AGP Upgrade

Toggle sidebar Toggle sidebar
G

gas

Distinguished
Dec 25, 2004
12
0
18,510
Dear all,

I wonder if any kind soul would take a minute to help me out here.

I have a problem with my graphics card (x800 pro). I am continually suffering from strange graphical glitches....texture problems. After days of trying to solve the problem I think my card is just burn't out. I've never overclocked but think my card has been over used and is a year and half old. So, as I can't find a solution for this I think a new card might be in order....so

I have done a little research but have ended up rather confused
Which card should I upgrade to from here?

Should I stick with AGP or go to PCI....I really don't fully understand the potential gain from upgrading to PCI as I have no idea what it would involve.

AMD 64 3400+

I have tried to work out which motherboard I have using device manager but without luck....any ideas how to identify my motherboard as I know this would help.

Sorry to be slow on this subject....would really appreciate a helping hand.

Many thanks.
 
your x800 could just be overheating... what sorta cooling have you in your case ie case fans, good airflow... how does it run if you leave the side off your case ??

its PCI-E, & most new cards that are coming out will not be made available soon (if at all) on AGP platforms

it would depend on what you have exactely to what you would have to change... mebbie just the board & graphics card... i had to swap out the CPU, board & graphics card..

to id your board, have a look at the exposed chips on your board using you mark 1 eyeballs & see what the chips say...
 
thanks for the reply...

I've been running my pc with the side of the case off and it didn't make a difference...still glitches when playing most games.

There is x1 fan on my pc....maybe need 2? Again, I'm a bit of a idiot when it comes to these things.

OK, my board = K8V SE Deuxe. Hope that's correct. 😳

Any ideas what I'd need to swap to upgrade to PCI-E?
Would it be worth it?
To be honest I just want a slight upgrade on the visuals as I run without AA and AF on. Probably cause I don't know what I'm doing but originally I turned these features off because of a stuttering problem I had with games.

Also, just want to get rid of those annoying problems....most of the time these gltiches appear in the sky...weird.

Wouldn't mind just changing the graphics card if I could get away with it but would consider more drastic changes if it was worth it.

What's the best way to check the card temp and work out if the temp is ok?


Many thanks again.
 
Dear all,

I wonder if any kind soul would take a minute to help me out here.

I have a problem with my graphics card (x800 pro). I am continually suffering from strange graphical glitches....texture problems. After days of trying to solve the problem I think my card is just burn't out. I've never overclocked but think my card has been over used and is a year and half old. So, as I can't find a solution for this I think a new card might be in order....so

I have done a little research but have ended up rather confused
Which card should I upgrade to from here?

Should I stick with AGP or go to PCI....I really don't fully understand the potential gain from upgrading to PCI as I have no idea what it would involve.

AMD 64 3400+

I have tried to work out which motherboard I have using device manager but without luck....any ideas how to identify my motherboard as I know this would help.

Sorry to be slow on this subject....would really appreciate a helping hand.

Many thanks.
Click to expand...

Like the dude above me said, its either overheating or, a driver related issue.

Also, as to your question regarding an AGP to PCI (PCI-E) upgrade: It would be rather a wise choice to upgrade, PCI-E is now the graphics slot of choice for major GPU manufacturers. AGP cards are slowly being phased out and many of the new nVidia and ATI models are PCI-E only (7800 GT, 7800 GTX, 7900, etc.).

Buy a PCI-E mobo, and a PCI-E card such as a 7900 GT or X1800 and you shall be in gaming bliss!
 
Again, thanks for the replies.

I'm thinking of just upgrading to PCI-E as I can't solve this texure problem.
- I did use a driver cleaner when installing the new drivers.
- I have no idea how to check card temps. Where do I look?


So, if I want to change from an AGP set up to a PCI-E...

- I need to change my K8V SE Deuxe motherboard to a PCI-E motherboard. Any suggestions which one?
- Change the graphics card over to PCI-E
-Is my Athlon 3400+ still usable with a PCI-E motherboard?
- Anything else need changing....power supply

Thanks a million
😀
 
Yes, your 3400 can be used with a pci-e board. I'm guessing 754 pin? If so, there's not a huge selection of boards but newegg has a few.
 
Yes, your 3400 can be used with a pci-e board. I'm guessing 754 pin? If so, there's not a huge selection of boards but newegg has a few.
Click to expand...


sorry to be a dumbass but how do I work out how many pins my processor has...eye balling it or in windows for example.

Many thanks.
 
