Looking for an AGP socket 939 motherboard

[ZombieRitual]

Well, I'm looking for a new motherboard because I'm just sick and tired of having the nForce 3/GeForce 6800 series bug ruin my gaming experience with all the damn stuttering. So the requirements I am looking for are:
-has an AGP slot
-isn't an nForce 3 motherboard
-has an optical out port for sound (don't care about 5.1 or 7.1, though the latter is preferred, and digital coax out would be ok as well, but that would mean buying another cable)

I won't be doing any overclocking, so that isn't a concern. I want something with solid onboard audio, realtek is what I currently have on my nForce 3 Ultra, so that'll do. I want an optical out port because I have my computer connected to a receiver which outputs the sound to my 5.1 speakers. And I just want to clarify, replacing my current motherboard with a non-nForce 3 one will resolve the bug with my GeForce 6800 Ultra, correct? I'd like to know for a fact that this will put an end to that and I can finally game without these nonsense stutters and use current drivers. I also saw that some of these motherboards have AGP and PCI-E. Getting such a motherboard would allow me to have a gpu upgrade path and give my computer some longevity, however I've heard how motherboards with both AGP and PCI-E tend to do neither very well, among other issues. Just for starters, this is what I've glanced at off Newegg:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductLi...ption=&srchInDesc=&minPrice=&maxPrice=
Thanks guys!

 

[CalvinHobbes]

Do you have a link to the information about the incompatibility of NF3 and the 6800 series. This is the first I've heard of it.

 

[Spineshank]

From what i remember the issue was if you had flashed your 6800 with a different bios then it originally had. My buddy had that issue but he was on 754.

 

[Boogak]

Originally posted by: CalvinHobbes
Do you have a link to the information about the incompatibility of NF3 and the 6800 series. This is the first I've heard of it.

Massive thread about this problem at nvnews.net

I had this issue with my AGP 6800 GT and DFI NF3 754 board, switched to a Via chipset and problem went away. It's dissappointing that a fix for this still doesn't exist.

I'd recommend the Asrock 939Dual-SATA2, I had one and it's a great performer, basic overclocking settings and takes no performance hit when using AGP unlike other hybrid AGP/PCI-e chipsets. It doesn't have optical out, but for $66 you can purchase a separate soundcard and still be under $100 for the whole shebang.

 

[aka1nas]

I am running a 6800 with an nforce 3 chipset. Fixing the stuttering is pretty trivial.

1) Turn off Fastwrites and Sideband addressing in the BIOS.

2) download the PCI Latency tool from guru3d.com

3) Check your Video cards latency, it will probably be set way too high, like around 248. Set it to 32 or 64. Be sure to set the utility to save the settings and reload them when windows starts.

4) Never worry about your latency again.

 

[ZombieRitual]

Can't seem to find this PCI Latency tool on guru3d.com.

 

[aka1nas]

Here you go:

PCI Latency Tool 3.1 v2

Lastly, I would also recommend trying out the Nforce remix 8.22 driverset. There are a lot of crappy Nforce driversets and this package uses the various device drivers versions that have the fewest conflicts.

Nforce remix 8.22

Good luck and please let us know if this fixes your problem.

 

[Ike0069]

Originally posted by: aka1nas
I am running a 6800 with an nforce 3 chipset. Fixing the stuttering is pretty trivial.

1) Turn off Fastwrites and Sideband addressing in the BIOS.

2) download the PCI Latency tool from guru3d.com

3) Check your Video cards latency, it will probably be set way too high, like around 248. Set it to 32 or 64. Be sure to set the utility to save the settings and reload them when windows starts.

4) Never worry about your latency again.

Here is an old thread from Hard forum abotu the issue.
http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=938842&highlight=nf3

I had a 6800GT on an MSI Neo2 Platinum and had this exact same issue. I did allthe "fixes" including turning off Fastwrites and using the PCI Latency tool. None of that worked. Although it did seem to help, I still would get the stuttering that made playing games not much fun.

The one thing that did work for me and some other that tried it was slightly underclocking my card. I underclocked to 340/1000 and never had another stutter. I lost about 1% performance in 3D Mark. Then when the 81.xx drivers and later were released, I put the VC back at 350/100 (factory speed for my card) and also no longer had any stuttering.

So, what drivers are you using? I would first update to the newest drivers as it seems to have fixed the problem for most, if not everyone. You can also try underclocking the card very slightly. (some people just refused to do this on priniciple, but i know it did work for several people).

If you still plan to get a new MB, I think the only logical choice is the Asrock Dual SATA II. I'm using it now with the same 6800GT and it's a great board. This way when I upgrade my VC to PCIe (soon hopefully), I can keep using this MB.

 

[aka1nas]

Originally posted by: Ike0069

Originally posted by: aka1nas
I am running a 6800 with an nforce 3 chipset. Fixing the stuttering is pretty trivial.

1) Turn off Fastwrites and Sideband addressing in the BIOS.

2) download the PCI Latency tool from guru3d.com

3) Check your Video cards latency, it will probably be set way too high, like around 248. Set it to 32 or 64. Be sure to set the utility to save the settings and reload them when windows starts.

4) Never worry about your latency again.

Here is an old thread from Hard forum abotu the issue.
http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=938842&highlight=nf3

I had a 6800GT on an MSI Neo2 Platinum and had this exact same issue. I did allthe "fixes" including turning off Fastwrites and using the PCI Latency tool. None of that worked. Although it did seem to help, I still would get the stuttering that made playing games not much fun.

The one thing that did work for me and some other that tried it was slightly underclocking my card. I underclocked to 340/1000 and never had another stutter. I lost about 1% performance in 3D Mark. Then when the 81.xx drivers and later were released, I put the VC back at 350/100 (factory speed for my card) and also no longer had any stuttering.

So, what drivers are you using? I would first update to the newest drivers as it seems to have fixed the problem for most, if not everyone. You can also try underclocking the card very slightly. (some people just refused to do this on priniciple, but i know it did work for several people).

If you still plan to get a new MB, I think the only logical choice is the Asrock Dual SATA II. I'm using it now with the same 6800GT and it's a great board. This way when I upgrade my VC to PCIe (soon hopefully), I can keep using this MB.

I am also running the Neo 2 plat, and I found that the board undervolts the AGP slot a bit. Upping it to ~1.65v(the Maximum "yellow" setting) made the card more stable and allowed me to OC it a bit even.

 

[ZombieRitual]

The Neo 2 Platinum is also my board. I'm gonna give this a shot in a couple days since I have my last class tommorrow and I'm moving out of the dorms on Thursday.