Can I SAFELY use an 8X AGP card in a 2X AGP slot (PIII)?

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There should be no problems, both the card and slot should be keyed to prevent compatability issues, but you MUST check both card and computer manuals to confirm this.
If manuals are missing, Google is a great help in time of need😉
 
You need to qualify your blanket statement Outlander. Here is my card:
r7200board.jpg

It is obviously a 1.5V AGP card, and according to the guide you posted:
On the other hand a 1.5V AGP card is usually backwards compatible with older 2X AGP slots.
Click to expand...

So there's that hurdle crossed. Now, my BIOS supports . . . 64MB, 128MB, 256MB. Is there any further advice you'd like to give me as to the onboard memory? (64/128/256 ?)

fm
 
Your card is not " obviously a 1.5 volt agp card"

If your agp card is x8 is far more likely to be 0.8 volts , and your motherboard is AGP x2 .
It would work if you had an agp x4 MB , but you dont .

Chances are 0.8 volts is not an option that AGP x2 is capable of .Even if you have a 1.5 volt slot it can probably only supply 1.5 or 3.3 volts
 


Once again you are overreaching: The card I have used for years now is a "4X/2X" card. Incidentally, it hasn't quit, I'm only replacing it because AMD are a bunch of jerks and don't fully support the features of my trusty ATI card for the OS I just installed.

But perhaps I need to spell this out for you so there is no ambiguity:
My motherboard has a "2X" slot.
I've used a 4X, AGP-2.0-compatible card in this 2X slot for years.
You yourself just directed me to a site which states it will probably be compatible (since we've verified it uses the 1.5 voltage standard).

The question now becomes whether the options in my BIOS are limiting me in any additional way and I think at this point I'll take my authority from someone else.

fm
 
It depends. Do you have a 2x/1x slot, or a 4x/2x slot? If you have a 2x/1x slot, your out of luck. A 4x/2x slot should work at 4x speeds. You should try to grab the 9700pro (I think the 9800pro will work as well) or any other high end card that has both notches. They were universal, and should work just fine.
 


Fair enough. Let's presume 4/2, since that's the card I've been using with no problems.

:pfff: But I have a real problem going with AMD. You couldn't by chance recommend some company other than AMD? What about some of these other guys -- PNY, Matrox, GeForce, NVidia? It's just very difficult for me to support a company I loathe.

And to think I used to criticize ATI!! I just didn't know how good they really were.

Please -- anyone but AMD. :kaola:

fm
 
The FX5800 I think was also a universal card. It sucked compared to the AMD cards of the day however. (not to mention very hard to find now.) I don't remember if the FX5900 was keyed this way or not.

Look at your motherboard and see where its notched. Do you need it in the front or the back? Once you know that, buy a card with the correct notch.
 


9 year old? 19. >.< I dont know squat about anything older then AGP 8X or in other words its near death.
 


Man oh man did I find a good AGP site!
http://www.playtool.com/pages/agpcompat/agp.html

Talk about getting small with intelligence, I just learned that my Intel 440GX Supermicro PIII motherboard has an "AGP 3.3V UNIVERSAL" slot. That probably explains why my motherboard is so incredibly durable (not to mention tolerant!). It should be, it was damned expensive tsk lol. Seriously, it is an awesome motherboard. SCSI, 5 PCI slots, 2 ISA slots (ahhhhh, stable old ISA). She's just a beauty I tell you. I should also point out that my Supermicro mobo has 7 voltage regulators and so many failsafe controls it's mind boggling. Definitely not a cheap motherboard. I flashed her AMI BIOS in 2001

So, any non-AMD suggestions? They're practically throwing away 4X AGPs right now, so technically I could try a couple. The critical feature is that it must enable monitor rotation. Notice I say "enable." I had this working beautifully under W2K with my Radeon 7200 AGP card . . . and then came AMD. :kaola: Their feckless Catalyst drivers are upgraded for XP Media Center Edition for Radeon 9500-on-up. I guess it was too much for them to include the approximately 3 lines of code necessary to enable Rotate in the older cards for XP MCE.

I may have to buy a new card, but I don't reward the company that just screwed me.

fm
 

I'm sorry, the FX5800 is . . . ? I included a graphic for my current card, above. As you can see, the tabs seat "in the back" if I understand what you're asking.

fm
 



I had no idea you were an expert .

My apologies . I should never have tried to help some one as awesome as your self
 


Please provide the motherboard or chipset and the graphics card you're considering.

AGP 2X chipsets come with 3.3V slots, AGP 8x chipsets come with 1.5V slots, and some AGP 4x chipsets come with AGP Universal slots.

3.3V slots use the front key notch, 1.5V slots use the rear key notch, and Universal slots are unkeyed so they can fit both types of cards.

AGP 8x cards will usually have ONLY the 1.5V notch, so the 3.3V key on the slot prevents the card from going in.

There are a few AGP 8x cards that were 3.3V compatible, the best of these that I've seen based on the Radeon 9700 GPU. That includes classic Radeon 9500's but not the newer 9600-based 95xx.

