hot deal on ati AGP cards

Pulled the trigger on the 850pro as my 9700 died... glad I waited though...got free S/H ..

now I pray that I can get those extra pipes... thanks OP and coupon guy!
 
That X800XL AGP is a nice bargain. I got a GeCube version from newegg for my agp system not long ago for about $50.00 more. I also have one on my A8N Sli (PCIe).
 
i'm really thinking about getting one of these. i would be coming from a 9800 non-pro, but i want to get a 20.1 widescreen lcd and i know that card wont run games at native resolution very well, if at all. think the x800 xl is a good upgrade?
 
I tried flashing the BIOS on my x850Pro several times using different BIOSes with no luck unlocking the pipelines. I did not try the gigabyte flashing tool because if there are bad pipelines on the card, you can't flash back, you are stuck with them.

I would love to hear some success stories when you guys get your cards especially if they are the laser cut r4xx's :)
 
Well, I just got my card in yesterday, and I think it's worth it. I upgraded from a 128mb 9800 Pro, to the 256mb x800 XL, and my benchmark score(without any OC or tweaking), went from just under 6,000 in the futuremark test, to over 10,000.
 
Soldur said:
I tried flashing the BIOS on my x850Pro several times using different BIOSes with no luck unlocking the pipelines. I did not try the gigabyte flashing tool because if there are bad pipelines on the card, you can't flash back, you are stuck with them.

I would love to hear some success stories when you guys get your cards especially if they are the laser cut r4xx's :)
Click to expand...

Soldur, did you try the article I linked to before?

Those guys specifically deal with the laser cut R420 chips, and they say their tool is a better bet since, unlike the gigabyte bios, their tool allows you to go back to 12 pipes if there are bad pipelines.
 
Which card of these would be a step up from an unlocked 6800nu that OC's really good?
 
Either would, but it depends on your price range which one suites you.. Look at some benchmarks linked in the first page near the bottom, find out how much your willing to spend, then jump on it!
 
CardiaK - Yes, that was the article that I used. I tried the x850XT and X850XTPE bios and ATI tool still showed only 12 pipelines and to top it all of the HSF no longer spun up. I should have put that in my earlier post, be careful when flashing the card because the fan may stop working. I did not run any games on it after flashing because I didn't want to burn the card up, I only checked it with AtiTool.

There are several threads from people having similar experiences on the laser cut chips where the fan no longer worked after flashing the card. If I could have gotten the extra pipelines I would have thrown on some aftermarket cooling, but since I seemed stuck at 12 I just flashed back to my backup version of the BIOS I had made before and the HSF spun right up. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for all of you that bought these. If they are the r4xx and laser cut and you find a way to unlock them please share :)

***EDIT***

There have been a ton more topics put out there since I tried to unlock mine. It looks like you can run ATITool to see if your card is unlockable or not by deading information about the DIE and the FUSES.
 
Just bit the bullet and got a X800 XL. Hopefully this will help out BF2. Upgrading from a 9800 pro. Thanks for the deal!

I was browsing some reviews on the X800 XL and found this
http://reviews.cnet.com/ATI_Radeon_X800_XL_256MB_AGP/4507-8902_7-31308330.html?tag=nav

"This card's graphics processor and memory mean that it is not recommended for most games, but it will still be fine for office applications and other normal computing tasks."

thought that was funny. I am sure all of us got the card for office apps and normal tasks. HA!
 
killians said:
Just bit the bullet and got a X800 XL. Hopefully this will help out BF2. Upgrading from a 9800 pro. Thanks for the deal!

I was browsing some reviews on the X800 XL and found this
http://reviews.cnet.com/ATI_Radeon_X800_XL_256MB_AGP/4507-8902_7-31308330.html?tag=nav

"This card's graphics processor and memory mean that it is not recommended for most games, but it will still be fine for office applications and other normal computing tasks."

thought that was funny. I am sure all of us got the card for office apps and normal tasks. HA!
Click to expand...

lol, that shows just how much of a dumbass review site cnet really is..
 
got mine in today. upgraded from a 9800 pro and im barely noticing any incrase in fps while playing cs:s....
 