I looked up your mobo on the asus website and yes your it is 754 pin. Before replacing your mobo I would make sure your running the latest ATI cat drivers. Also you may want to find and download ATI tool (I think thats the name can't remember its early here). The tool let you OC your card however you can use it to see how hot your card is running and you maybe able to declock your card to see if that solves the problem ( not 100% sure on declock never had to reduce the stock speed of a card before).
 
ok....back to this.

Thanks for all the help again.

I really want to go down the PCI-E route but need some direction. So if I put my specs down below would any of you be willing to help me out? Been reading about the future of proccessors and that has confussed me more...is my cpu ok for now? Just looking to upgrade my system a little.

Would really appreciate any input.

Athlon 64 3400+ - 754 pin (no idea what that means)
Radeon x800 pro
K8V SE Deuxe motherboard
1g ram - what's the best way to check what type of ram I have?

Can you recommend me the best upgrade route?
Motherboard suggestion.
More ram?
Graphics card?? - 7900 GT or X1800..are these the best choices??

Many thanks.
😀
 
Those links don't really work for me. But I would say that a 7900 GT beats a 7800 GTX. Expecially in current titles, since (almost?) none use more then 256mb of video memory, even with all features enabled, 4xaa 16x af, etc. Or whatever either of these 3 cards in question can handle.

By the time a game comes out that requires 512 mb of video memory, an X1800XT 512 or a 7800 GTX 512 will not be able to turn on enough effects and have high enough resolution to use that much memory. Comparable to a 6800 512 mb today, even 6800 256.
 
I have the same motherboard and it did a similar thing with my 9800 xt
Are you getting little white pixels appear, these are artifacts I had them and mine was overheating.
Check the temperature of your graphics card with ATI tool (i think it does that) mine was overheating.
I declocked (reduced the speed of it) it with ati tool (its very easy to use).
And the artifacts went away.
Then I got a new cooler for it and it works fine now, so you maybe wanna try that first before buying a new card and motherboard.

But... If you want to move up to pci-e as im about to do get a EPoX EP-8NPAJ Iv heard good things about them and they seem pretty reliable.
Theres a SLI version too if your feeling fly aswell and it fits your CPU its socket 754 right? If you decide to get another one make sure its socket 754 otherwise it wont work.

Hope that helps
 
I suggest you remove the videocard and see if the heatsink is making proper contact with the graphics processor before taking any more steps.

That could solve your whole problem... and it costs you nothing to reseat the heatsink.

If you're taking at apart anyway, you could get rid of the crappy thermal paste and put some Arctic Silver thermal paste on it, too.
 
Oh and to check your ram theres an easy way (you seem pretty new to all this) Crucial have got a Memory Advisor Tool at there web site some of the others might too and it searches your computer for you and recommends ram thats compatible and tells you what it is.
 
They work for me...

But it puts you back on page one, you have to use the < or > button on bottom to toggle through article to get to the benchmarks...

Here you go... ya gotta translate text yourselves with these links, but they take you to every benchmark page...

Here are some benchmarks showing the X1800XT at max resolutions and settings beating a 7800GTX 512MB...
Now ask yourself, does a 7900GT beat a 7800GTX 512MB card?

This one...



This one...



This one...



This one...



This one...


This one...


This one...


This one...
 
Those links don't really work for me. But I would say that a 7900 GT beats a 7800 GTX. Expecially in current titles, since (almost?) none use more then 256mb of video memory, even with all features enabled, 4xaa 16x af, etc. Or whatever either of these 3 cards in question can handle.

By the time a game comes out that requires 512 mb of video memory, an X1800XT 512 or a 7800 GTX 512 will not be able to turn on enough effects and have high enough resolution to use that much memory. Comparable to a 6800 512 mb today, even 6800 256.
Click to expand...
But a 512MB 7800GTX easily beats a 7900GT. remember, for the 7800GTX's the 512MB ones are clocked so much higher than the 256MB ones; that's the reason for the performance increase, not the 512MB ram.

7900GTX 512MB>7800GTX 512MB>7900GT>7800GTX 256MB>7800GT
 
thank you all for your valuable input.
I'll try and work it out in my head and get back to you.

😀
 
An AGP solution will be the GForce 7800GS ...
i almost got the same machine as you and with that card, i can play F.E.A.R at 1024x768 32bits with everything at max and i peak 125fps and average is 80-90fps. So if it can handle F.E.A.R like that, it won't be scare of other games 😛 If you want to wait a bit more for PCI-X like me, go for the 7800GS.
Don't forget that new Socket CPU is on the way... that's why i didn't upgrade to PCI-X right now.. i wanna see first what's coming.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Latest posts

Moderators online

Share this page

COMPANY
RESOURCES
FOLLOW
Top Bottom