Here's an article that explains it:

http://www.sysopt.com/tutorials/article.php/3532496
 
If you look at your picture, there are two "notches" in the AGP connector area. One is in the front, the other is farther back. 2x uses a 3.3v signal voltage, 4x uses 1.5v, and 8x used .8v. This doesn't actually power the card, its used to tell the motherboard what card is in there, and what speed it can run at.

If your so anti AMD/Ati, how can you not know of the 5800? It was also called a hair drier or leaf blower. (it ran hot, and was very loud.) Again, the best card you could get is probably the 9700pro. No idea if it supports the rotation feature you mentioned.
 


Most Radeon 9800 cards support 3.3V unofficially. ATI screwed up the description on 9600 cards, and when I made them aware of the mistake they pulled "official" support from all then-current cards. ATI actually (physically) dropped 3.3V support with the shrink in die process from .15 to .13 microns, and made the 9800 series on the older process.

The big question is probably whether or not the PCIe to AGP bridge chips support 3.3V and I'm not even going to investigate. I don't have to, because all he has to do is look at the slot connector.

But if he's like most of the people in here, he probably has an AGP4x slot and doesn't even realize it. That's why I asked about the motherboard/chipset. Most PIII systems used an 8xx series chipset, which is AGP4x generation.
 
Does it matter.. Or you really gonna spend money to upgrade something so old. Get you a 200$ barebone kit, put it together, and have 10x the system. Obviously you're not a gamer.

And agp isn't dieing it is dead. The 3850 is the last card that came out for them. It's all pci-e now. To me that means it's dead as it is nothing but a dead end =).
 
While I wouldn't spend a lot of money on this, I'm sure you can find a cheap AGP card on Craigs list or the like. I've seen 9700pros and ti4200s on mine. Spending $20 for something like that isn't all that out of line. I would not spend $100 for a new card however.

Crash, you don't have to worry about the bridge chip because these are native AGP cards. The x8xx series used AGP to PCIe bridge chips, the first PCIe to AGP chips were used in the x1xxx series as far as I'm aware of. As long as he gets an x8xx or an Nvidia 6xxx, he should be fine. (as for as natvie AGP support goes...)
 

I'm changing the card because the updated drivers do not work. I did try the original ver. 6.11 Catalyst drivers that worked perfectly under W2K, as well. And with each of these driver attempts, I began with fully, completely flushed ATI first.

I live in PORTRAIT mode, so this is genuinely painful for me to have to return to scrolling because XP Media Center Edition and/or AMD (AMD, I suspect) is limiting my widescreen monitor to orient to the equivalent of the Dead Sea Scrolls. I'm in a truly foul temper because of this.

I can purchase PIVOT PRO, but to be on the safe side I think it would be better for me to pick up a new AGP card (or two) while there's still a limited few being produced.

I'm not interested in purchasing used, incidentally. New only.

fm
 


Crashman, now we're getting down to business. As I referenced above, I (fortunately) appear to be blessed with a Universal AGP slot -- not surprising considering how expensive my motherboard was. Supermicro make really, really good products. Also they're local to me (San Jose, CA) and that came in particularly handy when I flashed my BIOS in 2001. I also have aSCSI scanner (not-yet connected) and a USB printer (connected), but here is the basic architecture:

Windows XP Media Center Edition SP3 only* updated this far
2GB RAM
300W "AMD Approved" PSU
INTEL 440GX (256k stepped COPPERMINE) CPUs
SUPERMICRO PIII P6DGU DUAL-PROCESSOR 1000 MHz MOTHERBOARD
SCSI AIC-7890 Ultra2
AMI BIOS
NEC [ANALOG] LCD2470WVX Fully-Pivoting Monitor (a Single-Monitor Setup)
4 HARD DRIVES:
■70 GB Seagate SCSI Cheetah (Operating System)
■178 GB Seagate SCSI Barracuda
■500GB Seagate PATA
■500GB Seagate PATA
NEC DVD RW 3520A
CDWRITER CD RW Rewriteable
ATX 8-Bay Full-Tower Chassis

ATI RADEON 7200
■Graphics Card Manufacturer . . . Built by ATI
■Graphics Chipset . . . RADEON 7200 SERIES
■Device ID . . . 5144
■Vendor . . . 1002
■Subsystem ID . . . 001A
■Subsystem Vendor ID . . . 1002
■Bus Type . . . AGP
■Current Bus Setting . . . AGP 2X
■BIOS Version . . . 001.001.000.060
■BIOS Part Number . . . BK0.0.0 VR001.001.000.060.004.000.001 d4dqx
■BIOS Date . . . 2001/02/26
■Memory Size . . . 64 MB
■Memory Type . . . DDR SGRAM / SDRAM
■Core Clock in MHz . . . 198 MHz
■Memory Clock in MHz . . . 198 MHz
■Primary Display . . . Yes
*because to be perfectly frank, if I can't get my monitor to rotate I'll chuck the whole OS, scrub the drive, and :pfff: reinstall W2K -- something that puts me in a really, really pissed-off frame of mind, as you can well imagine.

fm
 
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