ClayDogg84 said:
got mine in today. upgraded from a 9800 pro and im barely noticing any incrase in fps while playing cs:s....
Click to expand...

..Because CSS dosent really stress cards much..hell I played at 1280x1024 with 2xAA on all high on my 9600xt and it ran 85% butter..

Run a real game like FEAR, BF2, Far Cry etc, to see how it creams it.
 
stag3 said:
yes because only the x850pro requires a 350watt or more PSU.
the x800xl doesn't need a power connector to run.
Click to expand...

I believe that the AGP x800xl does in fact need external power. The PCI-e cards do not require additional power. Please correct my correction if I'm wrong.
 
ivzk said:
I believe that the AGP x800xl does in fact need external power. The PCI-e cards do not require additional power. Please correct my correction if I'm wrong.
Click to expand...

you are correct, i was under the impression it didn't need it
it does need a molex connector, however the PSU only needs to be rated at 300watts
 
you could prolly get away with a stock psu if you are using a shuttle. i have a 9800pro in mine right now and the stock psu works great and i have a x800xl on the way.
 
ClayDogg84 said:
got mine in today. upgraded from a 9800 pro and im barely noticing any incrase in fps while playing cs:s....
Click to expand...

Turn on HDR..and AA...and AF......

Then get back to us.
 
foofighter06 said:
Turn on HDR..and AA...and AF......

Then get back to us.
Click to expand...


ditto...

if not better, install newest CAT driver and shoot us your specs...
 
jackbauer said:
you could prolly get away with a stock psu if you are using a shuttle. i have a 9800pro in mine right now and the stock psu works great and i have a x800xl on the way.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I have a Shuttle as well, and the power supply has no problem powering the P4 3.2 GHz processor, 1 GB RAM, and a 9800 Pro All-In-Wonder. Heck, it looks like our specs are identical except for the different processor.
 
yeah i have a SN95G5.... do you have a aftermarket cooler on your card?? i would like to find one for the x800xl i just ordered from ATI.
 
jackbauer said:
you could prolly get away with a stock psu if you are using a shuttle. i have a 9800pro in mine right now and the stock psu works great and i have a x800xl on the way.
Click to expand...

Have a smaller/older shuttle and this thing just arrived today, surprisingly, fitting fine. power supply doesn't have an issue either.

Now to unload my 9800 pro. Anyone know where to pick up some of these AIW cables, besides looking on ebay? Don't need the capture capability on that system, but I figure why not. Are all the AIW input cables the same for the recent radeon series? A family member DOES have an original Radeon AIW, but its many, many years old.

edit:
its different than the x800xt aiw plug
 
Does the 9800SE they sell there have 4 or 8 pipes, and 128bit or 256 bit memory bandwidth? I've seen many different versions on the 9800SE, and it doesn't state specifically on the website what the specifications are.
 
silentnswift said:
Does the 9800SE they sell there have 4 or 8 pipes, and 128bit or 256 bit memory bandwidth? I've seen many different versions on the 9800SE, and it doesn't state specifically on the website what the specifications are.
Click to expand...

Why not drop them a call? ATI has great customer service.
 
dchrsf said:
Why not drop them a call? ATI has great customer service.
Click to expand...


i doubt ati could help him... cuz there were a lot of different 9800SEs made, i mean these are all BBA, so none of them will be special...

i think there was only 1 8pipe 256bit 9800SE made, and that was by PowerColor (i have one, but its dead from being unlocked and overclocked to > XT speeds for about 3 or 4 years)... and even PowerColor stopped making those magical SEs that could pipe unlock...

probably a 4 pipe 128bit or a 8 pipe 128bit at the greatest... its the 256bit memory that is hard to come by in 9800SEs


EDIT: 9800 poster would be pretty dope though... i'd add it to my PENTIUM II (WITH MMX oooo aaaaa) and my AMD DURON posters...
 
foofighter06 said:
Turn on HDR..and AA...and AF......

