Dots...Dots everywhere!

Spaztic_Reaper · Jul 30, 2006, 08:35 PM

Yeah dots

. Anyways when I started to play Oblivion today everywhere black dots were popping up and flashing, not very big, but enough to be an annoyance and the card's fan was blowin' at max speed and I'd just started. It's an Ati Radeon X700 Pro. No problems with it until today. Oblivion has run pretty smooth on it ever since I got new drivers. It still ran pretty smooth, but these dots are worrying me, 'specially the fact that my fan is workin so hard so soon. I just need a temp. fix cuz I'm plannin on getting a new case w/ better cooling and a new X1600 XT card along with an ASUS AMD Crossfire motherboard. But i dunno when I'm gunna be able to get it so I kinda wanna keep this card going until then. Thanks for any help.

X1800XTTOP · Jul 30, 2006, 09:47 PM

Open your case and let a deskfan blow at the gpu while playing. It might help

Spaztic_Reaper · Jul 31, 2006, 03:57 AM

K, I'll try that, thanks

. BTW I'm thinkin of gettin a new mobo, what would you suggest? My budget is like around $75-$125, and it needs to have crossfire. I've found a few on newegg.com but another person's opinion is always helpful.

Customgamer1 · Jul 31, 2006, 05:24 AM

X1800XT thats what i did and well it worked but then my video card broke

I would say try and blow all the dust out of it and try and save it just incase.

The other post I talked about my video card that just broke today

Spaztic_Reaper · Jul 31, 2006, 05:56 AM

Good idea

. Thanks for da tip man. Sorry to hear bout your card though...

kn00tcn · Jul 31, 2006, 09:45 AM

make sure it doesnt look like this: http://kn00tcn.freepgs.com/00-temp-0...es90+temps.JPG

H3X4D3C1M4L · Jul 31, 2006, 03:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kn00tcn

make sure it doesnt look like this: http://kn00tcn.freepgs.com/00-temp-0...es90+temps.JPG

That looks more like candy floss than dust

Customgamer1 · Jul 31, 2006, 04:26 PM

LOL well my card was not that bad lol but it did have a lot of dust in it. I just hope it's the card and not anything else because I just bought a replacement lol.

Spaztic_Reaper · Jul 31, 2006, 06:10 PM

Well I took out the card and gave it a thorough cleaning, it was quite clogged with dust. So i cleaned it, put it back in, and started Oblivion. And things went from bad to worse. Black dots were now accompanied by random polygons and sprites being stretched out, trees stretched across the sky and parts of my horse had stretched in a way so it had a spiked mane, and empty spaces where I could look through. I think this card is dead, thankfully I can get my new card, mobo and case soon.

firyace · Jul 31, 2006, 06:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Spaztic_Reaper

Well I took out the card and gave it a thorough cleaning, it was quite clogged with dust. So i cleaned it, put it back in, and started Oblivion. And things went from bad to worse. Black dots were now accompanied by random polygons and sprites being stretched out, trees stretched across the sky and parts of my horse had stretched in a way so it had a spiked mane, and empty spaces where I could look through. I think this card is dead, thankfully I can get my new card, mobo and case soon.

Yeah, your card is probably dead if thats the case, may I ask you how did you clean it?

Spaztic_Reaper · Aug 1, 2006, 03:51 AM

Well of course i discharged ne static on me, then i removed the card and the fan and heatsink cover. Dust was everywhere so since i dont hav an air cleaner i used a ear cleaner to gently brush most of it out. It is a clean card now, but it seems it is more than dirt that is the problem, probably is dead.

Nightowl225 · Aug 1, 2006, 05:37 AM

In reality your problem is that Antec Powersupply. Most of the current Antec powersupplies have to be RMAED back to Antec to get a newer revision that works with ASUS Motherboards if that is what you have. You don't say if your motherboard is an ASUS or not. If it is, time to consider a new powersupply.

I know from expierence what an Antec Powersupply can do. I had a TrueControl 2 550watt powersupply, it screwed up two X1800 Crossfire cards on me, caused reboots after 4 hours of gaming, earlier this year have reason to believe it screwed up a Turtlebeach soundcard on me, and an Audigy 2, can't prove it with the soundcards though, got rid of them. Worse, for awhile after I did my upgrade, I had BSOD's, which I was able to trace to ULI's raid drivers, and to the powersupply. I darn near winded up getting a new motherboard also until I realized what the trouble was last week, and bought a Thermaltake Toughpower 700, haven't had no trouble since.

