The HD 3850 AGP User Experience

I've done a little research but it sounds like the majority of the issues are with the nForce3 chipset & Vista, not so much with XP. I don't plan on running DX10 until mid-09 when I will most likely replace this box, so I will stick with XP. Are there specific issues with s939 boards & these 3850 cards in XP?
 
AFAIK is a BIOS issue, which makes the card almost unusable in all environments, the issue will cause some weird issues like the PC won't boot, or the drivers won't load, or will peg at 100% usage in the second core of the CPU while the first core is idle, I heard that disabling a feature in the BIOS will fix it, but I don't know which is, it has something to do with the HyperTransport Link, something like Assinchronous thing, don't know what. But once is disabled, the two cores will work fine when the HD 3850 is used, so it should work in Vista just fine afterwards. Try to investigate further in the BIOS settings which will make that card compatible with your system, let us know of your findings!
 
evolucion8 said:
[DeadSkull], my RAM can reach 2.23GHz stable, but 3dMark and vantage would crash, it only runs stable at 2.15GHz, the GPU core would run stable at 800MHz, higher than that would artifact in ATi Tray Tool, ATi Tool doesn't work for me for some reason, 3DMark and Vantage can work fine, but GRID would intermitently flash like if the driver wasn't responding, but the game would run fine afterwards, lowering the core to 790 fixed that.
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Try 0.27b3 or 0.27b4 and see if you can fully core/ mem clock stability with them. You still have to use Rivatuner to manually adjust the clocks before tests however.
 
Artex said:
Alright gents-

I'm trying to hold out until mid-09 before I switch over to the i7 & Nehalem architecture (once prices come down and the technology matures).

I currently have an MSI K8N Neo2 Platinum socket 939 board with a 4400+ 2MB cache Toledo processor and 2GB high-speed DDR corsair RAM, an OCZ 700 Watt power supply, and a rare Gainward Bliss 512MB 7800GS+ AGP (7900GT Core) card I purchased in 2006 for an insane amount of money since they weren't available in the US yet.

Will an HD 3850 AGP card make a big difference? If so, which is the best card to go with - HIS, PowerColor, or Sapphire? I've heard about issues with the 939 boards and my processor + the 3850 AGP cards.

What are your recommendations? Should I upgrade or are the hassles enough to where I should just hold off and cry while playing current games at crappy resolutions and low-medium detail. My LCD only supports 1280x1024, but it is a Viewsonic VX922 series panel with decent timings.
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Artex I'm in a similar boat to you. Got a PC that was decent... in 2006 these days not so much. I've got an old Barton AXP I can run it 2.5Ghz+ but its still the weak link. I got a 7600GT and 2G's of ddr400 as well. From everything I've read we both will see a substantial increase in gaming performance moving from our respective cards to the 3850. Not to mention 4xAA and 16xAF in everything without a performance hit. Having said that moreso mine than yours, our cpu's still handicap that 3850 gpu. I'm making the move mostly to get decent framerate from things like UT3 and for the first time actually Crysis.

Its the final upgrade on a machine which has lasted longer than originally envisioned. I'm ponying up the $130 or so and making the move. Besides next year when we make the quad core move whoever inherits our old pc's will still have something that can perform.
 
I'm still trying to find out what the issue is with Socket 939, X2 processors, and the 3850. No luck still....
 
sorry , haven't been checking the thread lately.. evolucion8.. if you still need that bios i can send it to you..

i'm running a thermaltake power express 450 watt VGA power supply on this card, able to use normal drivers.. running cat 8.9

overclocked to 714 core 874 mem stable 49c - 50c load, 31c - 33c idle.
 
I've had mine for several months now and I must say the jump in IQ alone is enough to justify this card. Even if my CPU is still a major bottleneck.

HIS ICEQ3 720/910 @750/950 running cat 8.9
 
Seithennin said:
sorry , haven't been checking the thread lately.. evolucion8.. if you still need that bios i can send it to you..

i'm running a thermaltake power express 450 watt VGA power supply on this card, able to use normal drivers.. running cat 8.9

overclocked to 714 core 874 mem stable 49c - 50c load, 31c - 33c idle.
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Very nice, the max I've got mine to was 863 core 23 minutes stable atitool.
 
I've been running HIS IceQ3 card for a few moths with no problems, but PREY, which I installed yesterday, seems to have brought some. The game crashes in several ways: 1) The screen goes black and PC freezes 2) The screen gets filled with pink and black striped lines 3) Textures mess up randomly. What is more interesting, it doesn't matter what clocks card is running at. Is that a compatibility issue with my P4C800 motherboard? I'm running official cat 8.9 and "heavier" games like Call Of Juarez are running very stable.
 
Hey guys,

I bit the bullet and purchased a Sapphire HD3850 AGP from NewEgg. I installed it this afternoon but no matter what I do, I cannot get any video output. The card's fan is spinning but no video whatsoever - just that terrible amber light.