Then get back to us.
Click to expand...

its having a hard time handling the game without those things on. its running at like constant 30-40 fps but drops down to 15 at times which is unplayable....
 
ClayDogg84 said:
its having a hard time handling the game without those things on. its running at like constant 30-40 fps but drops down to 15 at times which is unplayable....
Click to expand...

What resolution are you playing at? It shouldn't be doing that, at least not at 1280x1024 or lower resolutions.
 
hmm i play cs source @ 1600x1200 with everything max
the only option i have off is HDR, and my fps is fine.
it will lag a little here and there when there's explosions
but other than that, i have no problems.

p4 3.4ghz northwood
2 gigs ram
74gig raptor
 
OK I take back what I said earlier. Going from a GeForce4 Ti4400 to this my FPS went down as well. The only game I really play is www.roseonlinegame.com... so the X800XT should be more than enough to handle the game.

But the game is way more choppy with the ATI than with the nVidia... and I have no idea why.
 
CarNut said:
OK I take back what I said earlier. Going from a GeForce4 Ti4400 to this my FPS went down as well. The only game I really play is www.roseonlinegame.com... so the X800XT should be more than enough to handle the game.

But the game is way more choppy with the ATI than with the nVidia... and I have no idea why.
Click to expand...

It sounds like you didn't uninstall your nvidia drivers prior to loading your x800xt. Uninstall all of the video drivers, then reinstall with the newest Cat's.

***QUESTION***

I'm using Omega Drivers right now(cat v.6.5) simply b/c I like the options they give for tweaking and such. Should I just stick to the cat 6.6's instead?
 
Folks, regardless of what your old card is before you install your new drivers, download Driver Cleaner and follow the instructions for whatever brand of card you currently use.

I don't know if it will make the card run faster, slower or make no difference at all, but it ALWAYS removes files that the uninstallers leave behind.

Great utility and you should use it every time you update your drivers too.
 
goodcooper said:
i doubt ati could help him... cuz there were a lot of different 9800SEs made, i mean these are all BBA, so none of them will be special...

i think there was only 1 8pipe 256bit 9800SE made, and that was by PowerColor (i have one, but its dead from being unlocked and overclocked to > XT speeds for about 3 or 4 years)... and even PowerColor stopped making those magical SEs that could pipe unlock...

probably a 4 pipe 128bit or a 8 pipe 128bit at the greatest... its the 256bit memory that is hard to come by in 9800SEs


EDIT: 9800 poster would be pretty dope though... i'd add it to my PENTIUM II (WITH MMX oooo aaaaa) and my AMD DURON posters...
Click to expand...

Is it possible to unlock those 4 extra pipes in the 9800SE if the card comes with 4 pipes?
 
i really doubt that ATI is going to sell the 9800se that you need to have to flash it. i am surprised that they are even doing the x850pro that can flash to xt-pe's.
 
Hey, this looks like a great use for my IC7-Max3 board. I just haven't been able to part with it....it's been my favorite board of all time.
 
^^Yeah, I got it three or four years ago, and to this day it keeps up with the newer stuff without breaking a sweat. Thanks for the awsome link, I see a new x800xl in it's future.
 
Got the card (x800XL) along with the Silencer on it, and its really BIG!! I can barely fit my IDE cable for my CDROM in between it, but it works..

More on the card later, off to game!
 
Specs in sig, sorry..no.

This will run almost all my games (BF2, CSS (Militia lags 30~ fps w/ HDR), Prey) will run on all high 1280x1024 with max AA/AF smoothly probably 90-95% of the time other 10-5% it will be probably 40fps minimum.

Runs great!
 
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