9700 pro problems with AGP 8x?

[@|?x]

Morning all,

I recently got a 9700 pro which is an amazing card and a worthwhile upgrade
from my old R7000 Vivo, lol...

Anyways, over the weekend I did a clean install and made sure that I
installed the AGP bridge for my motherboard so that I could enable 8X AGP
mode in smartgart.
On previous cards (I had a dodgy 9500 pro before I sent it back) when I
changed the AGP settings after a restart it would always revert to the AGP
speed being "off".

Installing the AGP bridge with teh 9700 seemed to fix that, until I came to
run 3dmark03...
If I have the agp setting on 4x or 8x, after about 30secs on the first
benchmark in 3dmark it freezes up. Funnily enough, if I leave it for a
minute or so it will move onto the next test, but exactly the same thing
happens.
I ran it quickly this morning before work and it got to the 4th test (I
think) and it stopped at 30secs and refused to move on.

Is this a known problem with 3dmark03 and 8x AGP? The games which I'm
running (mostly NFSU2) run perfectly and I've not experienced any other
problems outside of 3dmark.

Has anyone had a similar experience and should I be bothered by it? I'm
assuming that I *SHOULD* be running the card at 8X since both the card and
my motherboard support it?

TIA,

Alex

 

[Michael W. Ryder]

Morning all,

I recently got a 9700 pro which is an amazing card and a worthwhile upgrade
from my old R7000 Vivo, lol...

Anyways, over the weekend I did a clean install and made sure that I
installed the AGP bridge for my motherboard so that I could enable 8X AGP
mode in smartgart.
On previous cards (I had a dodgy 9500 pro before I sent it back) when I
changed the AGP settings after a restart it would always revert to the AGP
speed being "off".

Installing the AGP bridge with teh 9700 seemed to fix that, until I came to
run 3dmark03...
If I have the agp setting on 4x or 8x, after about 30secs on the first
benchmark in 3dmark it freezes up. Funnily enough, if I leave it for a
minute or so it will move onto the next test, but exactly the same thing
happens.
I ran it quickly this morning before work and it got to the 4th test (I
think) and it stopped at 30secs and refused to move on.

Is this a known problem with 3dmark03 and 8x AGP? The games which I'm
running (mostly NFSU2) run perfectly and I've not experienced any other
problems outside of 3dmark.

Has anyone had a similar experience and should I be bothered by it? I'm
assuming that I *SHOULD* be running the card at 8X since both the card and
my motherboard support it?

TIA,

Alex

I am running my 2 1/2 year old 9700 Pro at 8x now and have no problems
with it in 3D Mark 2003. The only time I had problems with the card was
when I first got it and didn't have adequate cooling for it.

 

[@|?x]

I am running my 2 1/2 year old 9700 Pro at 8x now and have no problems
with it in 3D Mark 2003. The only time I had problems with the card was
when I first got it and didn't have adequate cooling for it.

Hiya, thanks for your reply.

What problems did you experience with your card the first time round then?
I've not had any artifacts or checkerboarding on this one in normal usage.
My card's a 3d Prophet 9700 pro with the stock HS/F on it - surely if
they're selling a card designed to be run at 8x then they would supply
adequate cooling as standard?!
My first 9700 pro I had was bought as faulty came with an Arctic Cooler
(badly) fitted and I believe this was why the card gave up the ghost - too
much thermal soo spread all over the GPU and the resisters probably fried
the card. Would you recommend adding one of these as a replacement for the
stock cooling if I'm going to be running at 8x (presumable generates more
heat) or will I be OK and not bother benchmarking as it works good enough
for me as it is?

Thanks again,
Alex

 

[keithdisco]

check fast writes are off this can cause loads of problems
also you might try turning agp bus driving settings up a bit
its in the bios

 

[Michael W. Ryder]

Hiya, thanks for your reply.

What problems did you experience with your card the first time round then?
I've not had any artifacts or checkerboarding on this one in normal usage.
My card's a 3d Prophet 9700 pro with the stock HS/F on it - surely if
they're selling a card designed to be run at 8x then they would supply
adequate cooling as standard?!
My first 9700 pro I had was bought as faulty came with an Arctic Cooler
(badly) fitted and I believe this was why the card gave up the ghost - too
much thermal soo spread all over the GPU and the resisters probably fried
the card. Would you recommend adding one of these as a replacement for the
stock cooling if I'm going to be running at 8x (presumable generates more
heat) or will I be OK and not bother benchmarking as it works good enough
for me as it is?

Thanks again,
Alex

The problems I had was that games like Morrowind would drop to the
desktop. The card was almost too hot to touch. Since I bought the card
right after they were released the only solution I could find was to use
a PCI slot cooler mounted below the card. The air coming out of that
card is noticeably hot when running games but I don't have any more
crashes. The other advantage of this solution was that I didn't have to
worry about voiding the warranty or destroying the card by a
installation fault.