After this mess, I'm not a real big fan of Antec Powersupplies anymore, I have a friend who had an Antec Powersupply, within the past couple of years, he had so much trouble from it, he took it back to the store he got it from, and put in a Thermaltake TR2 430watt Powersupply and hasn't had no trouble since with his system.

Spaztic_Reaper · Aug 1, 2006, 08:07 AM

No I don't have the Asus mobo yet, but I'm getting a new case with it that comes with a 420w powersupply (no idea on the brand name, probably generic. I'm sure I'll switch it). I'm also getting a X1600XT card with the order, I was just lookin for a possibly temporary fix. This just means no oblivion for a few weeks, but oh well. Thanks to every1 who helped.

romeotech · Aug 2, 2006, 06:26 AM

I added a artic cooler fan to replace the stock fan and now the card works. I was having the same graphical corruption and freezing on boot. Artic Cooling fans may be a solution, cheapest one too.

Spaztic_Reaper · Aug 2, 2006, 07:13 PM

Well, due to the fact that 1 of the items I wanted to get from newegg is out of stock I've changed my order a bit and this is what I'm going to order from them as soon as I can afford it; Asus crossfire edition mobo, Thermaltake 430W PSU, Aspire X-Infinity Case, and a Sapphire X850XT 256MB GDDR3 w/ 256-bit memory and 16 pixel pipelines, thankfully it was only $15 more than the X1600 XT, pity it doesn't have crossfire though. I'll be keeping my hardrive, and dvd and cd drives from my old emachines though, along with my AMD Athlon 64 3200+ and the 4 stix of 512MB Kingston RAM I have.

crunchyfrog · Aug 5, 2006, 05:38 AM

just a note of concern , are you sure a 420 watt psu is enough ?
especially if your intending to go crossfire as
it is recommended to have 36amps on your +12v rail
check this site out
http://www.extreme.outervision.com/psucalculator.jsp

my system for example comes in at 340watts if i do calculations without usage taken into account
but a 20% allowance jumps my consuption by more than 100watts !

im hopeing my next upgrade to an am2cpu board and an A64x2 3800 and 2x512 ddr2 800mhz will run ok with the psu i have

Spaztic_Reaper · Aug 5, 2006, 06:01 AM

Well actually it'll be a 430W since I'm switching the Aspire X-infinity's stock psu our for a thermaltake 430W just to have a brand name PSU and try as many ways possible to keep the inside kool. The card I'm getting also isn't crossfire-compatible, but if I do decide to go Xfire I will definetly consider a stronger PSU

Semilio666 · Aug 8, 2006, 03:43 PM

when u took of the stock cooler on ur X700 card to clean it, did u aplly thermal paste before remounting the cooler?
if u didnt then that is ur problem, its very important to put paste on the chip or it wont cool good

Spaztic_Reaper · Aug 8, 2006, 04:36 PM

That explains alot then, because I don't have paste for starters. But really, I haven't noticed any additional problems since i did that. And I didn't remove the entire fan, just the cover plate on the fan and heat sink. I've decided to give up on the card anyways since I'll be getting a new Sapphire X850XT soon.

H3X4D3C1M4L · Aug 9, 2006, 06:33 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Spaztic_Reaper

That explains alot then, because I don't have paste for starters. But really, I haven't noticed any additional problems since i did that. And I didn't remove the entire fan, just the cover plate on the fan and heat sink. I've decided to give up on the card anyways since I'll be getting a new Sapphire X850XT soon.

It would explain it.... removing the heatsink will basically mean you NEED to apply new thermal paste or the HSF won't make proper contact and bits of the core will superheat and cause DOTS !!

Spaztic_Reaper · Aug 9, 2006, 08:25 AM

Oh well, I doubt there was much hope for the card anyways and like I said, if newegg gets the card back in stock when i order Im gettin the Sapphire X850XT, though one question, will my current mobo work for a Sapphire X1800XT? I have an AMD Ati Radeon Xpress 200 socket 939 mobo now. If I don't need a dif mobo I can forget the X850XT and go for the X1800XT which has much better clock speeds.

