PCI and Catalyst

[Darren Garrison]

Relating to my earlier questions on the list, are there ANY PCI (not PCI
Express) ATI cards supported in the newest Catalyst drivers? I'm wanting a PCI
card to use for a second monitor, alongside my current AGP card. My motherboard
is an old Tyan A7N8X Deluxe that I'm not wanting to upgrade any time soon (the
Athlon XP in it is good enough for my uses). I've been doing some of my own
homework, looking for cards on Ebay, then plugging the models of the PCI (not
Express) ones I find into the ATI driver page, but so far no luck.

 

[Augustus]

Relating to my earlier questions on the list, are there ANY PCI (not PCI
Express) ATI cards supported in the newest Catalyst drivers? I'm wanting
a PCI
card to use for a second monitor, alongside my current AGP card. My
motherboard
is an old Tyan A7N8X Deluxe that I'm not wanting to upgrade any time soon
(the
Athlon XP in it is good enough for my uses). I've been doing some of my
own
homework, looking for cards on Ebay, then plugging the models of the PCI
(not
Express) ones I find into the ATI driver page, but so far no luck.

Radeon HD2400 Pro in PCI (not PCI Express)

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=3592044&CatId=1603

 

[Darren Garrison]

If this is related to the other post, why do you need the latest drivers?
Catalyst 6.5 was an X1900-era driver (back when they had "Chuck" patches for
the game Oblivion), two card generations after the 9700 Pro. Catalyst 6.5
should be modern enough for your primary video card.

I don't know if I do need the latest drivers-- I'm running version 8.3 right
now. As long as it can run the way I want (one monitor in portrait, one in
landscape) and at the right resolutions older drivers would probably be fine. I
play no games at all, but I do use Alias|Wavefront/Autodesk Maya, so as long as
it preforms well displaying that, older drivers would be okay.

 

[Darren Garrison]

If this is related to the other post, why do you need the latest drivers?
Catalyst 6.5 was an X1900-era driver (back when they had "Chuck" patches for
the game Oblivion), two card generations after the 9700 Pro. Catalyst 6.5
should be modern enough for your primary video card.

Also, I've found that I almost NEVER use the video inputs on my AIW-- so I'd
even concider dumping it for one of the AGP older dual-monitor cards like I see
on Ebay-- that seem to work only with the older drivers-- if that'll serve my
purpose.

 

[Darren Garrison]

Well, for the millions of you waiting with baited breath to find out my video
card solution, I decided to pull the AIW 9700 Pro (which, as I mentioned, I
never use the tuner on anyway) and ordered this AGP card to replace it:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=350088791955

http://hothardware.com/Articles/ATI_RADEON_9250/

http://www.pcstats.com/articleview.cfm?articleID=1638

It'll allow me to have dual monitors without having two video cards. Plus, I
really like the fanless design. (About 4 years in, the fan on my 9700 Pro
died-- it actually worked fanless in 2D work, but once I fired up anything
demanding 3D, the system would freeze. Rather than look for a new "proper" fan
for it, I just balanced a spare case fan on some cables just below the GPU,
blowing towards it. That worked. I'm cheap, but innovative).

It appears to be a bottom-end card for it's 2004 release, but that probably puts
it at least on par with my 9700 Pro, which was top end but in 2001.

Thanks to everyone who took the time to help me with my creeking antiques.