Here are my specs:
MSI K8N Neo2 Platinum motherboard (Socket 939)
AMD 4400+ X2 (Toledo)
2GB Corsair DDR Mem
OCZ 700W Power Supply

I put in my existing Gainward 7800GS+ AGP card and it works without a hitch. I tried it in my secondary Intel P4 2.8 Northwood system as well, same result - but this system only has a 480W Thermaltake Power Supply.

Sound like a bad card? What else can I try?
 
Artex said:
Hey guys,

I bit the bullet and purchased a Sapphire HD3850 AGP from NewEgg. I installed it this afternoon but no matter what I do, I cannot get any video output. The card's fan is spinning but no video whatsoever - just that terrible amber light.

Here are my specs:
MSI K8N Neo2 Platinum motherboard (Socket 939)
AMD 4400+ X2 (Toledo)
2GB Corsair DDR Mem
OCZ 700W Power Supply

I put in my existing Gainward 7800GS+ AGP card and it works without a hitch. I tried it in my secondary Intel P4 2.8 Northwood system as well, same result - but this system only has a 480W Thermaltake Power Supply.

Sound like a bad card? What else can I try?
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I should add that the Power Supply is a OCZ GameXStream OCZGXS700 with a +12V rail that is split into 4 - rated at 18 Amps each. The chipset is Nvida NForce 3 Ultra.
 
kniaugaudiskiss, I have prey installed on my machine , used to dump me back to the desktop.... make sure you have the latest patch, also turning off Adaptive Anti-Aliasing in the CCC fixed it..
 
Seithennin said:
kniaugaudiskiss, I have prey installed on my machine , used to dump me back to the desktop.... make sure you have the latest patch, also turning off Adaptive Anti-Aliasing in the CCC fixed it..
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Today I've noticed the same issue with both GRID and Bioshock. What is more, card sometimes crashes in 3DMark06 and in all cases vertical stripes appear. All this make my think it is memory problem. Don't know what to do now...
 
FalconSS said:
default

on a side note, I use EXPERTool toset my fan speed and clocks.
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Hey FalconSS, as I see from your signature you have HIS IceQ3 card. Have you ever faced a situation, in which your card crashed and screen filled with horizontal lines? Question may seem a little bit weird, but I don't know what to do with mine one...
 
kniaugaudiskiss said:
Hey FalconSS, as I see from your signature you have HIS IceQ3 card. Have you ever faced a situation, in which your card crashed and screen filled with horizontal lines? Question may seem a little bit weird, but I don't know what to do with mine one...
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no.
I would RMA it if it did. Thats definitely a hardware problem.
 
Seithennin said:
artex, from what i've read the hd3850 has an issue with the nforce3 chipset.
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I've heard of issues with the Nforce3 + Dual Core Athlon + Vista. Supposedly you have to disable one of the cores or something. This problem, however, seems different - especially with no video at all. In addition, I couldn't get it to work in my second P4 system. I am going to RMA it to NewEgg and try a second one. If the replacement still doesn't work, then I'm going to call it quits.
 
Damn Artex I really hope the second card works out for ya. I'm loving the Powercolor myself. I only might slightly regret it since its a 6pin versus a 8pin pcie which is going to limit my OC but I do like the ZeroTherm Cooler.
The fact yours didn't work in the P4 rig hopefully means you just got a bad card.
 
GonzoP said:
Damn Artex I really hope the second card works out for ya. I'm loving the Powercolor myself. I only might slightly regret it since its a 6pin versus a 8pin pcie which is going to limit my OC but I do like the ZeroTherm Cooler.
The fact yours didn't work in the P4 rig hopefully means you just got a bad card.
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yeah, I just scored a 6 to 8 pin adapter from the freebies thread. Its being shipped out now. I'll see what I can get my clocks to once I get it.
 
You mean one of these:
PCIE-6-8_3853.jpg


Freebie huh?
Linkage Falcon linkage
 
Ok folks, I've been having some stability problems with my IceQ3 but after driver reinstallation situation became a little bit better. Now card doesn't crash often, but still fails in Bioshock and 3DMark06. ATITool's artifact scanning runs perfectly without problems. What may be causing Bioshock and 3DM06 crashes? Card crashes in vertical stripes rise and reboot is necessary. I don't experience any heat issues, clocks are 720/1820.
 
OK, after some further investigations I figured out that when VGA Fan is set to default, card crashes more often that it does at 100% fan speed (vertical stripes appear on screen. GPU temperature never exceeds 65 degrees Centigrade under full load, so GPU is not a problem, but can the memory be overheating?
 
You can go up to 860 core stable on the 1.327 vCore bios softmod but any higher would require at least a pencil mod if not a hard vmod. Memory clocks are all dependant on your memory quality. Sapphires 3850 qimonda max at 1.0Ghz = 2.00Ghz effective.
 
how do you search for the AGP hotfixes on ATI/AMD driver site? I have always forced fed the drivers but I want to try the 8.10 drivers since they include a fan tool.


