Reports of Radeon 9700 Pro not working in AGP 8X mobos!!

[Rick67]

gooddayeh,

So is your system up and running without any problems??

 

[Thraxen]

Well, I just threw together my new system and it too is running just fine. I set the BIOS (v 1003a) to AGP 8X and everything runs smoothly. I have Windows XP installed and am getting ready to install the rest of my gear (2nd HDD from old PC, sound card, etc...). Looks good so far!

[EDIT] The card also works just fine in 4X. I started in 4X to see if it worked...and it did. Then I switched to 8X and everything is still running great.

 

[gooddayeh]

Rick67
I had 2 other machine to get working.
I finished loading XP and my machine runs fine as well.
It looks like the mobo bios had to be updated to 1003A beta version

 

[Tates]

I saw this post at Asusboards.com:

Radeon 9700 Has 8X Issue AND ATI FIX

Spent over an hour with ATI Customer Service Canada and more important, the Engineering Dept. The subject: Our testing shows the Radeon 9700 will NOT work at all on the Asus P4S8X (SiS648), Gigabyte 7VAXP (KT400/8235), and VIA P4PB (P4X400/8235) which are the only 8x AGP boards on the market. Customer Service was not completely aware of this, but Engineering is.

According to ATI, they are now receiving and testing these 8X AGP boards. They are ALSO finding the 9700 does not work at all or works intermittently at best. Engineering indicated most of the boards already shipped have this problem.

Solution: A new BIOS and some board revisions are now available that fix this problem. Call ATI Customer Service for help with the issue. At present, they will ship a replacement board that WILL work in SiS and VIA 8X, but they are also considering a BIOS flash solution for problem boards.

Customer Service and Engineering deserve a 10-1/2 for their wonderful handling of this issue. They are very concerned that it be corrected quickly. They also shared that most of their 8X validation testing was done with Intel's unreleased 8X chipset and that they are just now receiving shipping versions of the SiS and VIA 8X chipsets.

Here's the link

 

[Rick67]

gooddayeh,

So did you download the 1003a BIOS from ASUS or was that the BIOS that came with your board?

Thraxen,

You wouldn't happen to know the P/N (Part Number) on the back of your card would you? Is it the same as mine and gooddayeh's?

 

[gooddayeh]

Rick67
Mine came with 1003a but it just arrived at the distributors Sept 5
so it would have came hot off the press from Asus with the beta version. Asus website dates this I think Aug. 23
I deal with Supercom who is a big Asus distributor and they have no mention of the 8X problem with the Radeon 9700

 

[Rick67]

gooddayeh,

I've got mine coming from knowledgemicro.com. They got the boards in on Thursday and that's when I ordered. I hope it's got the updated BIOS because I've never updated a ASUS BIOS before and I'm not sure how that all works. I should have it on Tuesday. I paid $20 for 2nd day UPS and for some reason I'm not getting it until Tuesday! Anyway, I'm just glad to hear someone is actually running the P4S8X with the 9700 Pro.

 

[gooddayeh]

Rick67
The Asus P4S8X has EZ Flash which means the flash utility is built into the bios firmware.
Hit Alt and F2 at startup and it will start the flash utility. All you need is the updated bios on a disk
eg 1003A.AWD

 

[Thraxen]

My P/N = 1029420611 064259

 

[Skud]

Hmm, i deal with Supercom too. I just ordered a P4S8X and a powercolor 9700 but now I'm having doubts. I talked to our rep, and the P4S8X's arrived on the 5th along with the 9700's I'm told (At least in Vancouver anyways)... Supposedly my stuff was shipped out thurs morn, so i should have it monday..

So, i guess we'll see what happens.... I'll post my findings..

Riley

 

[Lonyo]

Does 8x give any performance advantage over 4x? I know it's meant to give extra bandwdth, but does that actually lead to any increase in performance or is it totally wasted and therefore unneccessary since the extra bandwidth might not be used?

 

[Jayczar]

I saw where the Xabre would not work on an 8X board either, seems like
this feature is a bust so far, or maybe it is just the cards.

 

[Rick67]

At this point I'm not sure what's going on.

HardOCP couldn't get the card to work in a SiS 648 or VIA P4X400 board!! Here's the link.

I was building my first PC and I didn't see any reason not to buy the board with the latest bells and wistles. Now I'm rethinking my decision and may just return the mobo and mem and pick up a 850e mobo with RDRAM and AGP 4X. I really don't want to do this if I don't have to because I'd like to have all the features the SiS648 offers and I don't have the patience to wait around for Intel to release a new chipset. I'm going to get stuck with a 15% restocking fee if I send the mobo and mem back.

 

[BLiT45]

Well that's a real bummer to hear, I was just going to place an order for both the ASUS SiS 648 (chipset) motherboard, and the ATI 9700...

