Most compatible motherboard with Radeon 9800 Pro

[HDTVNZ]

Hi all,

I have a Radeon 9800 Pro and an Asus P4S800 motherboard with the latest AGP drivers, graphics drivers (CAT. 4.7) and BIOS revision. The Radeon 9800 Pro can only run at 4X AGP with Fast Writes disabled. I have never been able to enable Fast Writes on this card, or my old Geforce FX5200, due to incompatibility with the motherboard?s SIS 648FX chipset (at least, that?s my conclusion on why I cannot enable it based on other user?s problems). Also, if I run the 9800 at AGP 8X, the computer keeps crashing. I would like to know what motherboard will allow AGP 8X AND Fast Writes and is the most STABLE and COMPATIBLE with this graphics card. I need Fast Writes especially, as this feature plays a massive part in smooth, flawless playback of WMVHD video. Would appreciate any information.

My other system specs are:
2.8GHz Pentium 4 HT processor
1024 MB DDR-400 RAM
Windows XP Home

 

[charged04]

Hi there - I had similar problems with my ASUS p4p800-e deluxe MB when it was combined with both my ATI 9700TX as well as with my new ATI x800 pro - I could not enable AGP through smartgart without the system crashing, and when I ran a dxdiag, I showed that AGP was disabled as well. I was unable to force AGP via the BIOS, since for whatever reason, ASUS doesn't have that option available within the BIOS, and became VERY frustrated at the situation, since I was sitting on a $400 video card and was not able to enjoy AGP. I was seeing severe performance hits in FPS tests, whereas my roommate, who has similar specs on his PC but has a 9800 Pro, was blowing me away.

I just received this new motherboard today upon recommendations from people at www.motherboards.org, got it put in finally, and it ROCKS: http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=240126 You just gotta love a motherboard that has 2 fans and pretty glowing green lights!

Needless to say, I will never buy another ASUS motherboard again. As you can see, you are not alone in the incompatibilities that occur when using a ASUS motherboard - I've seen complaints ranging from situations such as ours to conflicts with soundblaster audigy soundcards.

Anyways, the new motherboard I got is a bit pricey, but oh well, at least my x800 pro actually performs as it should now.

BTW, my system specs are as follows:

p4 prescott 3.0GHz @800FSB
1024 MB corsair pc3200 xms RAM (2x 512MB chips)
Abit IC7-MAX3 i875P motherboard
ATI x800 pro 256mb video card
Soundblaster Audigy 2
80GB Western Digital HD, 60GB Seagate HD (both 7200)

There are lots of ASUS fanboys out there - believe me, my roommate has one, and has never had a problem, so he swears by them. I, on the other hand, had nothing but problems with my board.

Good luck in your decision!

 

[Lawranch]

Intel chipsets have the most support. 865 chipset should be fine with your setup. 875 costs a lot more and isn't much faster. You will have to reinstall windows XP.

 

[HDTVNZ]

Thanks for the replies. So the Intel 865 or 875 chipsets would be the most compatible. When you say reinstall Windows XP, would I have to erase and reformat the whole hard drive, or just do a reinstallation of XP? (and not lose my data). Would the 875 chipset, although more expensive, be more stable than the 865? Also, what motherboard manufacturer would you recommend that uses those chipsets? (I don?t know if I want to buy another Asus one).
Cheers

 

[charged04]

I just installed my new Abit last night, which is a 875, as a replacement for my ASUSp4p800-E, which was a 865, and all I did was reinstall XP - there was no loss of data on either of my hard drives. I did have reconfigure the motherboard and disable the onboard sound, and use the disc that came along with my Abit to install the software utility, but that was it.

I don't blame you for not going with another ASUS. I know I sure wont ever purchase an ASUS again after my frustrating ordeal.

 

[HDTVNZ]

Sounds like a pretty trouble free board to me, I'll be looking into it. It will be great when I can finally get my HD videos to work smoothly. Thanks for all of the advice