The HD 3850 AGP User Experience

LordVampyre said:
never heard of the ngohq drivers.. be honest with ccc doing strange things and some folks having major bsod problems think Im going to stick with "if it isnt broken, dont fix it"

NeverLift, that looks like my old game listing. But, I went back to basics and killed about 3/4 of my mods. Found the game was less fun the more I modded it. BUT thats just me. In Vista, I have a totally unmodded game, no mods, no addons nothing... only patches.. gotta say its a great deal harder. Darn psychic guards. Gotta love killing someone in a cave and get busted for it in a city on the other side of the country.

One thing thats good, the difference in the visuals of from the totally unmodded game and the "regular" modded game is very little. Im thinking of trying one of Quarls (hope thats the person thats been working on it, or is he the Unofficial patches person? Ouch sorry if wrong) anyway, trying one of the better visuals system where the pictures look amazing. Think with this card might beable to pull it off. Couldnt do it with a 6800GT or the 1950Pro. Major slide show.

Ref: the cooler.. cant help you.. have no idea.. just think its very stupid to have hot air blowing back into the case... shhesh whos bright idea was that?
Click to expand...

The game does not get any better or harder than this...
http://devnull.devakm.googlepages.com/convergence

As for textures I'm using Qarls QTP3 pack ;)
http://devnull.devakm.googlepages.com/obliviontextureoverhaul

have fun :D
 
Just got my 3850 agp in today, but i havent had a chance to put it in as im in the hospital with the wife and our first child!

hopefully i wont experience any issues as i really only use this puter for racing sims. Ill be sure to report how well it works over the weekend.
 
Excellent NeverLift thanks for the addys... will have to check these out big time

4saken... you have a new baby... best play long and hard before Mother and baby comes home cause after that... your life will end!! do hope you enjoy both new little ones in your life... especially the baby!!
 
I run more than 10000 point with a HD3850 AGP!!!. all done with the Asrock Conroe865PE motherboard. Also the same result if run in agp 4x mode....who say AGP is Past Time??

3dmark0623032008hd3850anl1.jpg


45036838wd0.jpg
 
Arbo1972 said:
I have some great picture's about 3dmark06, how can I upload?

I run more than 10000 point with a HD3850 AGP!!!. all done with the Asrock Conroe865PE motherboard. Also the same result if run in agp 4x mode....who say AGP is Past Time??
Click to expand...

Go here, http://www.imageshack.us/
Upload your screenshots and then use the insert image here at the forums and use the direct link from imageshack.



I sold my 3850 AGP yesterday.
 
i just placed an order on the power color version

here is my spec can someone tell me if my cpu will bottleneck the video card i'm pretty sure it will somewhat

p4 3.2 singcore on p4c800-e 2gig g skill memory may change tho (2.5-3-3-6 2.75v) asus p4c800-e deluxe
 
NismoSkyline said:
i just placed an order on the power color version

here is my spec can someone tell me if my cpu will bottleneck the video card i'm pretty sure it will somewhat

p4 3.2 singcore on p4c800-e 2gig g skill memory may change tho (2.5-3-3-6 2.75v) asus p4c800-e deluxe
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Is your cpu northwood or prescott? You can overclock it a bit.

4saken, Bro congrats on your new born. Where are the cigars?:D
 
under cpu-z says prescott 800 fsb

thax i have no experience of OC and this board has been working great i dont want to take any chances
 
NEVERLIFT said:
I sold my 3850 AGP yesterday.
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Yow, you weren't kidding when you said you were done.

I got mine installed Saturday, and I almost didn't get it in my case. These are l-o-n-g cards. It's working fine with the 8.2 drivers, and is just what the doctor ordered for me, running a 939 X2. I'm always pretty far behind the tech curve, but this card is keeping my hand in until I get an entirely new rig.
 
NismoSkyline said:
i just placed an order on the power color version

here is my spec can someone tell me if my cpu will bottleneck the video card i'm pretty sure it will somewhat

p4 3.2 singcore on p4c800-e 2gig g skill memory may change tho (2.5-3-3-6 2.75v) asus p4c800-e deluxe
Click to expand...

Actually, I think it's more important to ask if you will see an improvement over your prior video card :) My computer is in my sig, and my prior video card was an X850 XT PE. My 3dMark06 score went from 2157 to 4737, an increase of 119%. In Vanguard, I previously had to run on High Performance settings, and now I run on Balanced Settings. I found out there's a lot more to see in Vanguard :)

I originally installed the 8.2 drivers that came on the CD with the Sapphire HD3850 AGP card, and then I installed the 8.3 driver hotfix (the first one, not the one they just released) and CCC over them. While the 8.2 drivers worked flawlessly, I wanted the "Maintain Aspect Ratio" option with the 8.3 drivers. I'm hoping the 8.4 drivers won't require a hotfix to work with the HD3850 AGP card, but in any case the drivers I have now are working.
 
