ghz is letting me get new life out of my 6800GT AGP. The time of suffering along with an Athlon XP-M is over, for about $185 shipped.

Thanks for a great thread, yevaud. Next, some sub-$100 DDR2, maybe a new PSU, hopefully a sweet true midrange screamer from the G9X family, and finally an MSI P6N FI-SLI to make my meal complete, with each bite at or under $100 except for the GPU.
 
Yes, works great. No problems. Driving my 37w3 with aplomb. Yes, I am still using XP.

I really, really think Nvidia couldn't help but fix it when they released their mid/low range cards, because these would have to work in a pci-e x4 slot (target market after all). Call me a conspiracy theorist, but I believe that the X4 functionality of the 8800 series was broken deliberately to drive sales of 680i mobos to the enthusiast crowd. After all, an nvidia driver update fixed it- without a bios update or chipset driver update for my mobo

An x4 PCI-Express slot simply doesn't have enough bandwidth to not choke the card... and there are/were plenty of other options than the 680i chipset to run an x16 slot, or an x8 slot (which is all the 8800 really needs). Why it is expected that a far slower slot will handle a card designed for a much faster slot is beyond me. Don't get me wrong, it's an incredible board for the money, and in general, but it's just not logical to think it can truly max out the potential of the card. That said, it was fairly silly to not have driver support fir it, though I don't see why someone would want to run it in an x4 slot.
 
I never said x4 didn't choke back the performance of the 8800, I've posted bench numbers, and yeah, they're low for the 8800gts, but double or better what I was getting with my 6800GT. That alone is reason enough to run an 8800 in this X4 slot.

As far as what I said about Nvidia driver support, whether they deliberately broke X4 support or simply dragged their feet in releasing the fix, the result was the same- I had the card for over 6 months before I was able to use it. Maybe I should have done more homework before I bought it, but then again, it says 16x pcie slot required- I interpreted this to mean physical slot, which the dual vsta does in fact have. If they meant electrical 16x, then there's a whole bunch of cards with false and misleading requirements printed on the box- as we now know the card works fine with X4.

I didn't want to upgrade my mobo, ram, processor, and video card all at once. The Asrock let me do that, no other board on the market could have period.
Incremental upgrade path:

Mobo-->Processor-->Video Card-->Ram-->X38-->Peryn-->SLI
 
I never said x4 didn't choke back the performance of the 8800, I've posted bench numbers, and yeah, they're low for the 8800gts, but double or better what I was getting with my 6800GT. That alone is reason enough to run an 8800 in this X4 slot.

As far as what I said about Nvidia driver support, whether they deliberately broke X4 support or simply dragged their feet in releasing the fix, the result was the same- I had the card for over 6 months before I was able to use it. Maybe I should have done more homework before I bought it, but then again, it says 16x pcie slot required- I interpreted this to mean physical slot, which the dual vsta does in fact have. If they meant electrical 16x, then there's a whole bunch of cards with false and misleading requirements printed on the box- as we now know the card works fine with X4.

I didn't want to upgrade my mobo, ram, processor, and video card all at once. The Asrock let me do that, no other board on the market could have period.
Incremental upgrade path:

Mobo-->Processor-->Video Card-->Ram-->X38-->Peryn-->SLI



Why didn't you return it when you found out it was incompatible? Why not buy a lower, cheaper card that wouldn't be choked and save some dough? We don't know that it works fine, it obviously doesn't if its performance is much lower than one in a normal x16 electrical slot... hence the statement regarding them being the only officially supported slot.
 
Why didn't you return it when you found out it was incompatible? Why not buy a lower, cheaper card that wouldn't be choked and save some dough? We don't know that it works fine, it obviously doesn't if its performance is much lower than one in a normal x16 electrical slot... hence the statement regarding them being the only officially supported slot.

Two words:Restocking Fee

What card would that have been in Nov of 2006? Would that card have displayed Bioshock at 1900X1080 without a hitch?

I know it works fine with my setup. I don't consider 14% below average a problem, considering it is 273% faster than the 6800GT I had. Plus, when I upgrade to the X38, I'll get that performance back
 
Two words:Restocking Fee

What card would that have been in Nov of 2006? Would that card have displayed Bioshock at 1900X1080 without a hitch?

I know it works fine with my setup. I don't consider 14% below average a problem, considering it is 273% faster than the 6800GT I had. Plus, when I upgrade to the X38, I'll get that performance back

Exactly. There's a difference between choosing a lesser product instead of a better one and choosing it as a pathway to better ones. It's all about the economics. Those who can afford or justify the best choices with every purchase don't understand that there's a different set of choices when you have to migrate carefully. Especially when, as you so clearly show, your pathway trades off a 14% loss of potential performance for a 273% gain in actual performance.
 