Semilio666 · Aug 9, 2006, 10:27 AM

if the mobo has a pcix slot u can use the X1800XT, otherwise (when it is AGP) u can not use the X1800XT since there are no X1800XT AGP cards, only pcix

i think the Ati Radeon Xpress 200 socket 939 is a pcix motherboard, so yes u can plug in a X1800XT, look for a 512MB card, its more future proof

dont forget to buy a new power supply also, and 430W will not be enough for a X1800XT, look for something with 35+A on the 12V rail, no splitted rails are prefered (max 2 rails, not 4 or more) and take a good brand power supply, they make all of ur components last longer

H3X4D3C1M4L · Aug 9, 2006, 08:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Spaztic_Reaper

Oh well, I doubt there was much hope for the card anyways and like I said, if newegg gets the card back in stock when i order Im gettin the Sapphire X850XT, though one question, will my current mobo work for a Sapphire X1800XT? I have an AMD Ati Radeon Xpress 200 socket 939 mobo now. If I don't need a dif mobo I can forget the X850XT and go for the X1800XT which has much better clock speeds.

I'd think you'll be fine with the X1800XT or X850XT in that mobo

NUCLEARWINTER · Aug 10, 2006, 02:49 AM

as long as interface of card matches that of mobo it'll work. but instead of buying a new x850, go ahead and buy something newer. it will greatly improve system performance for maybe $150 or so more than an x850.

Spaztic_Reaper · Aug 10, 2006, 05:09 AM

Thanks for all the advice. Yeah I think I might go for the X1800XT instead, simply because it has a much better memory clock speed than the X850XT. Either that or I'll still get the X850XT and get a new sound card, and some new speakers.

H3X4D3C1M4L · Aug 10, 2006, 10:16 PM

Not only that the X1800XT has far more shader units.

But if you could do with an X850XT and get the extra sound stuff it might make for a better gaming experience overall rather than just focusing only on the video

Besides an X850XT will blow an X700 anything out of the water

Spaztic_Reaper · Aug 11, 2006, 03:36 AM

Yeah I'm probably gonna go for the X850XT n sound stuff, 'specially since the price on the X850XT just went down almost $30

. But if that happens to change I might go for the X1800XT and deal with onboard audio a bit longer.

X1800XTTOP · Aug 11, 2006, 10:58 AM

I would recommend the X1800XT. Trust me when i say that the diffrence is huge. Wait until you can afford the audio stuff again. With new games coming, like Call of Juarez, Crysis and even Oblvion, a X1800XT is whats needed for "those extra fancy effects". And lets not forget about SM3.0 (more future proof), 512mb (even more future proof) and HDR+AA (god-like graphics

).

Get a X1800XT for now, and buy the speakers etc later, when you can afford it. I mean, im still on onboard and headphones (philips hp890) - i dont even have any speakers attached. I´ve never complained about sound being bad.

You will regret it if you choose a X850 over a X1800... sooner or later, but you are going to do that at some point.

H3X4D3C1M4L · Aug 12, 2006, 08:54 PM

I doubt it... by the time he needs an X1800XT something better will be out and then the difference will be that much bigger again rather than going from an X1800XT to something else.

The jump will already be huge as it is and the extra sound stuff is never a bad investment... X-Fi's just barely came out and Audigy's took 5 or so years to go obsolete.

Spaztic_Reaper · Aug 13, 2006, 05:42 AM

I think imma go with H3X4D3C1M4L on this one and get the X850XT n the audio equip. The only reason I considered an X1800XT is bcuz i dont need a mobo and my budget expanded a bit, but the X1800XT I found is only 256MB GDDR3, just better clock speeds, though not that much better, and an X1800XT with 512M is outta my budget i think.

Jul 30, 2006, 08:35 PM	#1
Spaztic_Reaper HardwareHeaven Lover Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: Fairmont, WV Posts: 232 Rep Power: 0 System Specs	Dots...Dots everywhere! Yeah dots . Anyways when I started to play Oblivion today everywhere black dots were popping up and flashing, not very big, but enough to be an annoyance and the card's fan was blowin' at max speed and I'd just started. It's an Ati Radeon X700 Pro. No problems with it until today. Oblivion has run pretty smooth on it ever since I got new drivers. It still ran pretty smooth, but these dots are worrying me, 'specially the fact that my fan is workin so hard so soon. I just need a temp. fix cuz I'm plannin on getting a new case w/ better cooling and a new X1600 XT card along with an ASUS AMD Crossfire motherboard. But i dunno when I'm gunna be able to get it so I kinda wanna keep this card going until then. Thanks for any help. __________________ And when we all looked at our friend while sitting next to the train tracks he put an unlit cigarette in his mouth and about 5 seconds later exclaimed "Shit I coulda sworn smoke was coming out of it, mus' be trippin balls."