Using 3DMark06 score to compare a non shader 3.0 card with a SM 3.0 card is worthless, because the HDR tests won't run and the card would look ridiculously slower, even a X1600PRO scores slighly higher than the X800XT when that's completely wrong, the X800XT crushes the X1600PRO. You should also overclock that CPU, there's a severe CPU bottleneck there.
 
Just got the card yesterday,so far it's a mixed bag. Maybe I need to test more games. In HL2, it looked amazing. Everything cranked at 1920x1080 6xaa 16xaf. In CoH OP, king tigers says " you only bump 2 settings to ultra and tress on high weeeeee" The performance drops as soon as I start using some aa same res as HL2. I also had a hard crash last night, I guess it must've been the ati 8.3 hotfix I
was using. The 8.2 drivers were more stable clocked at 750/920 with rivatuner fan control on max 100%. With 8.2 drivers it ran aquamark just fine but with 8.3 hotfix it just goes to blank screen. Can you guys enlighten me as to why playing those 1080p trailers at apple's site still uses 100% cpu usage? I'll post some benchies later.

Here are my specs: HTPC
Pentium M [email protected]
OCZ EL 2GB 2-3-3-6
Asus P4C800-E Deluxe
Sapphire HD3850 with 8.3 hotfix
Auzentech X-Plosion
42" Sharp Aqous D64 (The thinest lightest and with slight horizontal banding:D)
 
Turdpike said:
Just got the card yesterday,so far it's a mixed bag. Maybe I need to test more games. In HL2, it looked amazing. Everything cranked at 1920x1080 6xaa 16xaf. In CoH OP, king tigers says " you only bump 2 settings to ultra and tress on high weeeeee" The performance drops as soon as I start using some aa same res as HL2. I also had a hard crash last night, I guess it must've been the ati 8.3 hotfix I
was using. The 8.2 drivers were more stable clocked at 750/920 with rivatuner fan control on max 100%. With 8.2 drivers it ran aquamark just fine but with 8.3 hotfix it just goes to blank screen. Can you guys enlighten me as to why playing those 1080p trailers at apple's site still uses 100% cpu usage? I'll post some benchies later.

Here are my specs: HTPC
Pentium M [email protected]
OCZ EL 2GB 2-3-3-6
Asus P4C800-E Deluxe
Sapphire HD3850 with 8.3 hotfix
Auzentech X-Plosion
42" Sharp Aqous D64 (The thinest lightest and with slight horizontal banding:D)
Click to expand...


The guys over at Driverheaven.net say that with each release since around the the cat 7.10 or 7.12?? that ATi has been removing openGL extensions or messing with and breaking openGL.
I know alot of the openGL benchmarks and demo/tools from say Guru3D.com dont run anymore on the new drivers from ATi or if they do the performance is very bad.
I also know the new cats make it so you can not play WoW in openGL.

As for d3d... I think these hotfixes were rushed and not that stable... alot my games would crash or give a black screen with the 8.3 or 8.4 hotfix.

I no longer own the 3850 AGP thou... so good luck with the drivers.
 
I realy don't know why so much users of this card have trouble with the driver???:(

I did buy this card including the 8.1 driver on the driver cd, it did work without any problem.

....later did uninstal all drivers and try instal the Hotfix driver 11-03-2008 from the site http://www.sapphiretech.com/us/ and work perfectly, after that did install the CCC and AVIVO.

It's stable as a rock..... Sapphire did a realy good job ;)

I now run Halflife, Lost planet, Timeshift, Frontlines (Fuel of War), Stalker, BS area 51, Call of Duty 4, Bioshock, Lost, Unreal, Turning Point on maximum setting!!! Also Crysis will set system specs too High all!!!!!:eek:

Lowest frame rate till now in Crysis is 16fps..... This is very good!

Have to admit that I run with a Dual core E6700 on my Asrock conroe865PE, what make's the big difference. But before I run with a P4 3.2 Northwood On a Asus P4C800 deluxe and run the 3dmark test and get + 4500 points..... now have with the same settings about 10000 points;)


Total investment, € 179,- Sapphire HD3850 AGP. € 49,- Asrock Conroe865PE. € 120,- for the E6700,-...... and can run for another at least 2 years:p

( and please be aware that you install the latest chipset driver, often forgotten and can make much trouble )

With AMD I have no experience, but as I read many time not stable like Intel (sorry!!!)
 
Arbo1972 said:
I realy don't know why so much users of this card have trouble with the driver???:(

I did buy this card including the 8.1 driver on the driver cd, it did work without any problem.