Hi guys,

As probably most of you know by now, the nVIDIA 8800GT has been released!! Has anyone tried the 8800GT on the ASRockc 775Dual-VSTA mobo yet? I know that the 8800GTS works on it but how about the 8800GT with its PCIE 2.0 specification? I've already sent an email to ASRock tech support but haven't heard back yet.

-Optimummind
 
Good question. I wish I was in a position to answer it ;)
Be prepare for folks to jump in and express general horror that you'd put the card in a 4x pcie only slot. I'm still just happy the 8800gts works fine with minimal penalty.

My personal belief is that it will be found to work fine, just like the rest of the 8xxx series now does (after nvidia allowed this with a driver update). I don't think they could break this again and maintain a (semi) unified driver.

Ninja edit: N/M...I see u updated your sig
 
Good question. I wish I was in a position to answer it ;)
Be prepare for folks to jump in and express general horror that you'd put the card in a 4x pcie only slot. I'm still just happy the 8800gts works fine with minimal penalty.

My personal belief is that it will be found to work fine, just like the rest of the 8xxx series now does (after nvidia allowed this with a driver update). I don't think they could break this again and maintain a (semi) unified driver.

Ninja edit: N/M...I see u updated your sig

Man, I hope you're right about the 8800GT working with the ASRock 775Dual-VSTA. Because if it doesn't, I'm screwed!!! Muahahahaha~~:D

I just placed an order for the overclocked 8800GT from eVGA through ZipZoomFly and I'll be getting it in a few days. I got it using BillMeLater so I can pay it off slowly throughout the next 3 months without getting charged interest. =)

If it doesn't work, of course I'll report it here and inform those who aren't as IMPULSIVE as I am. =P

I was thinking about upgrading to the Gigabyte P35 mobo that does both DDR2 and DDR3. If the 8800GT won't run, I guess I'll be making that mobo upgrade sooner rather than later. =P

-Optimummind
 
Good luck. I don't know if you're aware of my whole story or not, but I had this evga 8800gts for about 6 months before I was able to use it due only to an nvidia driver issue. I've still got some personal issues with that, but I'm also just happy it works now.

And I was WAS going to get an abit X38 mobo, but now feel like maybe the nvidia C73 is worth it, if I can couple it with another firesale 8800gtsV1

edit: want 1600fsb support and ddr3
 
Ok, I just heard back from ASRock tech support. They said that they don't have the card in their lab yet so they don't know for certain (what I expected).

However, he did say that it will PROBABLY work since it's close to their GeForce 8800GTS - MSI NX8800GTS/320M card that did work on the 775Dual-VSTA.

I don't know if those two cards are really similar to each other but I'm hoping he's right. I don't want to order a new mobo yet!!

-Optimummind
 
Yeah, kudos to Asrock for getting back to you so fast. They also replied to me, although I didn't like the repsonse at the time, it wasn't their fault.
I also recognize they've released almost two dozen bios updates just for this board- Seems like someone over there is actually interested in fixing problems...compare this to Dell's support (if you can call it that) with one bios update every other year if you're lucky.
 
Thanks optimummind, for boldly going where no VIA has gone before. I'm running on a 4CoreDual-Vsta and this is the card I've been waiting for to move off of my 6800GT AGP. Can't wait to find out if it works for you!
 
Thanks optimummind, for boldly going where no VIA has gone before. I'm running on a 4CoreDual-Vsta and this is the card I've been waiting for to move off of my 6800GT AGP. Can't wait to find out if it works for you!

Hey, no problem!! I just hope we BOTH can get a happy ending~! :D

My gut feeling/intuition/false hope(?) tells me it SHOULD work. But, I'm mentally and emotionally and financially prepared for the worse!! My backup plan is to finally get a new, more modern mobo as the $55 budget-wonder has served me pretty well over the last 16 months.

-Optimummind
 
If the 8800gt works I'll get one for my asrock board as well...but I'll wait to see if others have success before placing an order (and will wait for prices to drop a bit as well).
 
Any updates on this?

I bought a 8800GT for my asrock Bios V3 and it doesn't work.
Before I go out and buy a P35 board I'd like to know for definate that the board cannot take this card.
 
Any updates on this?

I bought a 8800GT for my asrock Bios V3 and it doesn't work.
Before I go out and buy a P35 board I'd like to know for definate that the board cannot take this card.