EDIT: OK, I found them. :D time to reformat.
 
What an interesting thread.
I am new to the boards but this is my experience

My old rig was an Athlon Barton 2600+ with 1gig of DDR400, 650 watt psu on an old Asrock board, with the AGP HD3850

That lot got me 3100 odd 3d marks in ’06.


I now have the Sapphire AGP HD3850 running in an asrock 4coredual-sata2 rev2. I have 2 gigs of non descript DDR2, a 650 watt psu and an intel E7200.

That lot combined gets me 9100 odd 3d marks in ’06. :D


New wave cpu with an old(ish) school card…..!

I guess it shows how cpu reliant these apps can be and also what a stonking card the 3850 is. I am sure the current rig will suffice for a good while yet.

…. Wonder what one of those quad thangs would get me……. :cool:
 
Yeah 3Dmark 06 really lives off your cpu. The 3850 is a still a decent card. The agp and pcie specs are the same. Most guys with a tweak or two can get their 50's to perform about as good as stick 70's. Not quite as high on the memory but the core's can sail past stock 3870 speeds.
The e7200 is a might fine OC'er as well. I'd be rather surprised if you could not past 3.5Ghz without even trying
 
DeadSkull said:
Wait what? lga775 and agp?!?!?! :confused::confused::confused:
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Yes, you are hearing/reading me right! Look up this board in any search engine 'asrock 4coredual-sata2 rev2.' It will take quad core intels and appears to be a great halfway house between upgrading from AGP/socket 462 to PCI Express/LGA775. The good thing is that it has the option to use either PCI Express or AGP - it has both sockets - obviously not simultaneously! It will also take either DDR1 400 or DDR2 various - again, not mixing them. Its not a great overclocker aparantly (sorry) but has really given me a chance to use the full potential of the HD 3850 AGP which was, (as everyone had told me but did I listen??) horribly bottlenecked by my trusty old Athlon 2600+

The only real downside is that the PCIE slot is run at the x4 rate so may not make the absolute best of the newer bus.

I will have a look at what O/C I can get out of the CPU but you cant have everything....

Currently I am delighted that it runs at all and so well!!

AGP for me for a while yet! Hope that helps
 
Renghis said:
What an interesting thread.
I am new to the boards but this is my experience

My old rig was an Athlon Barton 2600+ with 1gig of DDR400, 650 watt psu on an old Asrock board, with the AGP HD3850

That lot got me 3100 odd 3d marks in ’06.


I now have the Sapphire AGP HD3850 running in an asrock 4coredual-sata2 rev2. I have 2 gigs of non descript DDR2, a 650 watt psu and an intel E7200.

That lot combined gets me 9100 odd 3d marks in ’06. :D


New wave cpu with an old(ish) school card…..!

I guess it shows how cpu reliant these apps can be and also what a stonking card the 3850 is. I am sure the current rig will suffice for a good while yet.

…. Wonder what one of those quad thangs would get me……. :cool:
Click to expand...

I'm going to (finally) get my Q6600 off the ground (this weekend, actually) based around that exact mobo (4CORE DualSATA R2), but based around my existing 2 MB of DDR400 (Buffalo CL 2.5) and the HD3850 (Sapphire). (The HD3850 replaces the X1650PRO AGP in the current setup, which the Q-ship will replace.)

So I'm going to be able to do three sets of benchies:

1. This rig with the HD3850.
2. The new setup with the X1650PRO AGP.
3. The new setup with the HD3850.

While I have a 400W Antec PSU, I'm replacing it with a 500W (at minimum) PSU, just in case.
 
PGHammer said:
I'm going to (finally) get my Q6600 off the ground (this weekend, actually) based around that exact mobo (4CORE DualSATA R2), but based around my existing 2 MB of DDR400 (Buffalo CL 2.5) and the HD3850 (Sapphire). (The HD3850 replaces the X1650PRO AGP in the current setup, which the Q-ship will replace.)

So I'm going to be able to do three sets of benchies:

1. This rig with the HD3850.
2. The new setup with the X1650PRO AGP.
3. The new setup with the HD3850.

While I have a 400W Antec PSU, I'm replacing it with a 500W (at minimum) PSU, just in case.
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Are you saying you're willing to throw some bench test comparisons up for the viewing public?
 
GonzoP said:
Nice. That 790/990 on stock voltage too right?
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Somewhat I also hit the same wall, benchmarks and other games would run fine at 800Mhz core and 2Ghz ram, but in GRID the screen would intermitently flash and the animation stops, then it resets and the game continues to run just fine, I don't know if it was a core or RAM problem at those speeds, but I pushed them back to 790/1.90GHz and the problems went away, I'm currently using the official 8.10 cats drivers and everything is fine.
 
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