The HD 3850 AGP User Experience

Man guys what a thread, am in sort of a rush, upgrading one my son's comps...and promised to intall full boat Oblivion, with Texture packs, FCOM, body improvements and a mess of mods, Streamline...and man a fairly steep learning curve there...and only a few days to get it all done.

Where are state things at with the 3850 AGP and drivers...need do anything other than install the catalyst 8.9 Hotfix drivers? Use an earlier version?

A Powercolor 3850 AGP is the card going in..had a evga 7800gs co...should be a decent improvement.

Will the current stable ATT 1.3??? work or will I need the 1.5 something beta?

His other hardware: Epox 9NDA3+ (nforce3) AMD 4400+, 2x1024 Mushkin Blue PC3200, Antec 500w (board, drives), Ultra 350w Power Partner (3850 and case fans)

Thanks so much in advance.

I hope this is gonna be easy
 
Thanks man, checked Power Colors site, and they are still at 8.6, over on Sapphire are at 8.8 and on AMD http://support.ati.com/ics/support/default.asp?deptID=894 are 8.9.

So guess the latter is the way to go, just seems been alot of issues with this agp flavor..read a ton of stuff on it, bios alterations, installation ini .inf modifications alot of it old of course, just want to make sure I do what i need to first go.

From what I can tell need the 1.4 or 1.5 beta versions of ATI Tray tool to work with these, just don't care for the CCC end of things.

Hopefully will get some confirmation before I get to the card, getting ready to swap cpus out on his board this afternnon, the uninstall and clean the nvidia drivers...have x1950pro agp, the 3850 one is en route...these guys use the same drivers or are they different..would be cool if I could use the 1950 get things started and just swap in the 3850 when it gets here.

and again thanks
 
i had no luck trying to get ATT to work with my 3850. i had to go through several versions of ATITool before finding one that would allow me to adjust the fan speed and clocks.
 
God_Of_Death said:
i had no luck trying to get ATT to work with my 3850. i had to go through several versions of ATITool before finding one that would allow me to adjust the fan speed and clocks.
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Damn, which version are you using? I tried to adjust core/ mem clocks with ATT for and tried a couple "solutions' that I found on the ATT forum but I still wasn't able to adjust the clocks with ATT. Instead for now I just use rivatuner for manual clock adjustment and then run the ATT artifact tester.
 
Wondering that myself @ ATT version...just downloaded the v1.5.9.1314 Beta , but am a ways from getting to it.

Not really planning on overclocking his card, less can make a profile...am looking for fan speed and other adjustments like AA, AF etc...
 
Just ran across some stuff about the 3850s having issues with the nforce3 chipset? Is this true as his epox is nforce3
 
I found out that the issue occurs when the nForce 3 chipset is used along with a dual core Athlon 64 (Athlon 64 X2), I haven't found which option in the BIOS have to be disabled to fix this issue, is something regarding the AGP and/or the HT Transport, asynchronous something, don't remember what else. Or placing a single core CPU there.
 
DeadSkull said:
Damn, which version are you using? I tried to adjust core/ mem clocks with ATT for and tried a couple "solutions' that I found on the ATT forum but I still wasn't able to adjust the clocks with ATT. Instead for now I just use rivatuner for manual clock adjustment and then run the ATT artifact tester.
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i found version 1.4.7.1193 to work with the 8.7 drivers. i don't use the CCC panel btw.


EDIT: i won't be updating the drivers until i reformat later this week.
 
I'm thinking of getting this card... which manufacturer seems to have the least problems with drivers (running Vista btw)?

Sapphire vs PowerCooler vs HIS

And why is sapphire selling for like $20 more than the other cards on Newegg? Is it overclocked or something?
 
da233 said:
I'm thinking of getting this card... which manufacturer seems to have the least problems with drivers (running Vista btw)?

Sapphire vs PowerCooler vs HIS

And why is sapphire selling for like $20 more than the other cards on Newegg? Is it overclocked or something?
Click to expand...

i noticed that too and i also noticed that it goes out of stock more often too. i guess they think that its popular so they want to make extra money off it.
 