Jul 31, 2006, 03:57 AM	Thread Starter #3
Spaztic_Reaper HardwareHeaven Lover Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: Fairmont, WV Posts: 232 Rep Power: 0 System Specs	K, I'll try that, thanks . BTW I'm thinkin of gettin a new mobo, what would you suggest? My budget is like around $75-$125, and it needs to have crossfire. I've found a few on newegg.com but another person's opinion is always helpful. __________________ And when we all looked at our friend while sitting next to the train tracks he put an unlit cigarette in his mouth and about 5 seconds later exclaimed "Shit I coulda sworn smoke was coming out of it, mus' be trippin balls."

Jul 31, 2006, 05:24 AM	#4
Customgamer1 Fell off the tech wagon Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: Wisconsin Posts: 2,273 Rep Power: 74 System Specs	X1800XT thats what i did and well it worked but then my video card broke I would say try and blow all the dust out of it and try and save it just incase. The other post I talked about my video card that just broke today __________________ Asus Laptop: 2.5 Intel Core 2 Duo, 4gigs DDR 2, Windows 7 64bit! Windows 7 > OSX!

Jul 31, 2006, 05:56 AM	Thread Starter #5
Spaztic_Reaper HardwareHeaven Lover Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: Fairmont, WV Posts: 232 Rep Power: 0 System Specs	Good idea . Thanks for da tip man. Sorry to hear bout your card though... __________________ And when we all looked at our friend while sitting next to the train tracks he put an unlit cigarette in his mouth and about 5 seconds later exclaimed "Shit I coulda sworn smoke was coming out of it, mus' be trippin balls."

Jul 31, 2006, 09:45 AM	#6
kn00tcn DriverHeaven Senior Member Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: Toronto Posts: 649 Rep Power: 0 System Specs	make sure it doesnt look like this: http://kn00tcn.freepgs.com/00-temp-0...es90+temps.JPG __________________ http://www.kn00tcn.net/site/ati-catalyst-profiles/ http://www.kn00tcn.net/FPSLimiter.rar

Jul 30, 2006, 09:47 PM	#2
X1800XTTOP DriverHeaven Addict Join Date: Feb 2006 Posts: 316 Rep Power: 0 System Specs	Open your case and let a deskfan blow at the gpu while playing. It might help

Jul 31, 2006, 04:26 PM	#8
Customgamer1 Fell off the tech wagon Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: Wisconsin Posts: 2,273 Rep Power: 74 System Specs	LOL well my card was not that bad lol but it did have a lot of dust in it. I just hope it's the card and not anything else because I just bought a replacement lol. __________________ Asus Laptop: 2.5 Intel Core 2 Duo, 4gigs DDR 2, Windows 7 64bit! Windows 7 > OSX!

Jul 31, 2006, 06:10 PM	Thread Starter #9
Spaztic_Reaper HardwareHeaven Lover Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: Fairmont, WV Posts: 232 Rep Power: 0 System Specs	Well I took out the card and gave it a thorough cleaning, it was quite clogged with dust. So i cleaned it, put it back in, and started Oblivion. And things went from bad to worse. Black dots were now accompanied by random polygons and sprites being stretched out, trees stretched across the sky and parts of my horse had stretched in a way so it had a spiked mane, and empty spaces where I could look through. I think this card is dead, thankfully I can get my new card, mobo and case soon. __________________ And when we all looked at our friend while sitting next to the train tracks he put an unlit cigarette in his mouth and about 5 seconds later exclaimed "Shit I coulda sworn smoke was coming out of it, mus' be trippin balls."

Aug 1, 2006, 03:51 AM	Thread Starter #11
Spaztic_Reaper HardwareHeaven Lover Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: Fairmont, WV Posts: 232 Rep Power: 0 System Specs	Well of course i discharged ne static on me, then i removed the card and the fan and heatsink cover. Dust was everywhere so since i dont hav an air cleaner i used a ear cleaner to gently brush most of it out. It is a clean card now, but it seems it is more than dirt that is the problem, probably is dead. __________________ And when we all looked at our friend while sitting next to the train tracks he put an unlit cigarette in his mouth and about 5 seconds later exclaimed "Shit I coulda sworn smoke was coming out of it, mus' be trippin balls."

