Help - installing ATI 9800 Pro

[Bryson]

I am about to install a 9800 pro, upgrading from a GF2 and format using WinXP + SP2. According to the video card's online manual I need to install AGP drivers for the chipset. I don't see any AGP device drivers listed in the device manager list. Does that mean that I have to manually download and install them?

Secondly, according to the manual of my abit VA-20 motherboard, it says that it does not support 3.3v agp videocards, only 1.5v and 0.8v cards. Please tell me that the 9800Pro is not a 3.3v video card!

 

[junkyardDawg]

if possible download the latest drivers from VIA, if not use the ones on your motherboards CD. either one will install the agp drivers

 

[Conky]

If your old card was working the AGP drivers are installed already. Voltage and all that is ok too.

Turn off, install the card, turn on, run Driver Cleaner3 according to it's read-me file, and install new latest drivers from ati.com. Then be amazed... that is a nice upgrade you are making. :beer:

 

[hans030390]

Download Driver Cleaner, download ATI driversuninstall current video drivers, Turn off your computer, take out the old card, put in the new one, BOOT IN SAFE MODE (!), run driver cleaner (to clear out old driver stuff), install the ATI drivers, restart computer in normal mode

enjoy it's really a pretty easy thing to do

 

[Bryson]

Indeed it is! I can't wait to install this bad boy! Wuzzah!

It's been quite awhile(as you can tell lol) since I've kept up with the cutting edge PC hardware. After some searching I was pretty confident that the card runs at 1.5v. So which of the new cards run at 3.3v?

Now my main priority is stability with perfomance second. Question is will installing the latest via drivers make my system faster? Also, what AGP Mode should I run(4x/8x)? And what about AGP aperature?

Thanks for the responses so far. I am about to reformat so if you don't hear from me it's cuz things didn't go so well lol. Guess it's time to go open the rest of my gifts with the family while my PC reformats.

Merry Christmas all!

 

[Conky]

Originally posted by: Bryson
Indeed it is! I can't wait to install this bad boy! Wuzzah!

It's been quite awhile(as you can tell lol) since I've kept up with the cutting edge PC hardware. After some searching I was pretty confident that the card runs at 1.5v. So which of the new cards run at 3.3v?

Now my main priority is stability with perfomance second. Question is will installing the latest via drivers make my system faster? Also, what AGP Mode should I run(4x/8x)? And what about AGP aperature?

Thanks for the responses so far. I am about to reformat so if you don't hear from me it's cuz things didn't go so well lol. Guess it's time to go open the rest of my gifts with the family while my PC reformats.

Merry Christmas all!

I don't know about which card works with which voltage but I know the GF2 and the 9800Pro use the same voltage so whatever.

Use the highest AGP mode possible.

And set the AGP to half of whatever the card is so 64mb assuming it's a 128mb card. If this is wrong someone can correct me but it has always worked best for me.

And if you are gonna reformat(not necessary just for a videocard upgrade) then yes you will need to have mobo drivers handy. Good luck with that.

 

[Munky]

3.3v was the old AGP slot. I'm not sure how old it is or what's the oldest card that supports it, but you definitely dont want to stick a 1.5v card into a 3.3v slot. Find out for sure which kind of AGP slot your board has.

 

[winr]

Merry Christmas Bryson and all the rest of AT.

You will like the 9800 PRO a lot more than than the GF2.

 

[imported_Militiagoat]

Win XP installs the via chipset drivers when it is installed (including the agp controller driver). Microsoft recommends using the via version on the xp cd just as it installs, dont mess with it. Most with a 128 meg vidcard use a aperture of 128. The 9800P will work just fine in your system. Don't forget to connect the power connector on the video card.

 

[mwmorph]

if yuo go to your motherboard manufacturers website or chipset makers website(for example, mine is SiS), you can download the most recent Gart drivers(graphically accelerated something or other). Install those. That's what agp drivers mean. Windows drivers are fine, but for max stability and perfromance, the newest gart drivers are usually a good choice.

btw congrats. I did the same upgrade. Geforce2Ti to 9800pro. Check if yours is R360, Mine was and i was able to bios update mine to 9800xt, albeit with 128mb of ram. It unlocks some optimizations for the vertex shaders hidden in the R360 core the 9800pro bios wasnt taking advantage of as well as a permanant overclock.

 

[mastertech01]

Where do you look to see if it has an R360 core?