Probably brand recognition and reputation. I see you went with Sapphire yourself GoD
 
BTW, I notice the 3850's seem to have pcie power connector. Most seem to include an adapter to a traditional 4 pin molex. My PSU is a old Antec 550 TruPower. Any reason this PSU would not work for a 3850. I don't think I have pcie connectors. I suppose there are adapters out there though huh. Or does the adapter take care of that for me and all I need is a free 4 pin molex
 
evolucion8 said:
Ok, you are lucky since I still had the modified BIOS for the ICeQ with the ATi DeviceID and the fan settings fixed, download Winflash 2.0.1.2 and give me your email so I can send you the BIOS, once you got everything, open Winflash with Administrator Rights (On Vista) and then look for the BIOS file and click flash, and that's it, but before rebooting make sure to remove all ATi Software so you can reboot without issues, also download the latest official drivers for the HD 3850. This BIOS will clock your card at HD 3870 stock speed except RAM which will run at 1.94GHz and the fan speed is increased slighly to improve it's cooling performance, the overdrive feature will not work after this but you can use other utilities like ATi Tool etc, and GPU-Z or Rivatuner to monitor the GPU usage.
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Hi there evolucion8,

I read your reply on the modified BIOS for the ICeQ and was hoping you wouldnt mind emailing this to me. im having problems with this card which runs fine alot of the time but also gives me a bit of grief alot of the time when playing crysis. i get major lock ups and humming and have to reset which is a pain when youre just getting into the game.

if you could email me the BIOS and how to update the BIOS on the card it would be much appreciated.

cheers,

darron

[email protected]
 
Is it the unlocked bios for agp?
btw has anyone here been successful in having a stable core clock past 863?
 
No, that's the BIOS I modified to solve the issues with the HIS ICEQ 3 version. I don't know of this works but did you try modifying your original BIOS with RBE? You can increase your VCore and GPU clocks in the Tabs, unless if it's hardwired or something like that, it should work.
 
So I want to place my order today guys.
As much I like and want the 3850 I sort of wonder if my little old Barton AXP will be enough to power it. Also I might be able to step into a x1950pro for like $55. Is the 3850 too much card for a old Barton running say 200x11; 2.2Ghz? I used to OC this cpu and it can go over 2.5Ghz but now I have a silent set-up. I got 2GB of ddr400 as well.

So what's the verdict based on my system: $55 for the x1950pro or ~$130 for the 3850?
 
GonzoP said:
So I want to place my order today guys.
As much I like and want the 3850 I sort of wonder if my little old Barton AXP will be enough to power it. Also I might be able to step into a x1950pro for like $55. Is the 3850 too much card for a old Barton running say 200x11; 2.2Ghz? I used to OC this cpu and it can go over 2.5Ghz but now I have a silent set-up. I got 2GB of ddr400 as well.

So what's the verdict based on my system: $55 for the x1950pro or ~$130 for the 3850?
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If you are using 1280 x1024 or lesser resolutions, with your setup I would recommend the 1950 Pro, provided you can find one that has been "gently" used. The downside...if it croaks, you've lost $55 because ATI branded card warranties are not transferable. The 3850 would be significantly bottlenecked by your cpu, although it would allow you to turn up eye candy and of course provide some measue of warranty protection. You'll also need a decent, quality power supply for either, of 450 watts or greater.
 
Haven't seen em on newegg but I wouldn't get that card anyways. Look at that mem clock, that is some really low clocked gddr3 (700) if 1400 is effective mem speed.

Found it.
 
They're doing the same bad practice as GeCube, putting slower RAM modules on fast GPU's, GeCube also did the same with my old X1950XT AGP. At least the Visiontek and Gecube kept using GDDR3 with their current HD 3850 AGP cards and the GeCube X1950XT AGP, but heck, my videocard's RAM Speed can reach 2GHz easily, 600MHz slower is not cool.
 
evolucion8 said:
They're doing the same bad practice as GeCube, putting slower RAM modules on fast GPU's, GeCube also did the same with my old X1950XT AGP. At least the Visiontek and Gecube kept using GDDR3 with their current HD 3850 AGP cards and the GeCube X1950XT AGP, but heck, my videocard's RAM Speed can reach 2GHz easily, 600MHz slower is not cool.
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Ditto on the slow RAM modules...and the HSF looks real "retro"...and the price, LOL! It looks like this card was put out more as an "after thought", rather than a real contender.
 