I read about someone over on Guru3d with the same problem. He bought a different board (not another Asrock) and the card worked fine. It's likely a BIOS issue. The ATI 2900 series just had support added in the July and September BIOS releases. If a new BIOS is required hopefully Asrock is on it because they're probably going to start getting a lot of support calls due to the popularity of this card.

http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?t=242278
 
I just got the card and tried to use it on my ASRock 4CoreDual-VSTA. Sadly it wont start. The fan spins up but nothing after that. I'm a little worried that its either the board or my PSU. My PSU is a Antec Neo HE500. Any ideas?
 
I just got the card and tried to use it on my ASRock 4CoreDual-VSTA. Sadly it wont start. The fan spins up but nothing after that. I'm a little worried that its either the board or my PSU. My PSU is a Antec Neo HE500. Any ideas?

You have a 38a on the combined +12v rails, so if your Antec is working properly you even have enough amperage to power two of these cards in SLI. (And I know you're board doesn't do SLI). Contact Asrock Support, the more of you guys yell, the faster they may issue a BIOS Fix if it's possible.
 
I'm pretty sure its a board issue.

I tried with my hiper 350 before buying a brand new thermaltake 550 watt today.
I know the hiper only has 22A on the 12V but no POST made me think it was a mobo issue and not a psu issue. You don't need 22A to POST.

I've sent them an email hopefully they can do something. It's strange that the 8800GTS versions work though.
 
I'm pretty sure its a board issue.

I tried with my hiper 350 before buying a brand new thermaltake 550 watt today.
I know the hiper only has 22A on the 12V but no POST made me think it was a mobo issue and not a psu issue. You don't need 22A to POST.

I've sent them an email hopefully they can do something. It's strange that the 8800GTS versions work though.

I'm not that suprised, this is a brand new beast. Also according to EVGA specs, 22a is all you need on the +12v rail for single card and 24a for SLI.
 
Well, that sucks. My eVGA 8800GT KO edition is coming tomorrow. But, this is not unexpected. I guess I'll have to pick up a new mobo, after all.

I will keep you guys updated, though, whether it does or does not work tomorrow.

-Optimummind
 
Well, that sucks. My eVGA 8800GT KO edition is coming tomorrow. But, this is not unexpected. I guess I'll have to pick up a new mobo, after all.

I will keep you guys updated, though, whether it does or does not work tomorrow.

-Optimummind

I really wanted to see how it performed this board! I'm not really that much of a hardcore gamer, I might just send it back and spend a 1/4 of the money on a 8600GT.
 
I really wanted to see how it performed this board! I'm not really that much of a hardcore gamer, I might just send it back and spend a 1/4 of the money on a 8600GT.

Did you send an email to ASRock tech support about this incompatibility? I already did even though I haven't received my card yet. In my experience with their tech support so far, it's been fast and informative.

I believe that with more voices reaching ASRock, they have step up their BIOS release. I don't think there is any technical reason the 8800GT shouldn't work because on their list of supportive cards, they include cards that require a lot more power than the 8800GT such as the 7900GTX, 8800GTS, and the 2900XT 512MB cards.

I'm actually going to wait on buying a new motherboard with the hope that ASRock won't disappoint us.

If you haven't already, follow this link and send an email to tech support:

http://www.asrock.com/support/TSD.asp

-Optimummind
 
Did you send an email to ASRock tech support about this incompatibility? I already did even though I haven't received my card yet. In my experience with their tech support so far, it's been fast and informative.

I believe that with more voices reaching ASRock, they have step up their BIOS release. I don't think there is any technical reason the 8800GT shouldn't work because on their list of supportive cards, they include cards that require a lot more power than the 8800GT such as the 7900GTX, 8800GTS, and the 2900XT 512MB cards.

I'm actually going to wait on buying a new motherboard with the hope that ASRock won't disappoint us.

If you haven't already, follow this link and send an email to tech support:

http://www.asrock.com/support/TSD.asp

-Optimummind

Exactly, the guy over on Guru3D, just ran out and bought a new board. If no one bothers to contact Asrock, there never will be a fix.
 
I sent an email a few hours ago. I'll let you know when I get a reply. I hope they can fix it, I also see no reason why it doesn't work unless it requires more power through the PCI-E slot. I'll do a bit of reading up on PCI-E but that would be very annoying if it's something as simple as that especially when it has aux power anyway.
 
I'll be honest with you guys, you have got to play with bios settings to make this card work. Particularly if you're coming from an AGP card. Take any OC (however small it may be) off your board. Make sure PCIe is selected in the bios vs. AGP. Relax mem timings if you're pushing it at all under spec for your mem.

I had the same C2D running stable at 2.4, after going to Pcie, I can't get it to post above 2.18. I think the pcie "asynch" mode does not work correctly on this board.

