ASUS/graphics compatibility

[Syke]

Will the ASUS A7V m/b be compatible with an ATI Radeon 9200se graphics card?
(Win 98se)


Regards and thanks in advance


PJM

 

[Paul]

Will the ASUS A7V m/b be compatible with an ATI Radeon 9200se graphics card?
(Win 98se)


Regards and thanks in advance


PJM

The A7V motherboard (takes an AthlonXP S462) has a AGP 4X slot.
When you look at the picture of the motherboard in the downloadable
manual, there are no plastic keys inserted in the middle of the
AGP slot. While your exact card choice isn't listed here,
I suspect a 9200SE is just a 9200 which is using only have the
memory interface, so the AGP slot issues don't change. Your case
corresponds to picture (f) at the bottom of the page.

http://mirror.ati.com/support/faq/agpchart.html

The other support page I know of, is here. The 9200 looks
pretty universal, and seems to support everything.

http://www.ati.com/support/agpchart/agp.html

I hope you've visited tomshardware or anandtech and
read some benchmarks for the card. Tomshardware has a
number of jumbo video card benchmarks, comparing many
cards, and you can find out what to expect from the
9200SE there. There are some links at the bottom
of this page:

http://graphics.tomshardware.com/graphic/20041222/vga_charts-09.html

HTH,
Paul

 

[Syke]

The A7V motherboard (takes an AthlonXP S462) has a AGP 4X slot.
When you look at the picture of the motherboard in the downloadable
manual, there are no plastic keys inserted in the middle of the
AGP slot. While your exact card choice isn't listed here,
I suspect a 9200SE is just a 9200 which is using only have the
memory interface, so the AGP slot issues don't change. Your case
corresponds to picture (f) at the bottom of the page.

http://mirror.ati.com/support/faq/agpchart.html

The other support page I know of, is here. The 9200 looks
pretty universal, and seems to support everything.

http://www.ati.com/support/agpchart/agp.html

I hope you've visited tomshardware or anandtech and
read some benchmarks for the card. Tomshardware has a
number of jumbo video card benchmarks, comparing many
cards, and you can find out what to expect from the
9200SE there. There are some links at the bottom
of this page:

http://graphics.tomshardware.com/graphic/20041222/vga_charts-09.html

HTH,
Paul

Thanks for taking the time Paul. To be honest, I will be looking to replace
my system sometime next year, so I don't want to spend too much on my
present setup. The Radeon 8500le I'm using at present performs quite well
given the rest of the specs:

Win 98se
Athlon 900
Radeon 8500le
512 mb RAM
DirectX 9

I've recently been getting artefacts when I play flight sims and, less
often, on the Desktop, and suspect the video card. That's the only reason
I'm looking to change my card. I would be quite happy to just install
another 8500le but they don't seem to be available (UK) so I thought the
9200se might be a suitable replacement. I'm a bir of a newbie when it comes
to this area.

Regards


Pat Macguire

 

[Paul]

Thanks for taking the time Paul. To be honest, I will be looking to replace
my system sometime next year, so I don't want to spend too much on my
present setup. The Radeon 8500le I'm using at present performs quite well
given the rest of the specs:

Win 98se
Athlon 900
Radeon 8500le
512 mb RAM
DirectX 9

I've recently been getting artefacts when I play flight sims and, less
often, on the Desktop, and suspect the video card. That's the only reason
I'm looking to change my card. I would be quite happy to just install
another 8500le but they don't seem to be available (UK) so I thought the
9200se might be a suitable replacement. I'm a bir of a newbie when it comes
to this area.

Regards


Pat Macguire

That card could be in the same ballpark as your 8500le. I don't
remember all the "re-branding" the video card makers do, and
in some cases, they just change the number and reissue the product.

This chart shows the 8500 has 4x2 pipes, while the 9200 has 4x1
(whatever that means). Both have hardware support for DirectX 8.1.

http://graphics.tomshardware.com/graphic/20031229/index.html

Before you toss out the 8500le, pull the card and have a look
at the heatsink on the GPU. Maybe the heatsink isn't making
good contact, and the GPU is overheating. You have to be very
careful when playing with the heatsink, as some of these GPUs
have a bare die, like the Athlon. Sometimes there is an
thermal pad that is glued between heatsink and GPU, and that
can make it a challenge to take the assembly apart. (Gentle
heat can make the adhesive easier to deal with.) The other
challenge, is finding a good thermal compound to use on the
assembly, or even a replacement heatsink, if the design of
the heatsink is a bad one. There shouldn't be a problem
with using a tiny dot of thermal grease on the die, but if
the chip has a lot of caps and the like on top of it,
you don't want to get any thermal grease on any
components up there.

Another source of corruption, can be bad RAM on the video
card, but that is not something a user can fix.

Depending on the maker of the card, there could be a warranty,
but some of these companies have next to no presence in the
real world (presumably so they can dodge their responsibilities
when the warranty is really needed).

Paul