Ejay said:
If you are using 1280 x1024 or lesser resolutions, with your setup I would recommend the 1950 Pro, provided you can find one that has been "gently" used. The downside...if it croaks, you've lost $55 because ATI branded card warranties are not transferable. The 3850 would be significantly bottlenecked by your cpu, although it would allow you to turn up eye candy and of course provide some measue of warranty protection. You'll also need a decent, quality power supply for either, of 450 watts or greater.
Click to expand...

Yeah I got an Antec True Power 550w. But I think the 12V is only like 24Amps. Still I think it should be ok. It powers my current 7600GT thru 1 4pin molex and my 12v rail is consistly 11.92-11.98v.

I could crank the ole Barton up to 2.5Ghz which would slightly eleviate the bottleneck but yes I know the 3850 is overkill. I currently use exactly 1280x1024. The x1950Pro is from a fairly trusted guy here on [H]. He claims he didn't OC it either so I hope it would last the final year I'd be running this set-up
 
Hey evolution would you mind testing out your mem limits past 1000Mhz through ati tool? I think that HIS 3850 Turbo agps come with higher binned memory thus allowing higher oc but I'm not sure. Is 1000Mhz the max artifact free oc on your memory or can you go higher?
Thanks
 
Does anyone else here with Vista have an issue where your dxdiag and display settings are showing the name of your previous video card instead of HD 3850?
 
da233 said:
I'm thinking of getting this card... which manufacturer seems to have the least problems with drivers (running Vista btw)?

Sapphire vs PowerCooler vs HIS

And why is sapphire selling for like $20 more than the other cards on Newegg? Is it overclocked or something?
Click to expand...

After doing a ton of research it seems like the Sapphire AGP cards are the most trouble free brand in terms of general compatibility with other hardware and driver sets. I read a lot of issues with the PowerColor cards specifically with VIA chipsets and the like.

I think people go Sapphire to get the most trouble free card possible, given that any of the 3850s have the chance to have issues (given they're not officially supported configs by AMD)
 
I'm curious as well with the brand selection. I was leaning towards the PowerColor myself because it was cheapest and seemed to have a better stock cooler than the Sapphire. Certainly it seems more [H] guys than not have the Sapphire compared with all other brands. I wonder if it truly makes any difference.
What do the vets think?
 
dont know how Power Color customer service is.. but I do know for a fact that sapphire's SUCKS
 
LV I knew you hated their CS but how is the actual card itself. I'm primarily interested in the card. As these days driver issues seem to be less than months ago
 
Just download the agp drivers of the sapphire site and avoid the ones on the cd and you should be good.
 
DeadSkull said:
Hey evolution would you mind testing out your mem limits past 1000Mhz through ati tool? I think that HIS 3850 Turbo agps come with higher binned memory thus allowing higher oc but I'm not sure. Is 1000Mhz the max artifact free oc on your memory or can you go higher?
Thanks
Click to expand...
I also have HIS IceQ3 card and can push memory to 2.1GHz stable. Games like Call Of Juarez or Just Cause run perfectly even with 2.2GHz on mem, but on the other hand card can't pass 3DMark06 or run Prey 100% stable. The thing I'm not very happy with is that I cannot increase GPU voltage through BIOS, but card runs stable at 825MHz with default voltage.
 
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.
 
If your motherboard uses the nForce 3 chipset, definitively you will have issues, don't know if Sapphire version has them, but AFAIK HIS and Powercolor does. The performance difference is outstanding, the 7900GT in current games is slower than the X1950PRO and the HD 3850 is much faster than both. Try to check in forums in the net if the Sapphire version is the card for you.

[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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