ASUS A8N-SLI and newer ATI card compatability

[FredP]

I have a 3 yr old Asus board(939) running with an AMD 64 X2 4800. The
video card is an X1900XT. Starting to see failures due to heat or just
plain old can't keep up graphically. I'm sure this is a silly question to
some but can I replace my card with any of the newer ATI cards(ie; 4xxxx)?
I know I wouldn't be able to take advantage of the card fully due to the age
of my other system components.
TIA. _Fred

 

[Craig Coope]

I have a 3 yr old Asus board(939) running with an AMD 64 X2 4800. The
video card is an X1900XT. Starting to see failures due to heat or just
plain old can't keep up graphically. I'm sure this is a silly question to
some but can I replace my card with any of the newer ATI cards(ie; 4xxxx)?
I know I wouldn't be able to take advantage of the card fully due to the age
of my other system components.
TIA. _Fred

Yes you can as long as it's compatible....You say your old card is
failing...Have you taken it out and got rid of all the dust?...Maybe
it's just clogged up.

If you do change cards make sure you uninstall your old drivers before
you install your new ones.

 

[FredP]

Yes you can as long as it's compatible....You say your old card is
failing...Have you taken it out and got rid of all the dust?...Maybe
it's just clogged up.

If you do change cards make sure you uninstall your old drivers before
you install your new ones.

First thing I did when the card started to have problems was to get rid of
the dust. It did lower the temp(card) some but the failures(artifacts,
sparkling but no BSOD). Also lowered graphic setting. BTW, replaying a
relatively old game of Bioshock. Thanks for the advice.
_Fred

 

[FredP]

There's a distinct and visible difference between hardware failure and
slow speed. What are the symptoms? Frequent crashes? Or are you seeing
artifacts like popping pixels, random polygon flashing, strange patterns
on textures, etc.?

Yes... screen becomes unusable. Sound is good. No hard crashes. I did
clean the PC and it lowered the temp, but just a few degrees. Replaying a
fav, Bioshock. Settings 1024/768. Medium graphics.. I remember the first
time I played it some glitches with graphics but not this severe.

The default fan speed schedule on the X1900XT runs the fan too slowly. I
remember my X1900XT hitting 110 deg C after a few hours of Doom 3, causing
flashing polygons and things. Manually forcing the fan to a higher speed
dropped the temps to about 90 C, and the artifacts didn't appear again. If
you haven't done so already, run the fan at a higher speed with Rivatuner
or some other utility. It will sound like a leafblower (fan probably works
on the same principle...) but it will give proper cooling.

Doesn't take long before the fan kicks in. When I save a game(going out of
3D) it shuts down. As a result I do a lot of saves!. Thats OK... I'm a
tad bit ancient these days. )
I'm going to play the game to its conclusion(almost at end anyway) and then
just decide my options.. Thanks for your input.

 

[rms]

I have a 3 yr old Asus board(939) running with an AMD 64 X2 4800. The

video card is an X1900XT. ...can I replace my card with any of the newer
ATI cards(ie; 4xxxx)?

I'm running the K8N-SLI with a 4870 1gb, and a oc'd dualcore 939
opteron, and am very happy. When doing this a concern is the power supply,
a good one of at least 430w or so is needed. If you have booting issues of
any sort after the upgrade consider psu replacement also, preferably a '80
plus certified' model.

rms

 

[FredP]

I'm running the K8N-SLI with a 4870 1gb, and a oc'd dualcore 939
opteron, and am very happy. When doing this a concern is the power
supply, a good one of at least 430w or so is needed. If you have booting
issues of any sort after the upgrade consider psu replacement also,
preferably a '80 plus certified' model.

rms

Been using an Antec Sonata II with 450PS. Rock solid. Thanks for your
input.
_Fred