Safe to run 7.8cat on 2900Pro, identified as 2900XT? (Texture flickering, also PSU Q)

printf · Oct 11, 2007, 03:10 PM

Hello,
Had some texture flickering problems after installing a 2900Pro with the CD cat 7.9 drivers as well as the 7.9.1 hotfix, installed a clean XP setup, still had the same problems. Then I tried to install the Omegas based on the Cat 7.8.
Had to manually select the proper .inf file after reboot and select the 2900XT, and the card at least ran in 2d mode on the 7.8 driver after another reboot - but I didn't want to try taxing the card with this driver before checking here.

Question 1: I've gathered that the 2900Pro is just a downclocked XT with identical mem interface etc, but could there be any driver differences between the Pro and XT which would damage a Pro running with XT drivers? Keeping in mind the 7.8 predate the 2900 Pro release.

Question 2: I figure the techheads on this board have wrestled with all sorts of problems, so I might as well ask this question as well; if the driver isn't the problem on a fresh OS install, my next usual suspect would be the PSU. It's a few years old and a 2900Pro is a lot more taxing than X850XT, but I checked the 12V with MBM's highs/lows function and it did not deviate more than 1.5% when comparing idle and load. (12.09V/11.90V.) This is more of a deviation compared to running the X850XT (which caused less than 1%) but still well within the factory rated +/- 3% deviation.

Now I realise that MBM might not be accurate in the voltreadings, but the deviation % should still be correct. Unless I got a near dud PSU that's barely been keeping the voltages up trying to run a single-core Athlon64 & X850XT, I think one should be able to deduce that the PSU is at least supplying high enough voltages.

Thing is, there's also these hidden problems that I might not know about, like a rapid and destabilizing oscillation on the DC line, which won't show up in MBM. And other problems I don't know about. So could it still be a PSU problem? I really don't know which other hardware components that could generate this problem. Tried reseating the card.

Any help, suggestion, much appreciated. I can't google find any other 2900 users with this problem (I don't get the crash-on-game-startups others describe, my FPS is fine, it's just texture flickering) and since I did install a fresh XP setup, I'm at a loss. Posting from work, will put up a screenshot when I get back, but my two questions aren't really tied to that specific problem, so it's not going to make a difference to this thread.

If these issues turn out not to be the problem I'll come back to bother you with a proper troubleshooting thread with lots of screenshots

If the mods want me to split off the PSU question into a separate thread then I'll do that, but I figured the driver question was so small that I might as well flesh out the post.

printf · Oct 11, 2007, 09:22 PM

Replied because the edit function didn't seem to work at the time,
ATITool artifacts and temps:
zSHARE - artifact.jpg
BF2142 errors:
zSHARE - screen002.jpg

aNy_oNE · Oct 12, 2007, 07:13 AM

Nice timing for the new driver to be out then eh :P Let us know how you go with that.

Oct 11, 2007, 03:10 PM	#1
printf DriverHeaven Newbie Join Date: Oct 2007 Posts: 2 Rep Power: 0	Safe to run 7.8cat on 2900Pro, identified as 2900XT? (Texture flickering, also PSU Q) Hello, Had some texture flickering problems after installing a 2900Pro with the CD cat 7.9 drivers as well as the 7.9.1 hotfix, installed a clean XP setup, still had the same problems. Then I tried to install the Omegas based on the Cat 7.8. Had to manually select the proper .inf file after reboot and select the 2900XT, and the card at least ran in 2d mode on the 7.8 driver after another reboot - but I didn't want to try taxing the card with this driver before checking here. Question 1: I've gathered that the 2900Pro is just a downclocked XT with identical mem interface etc, but could there be any driver differences between the Pro and XT which would damage a Pro running with XT drivers? Keeping in mind the 7.8 predate the 2900 Pro release. Question 2: I figure the techheads on this board have wrestled with all sorts of problems, so I might as well ask this question as well; if the driver isn't the problem on a fresh OS install, my next usual suspect would be the PSU. It's a few years old and a 2900Pro is a lot more taxing than X850XT, but I checked the 12V with MBM's highs/lows function and it did not deviate more than 1.5% when comparing idle and load. (12.09V/11.90V.) This is more of a deviation compared to running the X850XT (which caused less than 1%) but still well within the factory rated +/- 3% deviation. Now I realise that MBM might not be accurate in the voltreadings, but the deviation % should still be correct. Unless I got a near dud PSU that's barely been keeping the voltages up trying to run a single-core Athlon64 & X850XT, I think one should be able to deduce that the PSU is at least supplying high enough voltages. Thing is, there's also these hidden problems that I might not know about, like a rapid and destabilizing oscillation on the DC line, which won't show up in MBM. And other problems I don't know about. So could it still be a PSU problem? I really don't know which other hardware components that could generate this problem. Tried reseating the card. Any help, suggestion, much appreciated. I can't google find any other 2900 users with this problem (I don't get the crash-on-game-startups others describe, my FPS is fine, it's just texture flickering) and since I did install a fresh XP setup, I'm at a loss. Posting from work, will put up a screenshot when I get back, but my two questions aren't really tied to that specific problem, so it's not going to make a difference to this thread. If these issues turn out not to be the problem I'll come back to bother you with a proper troubleshooting thread with lots of screenshots If the mods want me to split off the PSU question into a separate thread then I'll do that, but I figured the driver question was so small that I might as well flesh out the post. Last edited by printf; Oct 11, 2007 at 03:55 PM.

Oct 11, 2007, 09:22 PM	Thread Starter #2
printf DriverHeaven Newbie Join Date: Oct 2007 Posts: 2 Rep Power: 0	Replied because the edit function didn't seem to work at the time, ATITool artifacts and temps: zSHARE - artifact.jpg BF2142 errors: zSHARE - screen002.jpg

Oct 12, 2007, 07:13 AM	#3
aNy_oNE DriverHeaven Lover Join Date: Nov 2006 Posts: 162 Rep Power: 0 System Specs	Nice timing for the new driver to be out then eh :P Let us know how you go with that.