....later did uninstal all drivers and try instal the Hotfix driver 11-03-2008 from the site http://www.sapphiretech.com/us/ and work perfectly, after that did install the CCC and AVIVO.

It's stable as a rock..... Sapphire did a realy good job ;)

I now run Halflife, Lost planet, Timeshift, Frontlines (Fuel of War), Stalker, BS area 51, Call of Duty 4, Bioshock, Lost, Unreal, Turning Point on maximum setting!!! Also Crysis will set system specs too High all!!!!!:eek:

Lowest frame rate till now in Crysis is 16fps..... This is very good!

Have to admit that I run with a Dual core E6700 on my Asrock conroe865PE, what make's the big difference. But before I run with a P4 3.2 Northwood On a Asus P4C800 deluxe and run the 3dmark test and get + 4500 points..... now have with the same settings about 10000 points;)


Total investment, € 179,- Sapphire HD3850 AGP. € 49,- Asrock Conroe865PE. € 120,- for the E6700,-...... and can run for another at least 2 years:p

( and please be aware that you install the latest chipset driver, often forgotten and can make much trouble )

With AMD I have no experience, but as I read many time not stable like Intel (sorry!!!)
Click to expand...

The hotfix from sapphire doesn't install with my setup. Did you overwrite the existing the driver? I've also tried this method and still errors out.
 
sorry speedfrk as far as I know theres no crossfire with agp dont think Ive ever seen any motherboard with two agp slots. So, as to the via 800pro chipset, Ive seen nothing either positive or negative about it. Havent seen anyone screaming about it for sure.. but I cant tell you it will work.. just dont know.

it is interesting in the pic you posted does appear to be a connector.. so dont know if newegg has made an error, as they have done before.. sure is a nice looking card with a better fan system than the Sapphire.. looks like it still has no clear outlet to the outside of the case though ....

interesting to say the least
 
HIS have 2 versions of the HD 3850 AGP. The IceQ version is 2 slots wide and vents outside the case. The one being sold at Newegg is the other one.

I'm running my Sapphire HD 3850 AGP in an Abit AV8. No issues so far. Actually, I'm loving it. I went from an HIS X1650 XT IceQ Turbo, and the difference in graphics detail and speed are, mildly put, significant. I don't know what to compare it to since I've stepped into a new world. I don't have a better rig, so that X1650 XT was the best card I've owned previously.
 
Also, could that be an HDMI cable and not a crossfire cable bundled with the HIS card? The extra adapter is DVI to HDMI, and the card is called the "HDMI" version, and it has that cable in place of an HDTV cable. I've never seen an HDMI connector before, so I can't verify it.
 
speedfrk said:
Man, I'm struggling with whether to get one of these for my x2 939 system or do an entire new system. One question I have is whether these run good on via 800pro chipsets. Also, why would they include a crossfire connector with this card? http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814161225
I've never heard of a crossfire agp board.
Click to expand...

You would be better off getting a mobo that has pci-e and getting a faster videocard.

I thought I would have a hard time selling my agp setup.... but I ended up selling it for $375 (mobo/ram/cpu/videocard).
 
I went back to using the drivers on the cd and so far it has been very smooth with the witcher and cod4 completely max out. I could not get 3dmark03/05 to run as I was benching yesterday. The apps just sit there at their splash screen and would not let me run some benchies.

I left mipmap detail to high quality and af to 16x my casual settings prior to gaming. I just adjust aa ingame if I see jaggies and what not. I did not overclock the gfx card, I left it at 669/829. I thought these cards are clocked at 700/846 by default???

Aquamark (these 2 complements each other on this benchmark)
aquamarksb4.jpg


3DMark01


3DMark03/05/06 Mipmap-HQ AI-Standard AF-16x (700/860) Sapphire Driver CD
3dmarkresultszd4.jpg


CoH


 
sitswithmouse said:
HIS have 2 versions of the HD 3850 AGP. The IceQ version is 2 slots wide and vents outside the case. The one being sold at Newegg is the other one.

I'm running my Sapphire HD 3850 AGP in an Abit AV8. No issues so far. Actually, I'm loving it. I went from an HIS X1650 XT IceQ Turbo, and the difference in graphics detail and speed are, mildly put, significant. I don't know what to compare it to since I've stepped into a new world. I don't have a better rig, so that X1650 XT was the best card I've owned previously.
Click to expand...

What I had seen on another forum is that the card won't run at 8x agp in via chipsets... only at 4x. Good to hear that you are not having any issues. I have a Soltek board and it has been great. Tons of features and stable so I'm pretty happy with it. But I also know that it won't last forever and with prices being low on memory, vid cards and cpu's, it might be time to build a new box...
 