Aug 1, 2006, 05:37 AM	#12
Nightowl225 DriverHeaven Lover Join Date: Nov 2005 Posts: 139 Rep Power: 0	In reality your problem is that Antec Powersupply. Most of the current Antec powersupplies have to be RMAED back to Antec to get a newer revision that works with ASUS Motherboards if that is what you have. You don't say if your motherboard is an ASUS or not. If it is, time to consider a new powersupply. I know from expierence what an Antec Powersupply can do. I had a TrueControl 2 550watt powersupply, it screwed up two X1800 Crossfire cards on me, caused reboots after 4 hours of gaming, earlier this year have reason to believe it screwed up a Turtlebeach soundcard on me, and an Audigy 2, can't prove it with the soundcards though, got rid of them. Worse, for awhile after I did my upgrade, I had BSOD's, which I was able to trace to ULI's raid drivers, and to the powersupply. I darn near winded up getting a new motherboard also until I realized what the trouble was last week, and bought a Thermaltake Toughpower 700, haven't had no trouble since. After this mess, I'm not a real big fan of Antec Powersupplies anymore, I have a friend who had an Antec Powersupply, within the past couple of years, he had so much trouble from it, he took it back to the store he got it from, and put in a Thermaltake TR2 430watt Powersupply and hasn't had no trouble since with his system.

Aug 1, 2006, 08:07 AM	Thread Starter #13
Spaztic_Reaper HardwareHeaven Lover Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: Fairmont, WV Posts: 232 Rep Power: 0 System Specs	No I don't have the Asus mobo yet, but I'm getting a new case with it that comes with a 420w powersupply (no idea on the brand name, probably generic. I'm sure I'll switch it). I'm also getting a X1600XT card with the order, I was just lookin for a possibly temporary fix. This just means no oblivion for a few weeks, but oh well. Thanks to every1 who helped. __________________ And when we all looked at our friend while sitting next to the train tracks he put an unlit cigarette in his mouth and about 5 seconds later exclaimed "Shit I coulda sworn smoke was coming out of it, mus' be trippin balls."

Aug 2, 2006, 06:26 AM	#14
romeotech DriverHeaven Junior Member Join Date: Mar 2006 Posts: 24 Rep Power: 0	I added a artic cooler fan to replace the stock fan and now the card works. I was having the same graphical corruption and freezing on boot. Artic Cooling fans may be a solution, cheapest one too. __________________ Alienware Area-51 \| ASROCK 4CoreDual-SATA2 \| Intel Core 2 Duo E4500\| 2GB RAM \| Sapphire Radeon X1950 PRO 512MB GDDR3 \| Soundblaster Audigy 2 6.1 \| Enermax Liberty 620 Watt Power Supply

Aug 2, 2006, 07:13 PM	Thread Starter #15
Spaztic_Reaper HardwareHeaven Lover Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: Fairmont, WV Posts: 232 Rep Power: 0 System Specs	Well, due to the fact that 1 of the items I wanted to get from newegg is out of stock I've changed my order a bit and this is what I'm going to order from them as soon as I can afford it; Asus crossfire edition mobo, Thermaltake 430W PSU, Aspire X-Infinity Case, and a Sapphire X850XT 256MB GDDR3 w/ 256-bit memory and 16 pixel pipelines, thankfully it was only $15 more than the X1600 XT, pity it doesn't have crossfire though. I'll be keeping my hardrive, and dvd and cd drives from my old emachines though, along with my AMD Athlon 64 3200+ and the 4 stix of 512MB Kingston RAM I have. __________________ And when we all looked at our friend while sitting next to the train tracks he put an unlit cigarette in his mouth and about 5 seconds later exclaimed "Shit I coulda sworn smoke was coming out of it, mus' be trippin balls."

Aug 5, 2006, 05:38 AM	#16
crunchyfrog DriverHeaven Newbie Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: lost in oblivion Posts: 13 Rep Power: 0	just a note of concern , are you sure a 420 watt psu is enough ? especially if your intending to go crossfire as it is recommended to have 36amps on your +12v rail check this site out http://www.extreme.outervision.com/psucalculator.jsp my system for example comes in at 340watts if i do calculations without usage taken into account but a 20% allowance jumps my consuption by more than 100watts ! im hopeing my next upgrade to an am2cpu board and an A64x2 3800 and 2x512 ddr2 800mhz will run ok with the psu i have __________________ ------------------------------------------------------------- Asrock 939dual sata2 A64 x2 4600 @ 2.4 1gb (2x512)ocz platinum 2,3,2,5 iceq3 x1900xt 512mb SB X-fi xtrm music 300gb sata 16mb 120gb ata133 enermax liberty 500watt -------------------------------------------------------------

