Question about possible motherboard / AGP incompatibility

[ProviaFan]

I've got a Gigabyte GA-5AA (with ALI chipset), and a Nvidia TNT2 Vanta LT video card. The system currently is quite unstable, and I've been told that this is because the ALI chipset is incompatible with most good AGP video cards (why then did they include an AGP slot? 🙂.
The solution I've been considering is to upgrade to a PCI Geforce 2 MX. But, before I buy one of these, I'd like some opinions from the motherboard experts; specifically, do you think the problem is really in the supposed chipset / AGP incompatibility, or does it sound like something else?
Thanks in advance
--
Josh

 

[SaturnX]

Check IRQ assignments, get the latest chipset/video card drivers. Also I think that nVidia has special drivers for ALi chipsets (they're included in the driver package, read the readme file). But don't get a GF2MX PCI, it'll really be junk, it relies heavily on AGP features which are gone, and not to mention the SDR RAM. If you NEED a PCI card I'd have to to say a Voodoo. Sure the company is out of business, but still their PCI cards don't use AGP features, and run better on PCI than ANY GF series PCI card.

--Mark

 

[ProviaFan]

Thank you for your suggestions. I'm already using the latest (afaik) chipset drivers, but I'll try updating to the latest Nvidia drivers for ALI chipsets. BTW, would the PCI Radeon be a better choice (I'd rather not get a Voodoo, because it quite likely will not fit in my smaller case)?
I must make it clear from the start that I don't really care that much about excess frame rates in Quake 3. If I get greater than 30 fps in Tuxracer, I'll be happy 🙂
--
Josh