Ive had two Sapphire cards 1950pro and this 3850 the cards are alright other than drivers.. problems that I can see are:

A: a video card that blows hot air into the case instead of out of the case.
B: about the worse customer support of any company that Ive ever done business with in over 40 years.

Hate to say it but Ill never recommend Sapphire. Just for the customer support. I dont know anything about HIS either. So, cant really say a thing about them or their products or how they conduct business.

Over all.. if Nvidia did a new agp card, Id buy one in a heart beat and never look back.. when I do finally move to pci-e Ill for sure return to Nvidia. ATI cards are just too much work.
 
LordVampyre said:
Ive had two Sapphire cards 1950pro and this 3850 the cards are alright other than drivers.. problems that I can see are:

A: a video card that blows hot air into the case instead of out of the case.
B: about the worse customer support of any company that Ive ever done business with in over 40 years.

Hate to say it but Ill never recommend Sapphire. Just for the customer support. I dont know anything about HIS either. So, cant really say a thing about them or their products or how they conduct business.

Over all.. if Nvidia did a new agp card, Id buy one in a heart beat and never look back.. when I do finally move to pci-e Ill for sure return to Nvidia. ATI cards are just too much work.
Click to expand...
It seems like Sapphire and HIS 3850 APG cards are the samething except that I noticed that the HIS card comes with a HDMI adapter and the others not, at least, that's what the package says that includes.
 
isai95 said:
It seems like Sapphire and HIS 3850 APG cards are the samething except that I noticed that the HIS card comes with a HDMI adapter and the others not, at least, that's what the package says that includes.
Click to expand...

Probably true, when speaking of the HIS HDMI flavor. HDMI isn't an issue for me. I'd never use it anyway.

The HIS IceQ must be a bit of a different animal. JellyBelly's 3dmark06 score is running a third again over my scores with the Sapphire card:eek:, and his system is similar (but better) than mine ( I have X2 3800+ Manchester on a 939 AV8). The IceQ is at least 25% more expensive, though. Might be able to tweak a little more out of the HDMI and Sapphire through overclocking...

Oh, and just to confirm for speedfrk, my card's running 8x. :cool:
 
sitswithmouse said:
Probably true, when speaking of the HIS HDMI flavor. HDMI isn't an issue for me. I'd never use it anyway.

The HIS IceQ must be a bit of a different animal. JellyBelly's 3dmark06 score is running a third again over my scores with the Sapphire card:eek:, and his system is similar (but better) than mine ( I have X2 3800+ Manchester on a 939 AV8). The IceQ is at least 25% more expensive, though. Might be able to tweak a little more out of the HDMI and Sapphire through overclocking...

Oh, and just to confirm for speedfrk, my card's running 8x. :cool:
Click to expand...

JellyBelly's score is based on a much better processor than yours hence the high score.
 
isai95 said:
Should I get the Sapphire or the HIS HD 3850 APG card?
Click to expand...

I've got the Sapphire card and haven't had any problems. That being said, a lot of people have said that Sapphire's customer support is pretty bad, but I haven't had to use it. HIS is known for good cards, and especially the IceQ cooler, but you pay extra for that. In the end, I would say get the HIS with the IceQ cooler if the money doesn't matter. If money matters, then look for a lower cost card.
 
AndonSage said:
I've got the Sapphire card and haven't had any problems. That being said, a lot of people have said that Sapphire's customer support is pretty bad, but I haven't had to use it. HIS is known for good cards, and especially the IceQ cooler, but you pay extra for that. In the end, I would say get the HIS with the IceQ cooler if the money doesn't matter. If money matters, then look for a lower cost card.
Click to expand...
Thanks for your info, I'll get the Sapphire since we know it is working fine on your computer. I'd like to get the HDMI adapter than comes in the HIS package but I guess I can always get it somewhere else.
 
pimpdad82 said:
Anybody here know of a good cooling fan for the Saphire 3850 AGP that works?
Click to expand...
Do you want to change the sink also and put a new and quiet fan?
I did that with my old Geforce 6600LE and works fine.. I'm planing on doing the same with the 3850 if it is too noisy.
 
pimpdad82 said:
Anybody here know of a good cooling fan for the Saphire 3850 AGP that works?
Click to expand...

I will post my temps when I recieve the zalman vf900. The cooler on the powercolor version.:D If only my drill bit didn't break. I would've put a socket A heatsink on this beast. I've replaced the tim on this thing and it's still load at 70C with the fan @100% plus it's noisy. I got tired of the crash galore over weekends due to heat related problems.
 
I got my Sapphire HD 3850 AGP today!
Wow, it is a big card and installed just fine, no problems at all. The whole system feels much responsive.
Now I can play COD2 @ 1600 x 1200 beautiful on my humble samsung 214T
This upgrade is going to help me wait for the new socket processors coming for Christmas or next year.
 
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