Aug 5, 2006, 06:01 AM	Thread Starter #17
Spaztic_Reaper HardwareHeaven Lover Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: Fairmont, WV Posts: 232 Rep Power: 0 System Specs	Well actually it'll be a 430W since I'm switching the Aspire X-infinity's stock psu our for a thermaltake 430W just to have a brand name PSU and try as many ways possible to keep the inside kool. The card I'm getting also isn't crossfire-compatible, but if I do decide to go Xfire I will definetly consider a stronger PSU __________________ And when we all looked at our friend while sitting next to the train tracks he put an unlit cigarette in his mouth and about 5 seconds later exclaimed "Shit I coulda sworn smoke was coming out of it, mus' be trippin balls."

Aug 8, 2006, 03:43 PM	#18
Semilio666 DriverHeaven Junior Member Join Date: Jun 2006 Posts: 23 Rep Power: 0	when u took of the stock cooler on ur X700 card to clean it, did u aplly thermal paste before remounting the cooler? if u didnt then that is ur problem, its very important to put paste on the chip or it wont cool good __________________ -------------------------------------------- Im Wicked & Im Lazy -------------------------------------------- AMD A64 3500+ (Venice) MSI K8N Neo2-FX s939 2X1GB Apacer DDR400@442 Dual Channel (2.7V) Tagan TG480-U22 480W 3.3V/28A 5V/48A 12V/30A [color=red]ATI AIW X800XT[/color] with Zalman VF700 Cu (max OC 525/590) 2X Seagate 7200.9 80GB/8MB SATA (RAID0) (WinXP Pro SP2) Western Digital 300GB/8MB SATA Maxtor 120GB/2MB IDE Seagate Barracuda 80GB/2MB

Aug 8, 2006, 04:36 PM	Thread Starter #19
Spaztic_Reaper HardwareHeaven Lover Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: Fairmont, WV Posts: 232 Rep Power: 0 System Specs	That explains alot then, because I don't have paste for starters. But really, I haven't noticed any additional problems since i did that. And I didn't remove the entire fan, just the cover plate on the fan and heat sink. I've decided to give up on the card anyways since I'll be getting a new Sapphire X850XT soon. __________________ And when we all looked at our friend while sitting next to the train tracks he put an unlit cigarette in his mouth and about 5 seconds later exclaimed "Shit I coulda sworn smoke was coming out of it, mus' be trippin balls."

Aug 9, 2006, 08:25 AM	Thread Starter #21
Spaztic_Reaper HardwareHeaven Lover Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: Fairmont, WV Posts: 232 Rep Power: 0 System Specs	Oh well, I doubt there was much hope for the card anyways and like I said, if newegg gets the card back in stock when i order Im gettin the Sapphire X850XT, though one question, will my current mobo work for a Sapphire X1800XT? I have an AMD Ati Radeon Xpress 200 socket 939 mobo now. If I don't need a dif mobo I can forget the X850XT and go for the X1800XT which has much better clock speeds. __________________ And when we all looked at our friend while sitting next to the train tracks he put an unlit cigarette in his mouth and about 5 seconds later exclaimed "Shit I coulda sworn smoke was coming out of it, mus' be trippin balls."

Aug 9, 2006, 10:27 AM	#22
Semilio666 DriverHeaven Junior Member Join Date: Jun 2006 Posts: 23 Rep Power: 0	if the mobo has a pcix slot u can use the X1800XT, otherwise (when it is AGP) u can not use the X1800XT since there are no X1800XT AGP cards, only pcix i think the Ati Radeon Xpress 200 socket 939 is a pcix motherboard, so yes u can plug in a X1800XT, look for a 512MB card, its more future proof dont forget to buy a new power supply also, and 430W will not be enough for a X1800XT, look for something with 35+A on the 12V rail, no splitted rails are prefered (max 2 rails, not 4 or more) and take a good brand power supply, they make all of ur components last longer __________________ -------------------------------------------- Im Wicked & Im Lazy -------------------------------------------- AMD A64 3500+ (Venice) MSI K8N Neo2-FX s939 2X1GB Apacer DDR400@442 Dual Channel (2.7V) Tagan TG480-U22 480W 3.3V/28A 5V/48A 12V/30A [color=red]ATI AIW X800XT[/color] with Zalman VF700 Cu (max OC 525/590) 2X Seagate 7200.9 80GB/8MB SATA (RAID0) (WinXP Pro SP2) Western Digital 300GB/8MB SATA Maxtor 120GB/2MB IDE Seagate Barracuda 80GB/2MB

