Gfx card for ABit IS7 mobo

[arkus]

Looking for a completely stable gfx card for my possible next mobo, the Abit IS7.

I've had lots of problems in the past with a Radeon 9700 Pro which is making me leary of an Ati card, but it's most likely the fault of my current mobo.

Regardless, anyone using this board with a decent gfx card? How stable is it?

 

[Crashman]

There's all kinds of people in this community using that board with various cards. You might have one of the early cards that didn't always function correctly at AGP8x. You can try setting it to AGP4x mode. Also, an underpowered 12v line can cause problems with this card. And the card runs hot, you shouldn't have anything in the adjacent PCI slot, and be sure the fan is working correctly.

I recommend Catalyst 3.7 as 3.9 errors out one of my programs and I haven't tried 3.10 yet.

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[arkus]

Thanks for the info on the 9700 problem, but after a further 3 hours last night trying to get it working I've given up. Just wanted to steer clear of any potentially 'bad' (conflicting) cards with the IS7 is all.

My previous post on the subject is here:

<A HREF="http://forumz.tomshardware.com/hardware/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&p=381844#381844" target="_new">http://forumz.tomshardware.com/hardware/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&p=381844#381844</A>

I really have tried pretty much everything. The last thing I'm gonna bother doing with it before checking to see if I can get it replaced is try it in my old Athlon 1ghz if I can get it up and running.

 

[Crashman]

I'm sorry, it sounds like you have a bad card. You should be able to RMA it to ATI if it's a Built By ATI card. The "compatability" issues with early 9700's affected some boards but not others, most notably 8x boards. I think there might be a signal problem using the AGP 3.0 (0.8v signal) specification. I'm not sure if lowering the transfer rate to 4x also changes the signal strength to 1.5v.

I'm kind of surprized nobody has spoke up yet with so many forum members owning that motherboard. It doesn't have any real compatability issues and is pretty much the same as any other 865/875 chipset board. I'm using an AIW 9600 Pro on my 875 board without problem.

From what you've said it really sounds like a card issue. You should at least try to RMA it.

<font color=blue>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to a hero as big as Crashman!</font color=blue>
<font color=red>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to an ego as large as Crashman's!</font color=red>

 

[arkus]

Ok, now I'm seriously peeved. The Hercules Radeon 9700 Pro works flawalessly in my old 1ghz Athlon system. I guess the MSI GNB-Max (or should I say Intel E7205 Chipset) is seriously fooked when it comes to x8 AGP implementation.

Hopefully the Abit IS7 will solve my problem and allow me to use the Radeon 9700 pro with the rest of my current system.

Just to be clear - the old athlon system runs the card at x4 AGP (Can't remember what chipset it is, but I guess it doesn't really matter).

[Edit: just some extra info]<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by arkus on 12/30/03 07:36 PM.</EM></FONT></P>

 

[Crashman]

I thought you already had the IS7 and were still having problems! I haven't heard of any problems with ANY of the 865/875 boards and the older 9700's, but yes there were problems with early AGP8x chipsets AND early AGP8x video cards.

<font color=blue>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to a hero as big as Crashman!</font color=blue>
<font color=red>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to an ego as large as Crashman's!</font color=red>

 

[arkus]

Nah, I don't have the IS7 yet - looking to purchase to replace the MSI board - and btw - the old athlon just showed me a load of corrupted graphics - so i guess the card really is beyond repair.

Time to scour hercules' sit for RMA info...