Uninstall any nvidia drivers you may have. See if you can boot into safe mode with vga generic drivers...
 
I just got the card and tried to use it on my ASRock 4CoreDual-VSTA. Sadly it wont start. The fan spins up but nothing after that. I'm a little worried that its either the board or my PSU. My PSU is a Antec Neo HE500. Any ideas?

What kind of PSU do you have? Also, did you remember to connect the PCIE connector to the GPU?

As far as I know, your PC should at least be able to boot but unable to enter Windows Desktop if the GPU is not supported. Have you tried setting the Graphics Card option in the BIOS to PCI Express?

If your PC does manage to boot up, try going into Safe Mode and see you can see anything. Then try loading up Windows in the normal way and see what happens. If normal Windows Desktop doesn't work, try installing the latest nVIDIA beta drivers in Safe Mode first then booting back into Windows the normal way.

Seeing your results, I went to Fry's today and bought a Gigabyte P35 mobo that supports both DDR2 and DDR3. I've been waiting for an excuse to buy this mobo for about 2 months now (had it bookmarked at Newegg :p) and bought it at Fry's instead b/c the prices were the same and I didn't have to pay for shipping costs.

My eVGA 8800GT KO arrives tomorrow so I'll try it first on the ASRock 775Dual-VSTA. Whether it works or not, I'll report it here. If it doesn't, then I'll open the box and install everything on the Gigabyte mobo.

-Optimummind
 
Well the PSU is a Antec Neo HE500. I went and bought a Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3L and the same thing happened. Fans spin no post no beeps nothing. Took the card to a friends house that has a ASRock DualCore-VSTA the board that was before my 4Core. Same issue no post no boot nothing just fans spinning. He has a 600watt OCZ PSU. So I took the card back to Fry's. They couldnt get it to boot either in there test bed. So they got another new card. Same thing. The guy got a returned Asus motherboard and both cards booted just fine. I'm at a loss on this situation.
 
Dear Sir,

The nVidia 8800GT PCIE VGA card is GEN2 mode VGA card.
Unfortunately VIA PT880 PRO/Ultra chipset does not support GEN2 mode VGA card.
The only solution is to set 8800GT PCIE VGA card to GEN1mode.
We have tested ASUS 8800GT PCIE VGA card. After flashing GEN1 mode BIOS for ASUS 8800GT,
it works fine on PT880 PRO/Ultra chipset motherboard.

Please contact VGA card vender to get the VGA BIOS with GEN1 mode for your 8800GT PCIE VGA card.

BR,

ASRock

Problem is, how do i flash it when I can't even boot it :p
Even bigger problem is ASUS tech support!
 
Well the PSU is a Antec Neo HE500. I went and bought a Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3L and the same thing happened. Fans spin no post no beeps nothing. Took the card to a friends house that has a ASRock DualCore-VSTA the board that was before my 4Core. Same issue no post no boot nothing just fans spinning. He has a 600watt OCZ PSU. So I took the card back to Fry's. They couldnt get it to boot either in there test bed. So they got another new card. Same thing. The guy got a returned Asus motherboard and both cards booted just fine. I'm at a loss on this situation.

Hmm wait a second...Was your card an asus version? Could this just be ASUS Cards? I was about to go out and buy a GA-P35, but are you saying it won't work?
 
Hmm wait a second...Was your card an asus version? Could this just be ASUS Cards? I was about to go out and buy a GA-P35, but are you saying it won't work?

I'm using the GA-P35-DS3R and the EVGA 8800GT works just fine for reference.
 
What kind of PSU do you have? Also, did you remember to connect the PCIE connector to the GPU?

He has Antec Neo HE500 which has 38a on his combined +12v rails per my post several above this one. Power wise he has enogh for two cards.
 
It does thanks. Trying to figure out if this is an asus card problem.

I doubt it's restricted to the Asus cards. I earlier linked to a thread on Guru3D and it looks like a couple of more people have now posted with the same issue as yours, they didn't mention which 8800GT they have but here is a post with the response they received from Asrock tech-support. My German is rusty but the poster said Asrock is aware of the issue and they are tyring to get the 8800GT's working .....

http://forums.guru3d.com/showpost.php?p=2480957&postcount=15
 
It does thanks. Trying to figure out if this is an asus card problem.

So have you contacted Asus, as suggested by ASRock tech support, for a special BIOS that sets the 8800GT as a GEN1 PCIE card?

My card is on its way for delivery this morning but I won't be able to test my eVGA 8800GT until I get home after work. I guess I might have to email eVGA for that special BIOS too.

Well, I bought a Gigabyte P35 DS3R yesterday, so at least I'll be able to flash the card.

-Optimummind
 
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