Aug 10, 2006, 02:49 AM	#24
NUCLEARWINTER Reap What You Sow. Join Date: Jul 2005 Location: Louisville, Kentucky Posts: 1,135 Rep Power: 64 System Specs	as long as interface of card matches that of mobo it'll work. but instead of buying a new x850, go ahead and buy something newer. it will greatly improve system performance for maybe $150 or so more than an x850. __________________ insert witty comment here!

Aug 10, 2006, 05:09 AM	Thread Starter #25
Spaztic_Reaper HardwareHeaven Lover Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: Fairmont, WV Posts: 232 Rep Power: 0 System Specs	Thanks for all the advice. Yeah I think I might go for the X1800XT instead, simply because it has a much better memory clock speed than the X850XT. Either that or I'll still get the X850XT and get a new sound card, and some new speakers. __________________ And when we all looked at our friend while sitting next to the train tracks he put an unlit cigarette in his mouth and about 5 seconds later exclaimed "Shit I coulda sworn smoke was coming out of it, mus' be trippin balls."

Aug 10, 2006, 10:16 PM	#26
H3X4D3C1M4L DriverHeaven Extreme Member Join Date: May 2005 Posts: 6,794 Rep Power: 0	Not only that the X1800XT has far more shader units. But if you could do with an X850XT and get the extra sound stuff it might make for a better gaming experience overall rather than just focusing only on the video Besides an X850XT will blow an X700 anything out of the water

Aug 11, 2006, 03:36 AM	Thread Starter #27
Spaztic_Reaper HardwareHeaven Lover Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: Fairmont, WV Posts: 232 Rep Power: 0 System Specs	Yeah I'm probably gonna go for the X850XT n sound stuff, 'specially since the price on the X850XT just went down almost $30. But if that happens to change I might go for the X1800XT and deal with onboard audio a bit longer. __________________ And when we all looked at our friend while sitting next to the train tracks he put an unlit cigarette in his mouth and about 5 seconds later exclaimed "Shit I coulda sworn smoke was coming out of it, mus' be trippin balls."

Aug 11, 2006, 10:58 AM	#28
X1800XTTOP DriverHeaven Addict Join Date: Feb 2006 Posts: 316 Rep Power: 0 System Specs	I would recommend the X1800XT. Trust me when i say that the diffrence is huge. Wait until you can afford the audio stuff again. With new games coming, like Call of Juarez, Crysis and even Oblvion, a X1800XT is whats needed for "those extra fancy effects". And lets not forget about SM3.0 (more future proof), 512mb (even more future proof) and HDR+AA (god-like graphics ). Get a X1800XT for now, and buy the speakers etc later, when you can afford it. I mean, im still on onboard and headphones (philips hp890) - i dont even have any speakers attached. I´ve never complained about sound being bad. You will regret it if you choose a X850 over a X1800... sooner or later, but you are going to do that at some point.

Aug 12, 2006, 08:54 PM	#29
H3X4D3C1M4L DriverHeaven Extreme Member Join Date: May 2005 Posts: 6,794 Rep Power: 0	I doubt it... by the time he needs an X1800XT something better will be out and then the difference will be that much bigger again rather than going from an X1800XT to something else. The jump will already be huge as it is and the extra sound stuff is never a bad investment... X-Fi's just barely came out and Audigy's took 5 or so years to go obsolete.

Aug 13, 2006, 05:42 AM	Thread Starter #30
Spaztic_Reaper HardwareHeaven Lover Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: Fairmont, WV Posts: 232 Rep Power: 0 System Specs	I think imma go with H3X4D3C1M4L on this one and get the X850XT n the audio equip. The only reason I considered an X1800XT is bcuz i dont need a mobo and my budget expanded a bit, but the X1800XT I found is only 256MB GDDR3, just better clock speeds, though not that much better, and an X1800XT with 512M is outta my budget i think. __________________ And when we all looked at our friend while sitting next to the train tracks he put an unlit cigarette in his mouth and about 5 seconds later exclaimed "Shit I coulda sworn smoke was coming out of it, mus' be trippin balls."