Correct me if I'm wrong, but this is a problem with ALL AGP 8x MB's, no matter what the chipset? Also, is this a problem fixable via a BIOS upgrade on the mobo, or is it only fixable from ATI's end, or both? When ATI says they are working on a BIOS update, can you flash the 9700?

I wonder if AGP 8x is worth it...and also whether getting an SiS 648 chipset is worth the hassle. Seems they are poor overclockers as well, and while that isn't so important to me, it does factor into the equation. Has anyone here done any tests/benchmarks with 8x and then forced it down to 4x AGP and could tell us the difference? That would be usefull information! 🙂

 

[gooddayeh]

I like the machine I have built with the Asus Sis648 chipset and the Radeon 9700 Pro. It hasn't locked up once yet.
The nice thing about it is that the Mobo bios allows Windows XP to assign interrupts (IRQ's)16 - 23
That sure comes in handy with all the on board stuff.

 

[Rick67]

BLiT45, At this point nobody is sure what's going on. Three guys here at anandtech have been able to run their 9700 Pro's just fine in a ASUS P4S8X.

There's a guy over at rage3d.com who has the same P/N as Mootorks here at anandtech. Mootorks has his 9700 Pro running fine in a P4S8X while the guy at rage3d can't get his to run.

I think the guy at rage3d who couldn't get his 9700 to work in three different 8X mobos may have got his hands on a early P4S8X and that is why it's not working. The guys here must have ended up with the newer boards that work with the 9700.

At this point I have no clue and there's been so much talk about all this everything is starting to blend together. I guess all anyone can do is buy the hardware and see if it works. If it don't then contact ATI or the mobo manufacturer and see about getting a replacement.

 

[BLiT45]

Rick, so it seems the ASUS is most likely the best solution for the time being, at least among the new 8x AGP boards out there. That's the one I wanted anyways, and from what you say, it seems the Mobo is at fault mainly, not so much ATI's problem, at least where there are problems reported.

Say, you wouldn't happen to know, (or anyone), whether this ASUS board will run ok with a stick of Corsair PC3200 CAS 2, I heard there was instability issues...or, could one just run this memory in PC2700 mode (DDR333), stable for the meantime until a BIOS upgrade might support the DDR400?

It's not about the money though, I'd be willing to spend more for a better Mobo, after all if your going to spend all that for a new Vid card, processor, etc...you might as well have the BEST Mobo. So maybe I should be looking at another chipset? Hmmm...questions.

 

[Rick67]

What other chipset do you know of that has more features then the SiS648?

Like I said, I'm not sure if it's the mobo or the 9700 or a combination of both. All I know is several people with 8X boards are having problems. I just hope ATI or someone gets to the bottom of this mess.

BTW, I'm not sure on your RAM question. I just bought PC2700 to be on the safe side.

 

[Rick67]

gooddayeh & Thraxen,

Have you ran all the standard stress tests on your system without any failures? Thanks,

 

[LightwaveNet]

Originally posted by: Rick67
What other chipset do you know of that has more features then the SiS648?

The SiS R658 🙂

Can't wait for an actual Motherboard to come out utilizing it... Hopefully soon.

 

[tcsenter]

The card also works just fine in 4X. I started in 4X to see if it worked...and it did. Then I switched to 8X and everything is still running great.

Has anyone (who is having problems) tried disabling 8x in BIOS, loading the OS, installing the ATI driver and AGP/GART driver (if applicable), then restarting and enabling 8x, instead of starting off in 8x right away?

I've seen some motherboard FAQ's recommend this with certain 4x AGP cards from ATI.

 

[jitspoe]

Originally posted by: LethalDose
Well I have bad news for some Abit SR7-8X users. They don't work well together. Seems they like to freeze, reboot and generally cause havok with my machine.

I also have an an abit SR7-8x and Radeon 9700 Pro. Same deal. It crashes all the time -- even in Windows (XP). I can't run games for more than 2 minutes without a hardlock or the video out just dying. While in windows, I usually get a BSOD or the video pops into low res 16 color mode. My P/N is 1029420611 065259.

 

[jitspoe]

Originally posted by: Lonyo
Does 8x give any performance advantage over 4x? I know it's meant to give extra bandwdth, but does that actually lead to any increase in performance or is it totally wasted and therefore unneccessary since the extra bandwidth might not be used?

Since this is brand new, there's obviously nothing to take advantage of it yet, so there will likely be little to no performance increase on the current stuff out there. It should, however, be useful in the future a it will probably eliminate any bandwidth bottlenecks.

Originally posted by: lobadobadingdong
Most likely a timing issue with the AGP bus, does the card work if the mobo bios is forced to 4x mode?

I tried booting with the bios set to 4x on my Abit SR7-8x and reinstalling the drivers. No luck. It still crashes within 5 minutes or so.

 

[DevilsAdvocate]

There is apparently one stepping of the 9700 chip that has problems - the AE2 stepping. All of the others appear to function flawlessly.