VNF3-250 not compatible with ATI 9800 Pro?

[somewhere in time]

Originally posted by SimTex:
There are some sort of incompatibility problems with radeon 350-class' graphics cards and VNF3-250, since several users have reportet independent stability problems. Neither Chaintech or ATI have though commented on the problems, so it's still a big question, what the exact problem is

Have u tried the newest beta bios, because if it doesn't work I dont want to mount my VNF3-250 and try again.

Yes, I tried original bios (03/08/2004), and then 04/30/2004 and 07/29/2004. This didn't solve my problem.
In any case, after several days of testing and trial & error (more errors, and then some), it seems that Friday I found where the cause of my stability problems can be.
It seems that the problem is related to an incompatibility between nVIDIA GART drivers for Windows 2000 and Catalyst/Omega SmartGART drivers (Omega 2.5.51 and Catalyst 4.6 tested). Or my AGP bus have some very bad behavior running at default speeds with a chipset of r350 class.
Once disinstalled nVIDIA GART drivers (3.3 and 4.27 priorly tested unsuccessfully), and reinstalled Omega 2.5.51, the stability problems go away.
The only real BAD BAD BAD news is that in this way, AGP is turned off (as reported by Omega SmartGART). Trying to reactivate AGP 1x/2x/4x/8x without nVIDIA GART, seems... futile (my bios options are on AUTO or 4x/8x, but they are ignored).
In any case my system is now stable but have not so great performances. As a matter of fact, my system "stable without GART" with my 9800 pro gets approximatively the same scores of my system "unstable with GART drivers installed" with a 9500. And that, said in a different way, sounds in this way: it is about 50% of optimal performances (it depends on the "load" of bus communications between CPU and GPU).
I'm going to post the same conclusions to Chaintech support as well as ATI support.
Perhaps they can found the real source of the problem and a REAL solution. I don't want to "train" a jogger with a broken leg ;)
I don't know if it is right to post a note even to nVIDIA drivers support.
Thanks for your answer. Bye.

[somewhere in time]

Originally posted by jhatfie:
My 9800 Pro works awesome with my VNF3-250, however my old 9500 Pro would not work with my Shuttle AN50R which is a nForce3-150 based board. My systen would hang in bios with it, but the card worked great in my XP machine.

Please, Could you post your system's HW/SW configurations? In particular, ATI drivers and nVIDIA mobo drivers used. Are you currently running XP? I didn't tried XP. So far, I have tested my system only with w2kSP4.
Thanks in advance. Bye.

[SimTex]

See that isn't easy because i have another motherboard installed right now. But my system was suffering from major 3d application slow down when i was running following setup:
VNF3-250
Radeon9800se (both with and without softmod to pro, but the softmod made the preformance even worse, maybe the lag of communication bandwidth you are talking about cause the problem.)
WinXP SP1 & Win2k SP2 and SP4 - no go with any of the OS.
Tried litteraly all the catalyst drivers (3.8, 3.9, 4.2, 4.5, 4.6 and 4.7)
Using the original nVidia drivers found on the CD-rom don't remeber their version number, will post it later.

[somewhere in time]

Originally posted by SimTex:
See that isn't easy because i have another motherboard installed right now. But my system was suffering from major 3d application slow down when i was running following setup:
VNF3-250
Radeon9800se (both with and without softmod to pro, but the softmod made the preformance even worse, maybe the lag of communication bandwidth you are talking about cause the problem.)
WinXP SP1 & Win2k SP2 and SP4 - no go with any of the OS.
Tried litteraly all the catalyst drivers (3.8, 3.9, 4.2, 4.5, 4.6 and 4.7)
Using the original nVidia drivers found on the CD-rom don't remeber their version number, will post it later.

ok, thanks in any case

[SimTex]

BTW I made a post some weeks ago at PCforums about the problems, because they have a Chaintech tech guy watching that forum. He did reply to the post, but since then i havn't heard a word from him. Hopefully they are working on a fix - but I suspect them for just ignoring the problems.

[Gortok]

Sorry I can't be of more help in this case...
I've never run an ATI card...ever!

From Voodoos to Banshees, 315's to 740's, TNT to GForce4FX. I like to try keeping matching chipsets together...Like a Sis315 on a K7S5A or a GF4 run by a NF2 board...you just kinda KNOW it will work right...ya know? ;)

[SimTex]

Your right Gortok, i wish i havn't bought this ATi card, have never been more statisfied with a GFX card than my old TI4200. Unfortunatly i'm low on money so i'm not able to buy the 6800GT i love :(

[Gortok]

I went by a shop the other day to find a replacement for an OLD S3 Virge 4M PCI card I've been using in one of my folding boxes. I had hoped to find a GF2 or a cheap GF4MX. The guy comes out with a used ATi Radeon7000 64M and wants to charge me US$16 for it. While this is really a good deal, about half price, I had to decline...

I'd rather have a 32M NVidia card ;)

[RayvenX]

Original Radeon/VE (Which is what the 7000 & 7500 are rebadged version of) are better cards, AFAIK than the GF2MX series... You're mad [img]redface.gif[/img]

Does it really make any difference at all if you aren't actually using the machine to play games on what card it has in it? My second monitor is run off a PCI FX5200, which doesn't do the job any better tthan my old Savage4 or GF4MX 420 PCI cards did but has the added advantage of working under WinXP as a second card :D

One can take being a fanboy too far... [img]tongue.gif[/img]

[Gortok]

Originally posted by RayvenX:
Original Radeon/VE (Which is what the 7000 & 7500 are rebadged version of) are better cards, AFAIK than the GF2MX series... You're mad [img]redface.gif[/img]

Probably, but with NF2/3 motherboards all over the house...AND knowing that ATi cards and NVidia boards do not always play nicely....

Does it really make any difference at all if you aren't actually using the machine to play games on what card it has in it?

Yep, especially if I leave it unattended for a week...I'd like to know that when the screen comes out of power saving mode it won't have green, yellow, or purple blotches all over the screen...

One can take being a fanboy too far... [img]tongue.gif[/img]

While this may be true, they also say paranoia can be described as being "hyper aware"...