X1900XTX upgrade advice

Yeah I've read about problems with PCIe >=2.1 on PCIe 1.x boards. 57x0 for example may not POST on nForce4. So maybe 48x0 or GTX 28x would be the fastest options.
 
I am afraid that even the Radeon 4670 would be bottlenecked by any processor in that socket... So, I would assume, for cost saving purposes not for anything much more expensive.

But, keep in mind that with newer cards you can get a better deal... So try whatever works on that chipset
 
That CPU doesn't even meet the minimum requirement for many games... not sure how much more money you want to put into such an old platform.
At least if you bough a modern HD7k series card you could reuse it if/when you do a full system upgrade.
 
Well I went to Bestbuy. Looks like they're getting out of the AMD/ATI GPU business (just 1 HIGH end card). Anyway I picked up an Gforce GT620. 1G ram, pci 2.0, 350W psu require...sounded okay.

They would not let me open the box in store to check the power dongle. Got home, NO external power dongle at al. Tried an install, Would not boot (nothing on display). PC ran, did not boot, and screen was black.

Do I require a 6 pin external power supply to make my monitor work (has it's own power cable BTW).

Anyway, I checked all over the card for a connector slot for power, nothing. So what's up with that? The last time out, I got an unexamined card that required an 8 pin power dongle, and explicitly mentioned do NOT use 6 pin adapters!

So how can I tell which cards have a 6 pin dongle? Do i require one? Why won't the GT620 fire up on my PC? It's WAY smaller than the x1900xtx.
 
It shouldn't matter right? AFAIK any PCIe 16x slot should provide up to 75 watts to a GPU.
 
digitalwanderer said:
Dumb question, the mobo PCIe is 2.0..yes?
Click to expand...

Yes that was one of the things i was checking for on the box. It said nothing about the power dongle though, and the guy wouldn't let me open it, even though I'd be returning if it didn't "fit". So I took a chance. all my other checks matched up...PSU, PCI 2.0, RAM requires, etc.

I had also read that AMD cards had a problem with 2.0 v 2.1.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
homerdog said:
It shouldn't matter right? AFAIK any PCIe 16x slot should provide up to 75 watts to a GPU.
Click to expand...

Could it be the GPU's without external power are for LCD screens? I still run a VGA (10+ years old) CRT.

Anyway I tried my old card (old card is in now) without the dongle attached and the symptoms werre the same as the dongleless new card.

I disabled my old drivers first too.

I've tried it twice now, same results. At least I got a chance to clean the dust from my airfan filters, and the GUNK from my cooler master liquird cooling radiator! Fans sound better now.

Anyway, I need to know of a similar card that has a 6 pin power dongle. Bestbuy had few cards to select from GT610-650 basically and 1 high end AMD card ($300 i think). I think he mentioned they're not carrying AMD cards anymore. dunno why.

ANY help would be appreciated.
 
homerdog said:
It shouldn't matter right? AFAIK any PCIe 16x slot should provide up to 75 watts to a GPU.
Click to expand...

Issues existed with certain early PCIe motherboards, and vid cards close to the 75 watt limit. The card may draw too much current or the mobo doesn't supply enough. Sometimes an incompatibility can be falsely attributed to PCIe 1.0, 1.1 or 2.x. Other times the PCIe incompatibility does exist but is very rare.

Here the GT620's TDP is 49 watts so no power issue should exist.

I wonder if the motherboard itself is dying, has errors on the PCIe bus or hypertransport. Or you've just bought a dead card, that is possible too.

I would use the PC with an old PCI card such as an S3 Virge, ATI Rage Pro if you still have that around (I like to keep an old S3 card if I can)

If you're forced to buy new hardware the APU suggestion was decent but maybe a FX-6350 is a reasonable option too that should last tons of time.
 
Probably PCIe incompatibility. Or ya maybe the motherboard is flaky.

Hit up ebay. I've run up to a 3870 in nForce4 and that is a PCIe 2.0 card. The 4000 series would probably work too. 4850 would max that CPU out. Maybe look for 1gig cards since 512mb is often an issue for anything recent. I've played new stuff like Dishonored on 3870 and 4850. 3870 won't run Skyrim correctly fyi.

Don't buy old NV cards because many are flaky because of the bumpgate solder controversy.
 
gt 620 probably never uses more than 30w anyway,
if it's not working I would first test the card with a newer PC, if it works, it's probably some strange compatibility issue, back in 2008 I had to update the bios of my asrock nforce MB to support HD38xx Radeons for example... I've also seen HD4800 radeons not working with a few nforce 650 MBs

PCIE 1.x should work (and works) with PCIE 2+ VGAs, but it could be a problem of your specific MB+VGA combination and whatever aspect on the firmware is causing it.

GT 620 is a renamed GT 520 basically, it's a Fermi GPU, just like a GT 430 (but half of it), I don't remember reading about many compatibility issues from Fermi GPUs (PCIE 2.0) and older MBs.
 
HMBR said:
back in 2008 I had to update the bios of my asrock nforce MB to support HD38xx Radeons for example... I've also seen HD4800 radeons not working with a few nforce 650 MBs
Click to expand...
I see. I haven't tried 4850 in nForce4. I have a 4850 at work that I could throw in my DFI nForce4 in the closet if there's interest in finding out. For that matter I could try a 560 Ti and a 6950 too.
 
Blazkowicz said:
Issues existed with certain early PCIe motherboards, and vid cards close to the 75 watt limit. The card may draw too much current or the mobo doesn't supply enough. Sometimes an incompatibility can be falsely attributed to PCIe 1.0, 1.1 or 2.x. Other times the PCIe incompatibility does exist but is very rare.

Here the GT620's TDP is 49 watts so no power issue should exist.

I wonder if the motherboard itself is dying, has errors on the PCIe bus or hypertransport. Or you've just bought a dead card, that is possible too.

I would use the PC with an old PCI card such as an S3 Virge, ATI Rage Pro if you still have that around (I like to keep an old S3 card if I can)

If you're forced to buy new hardware the APU suggestion was decent but maybe a FX-6350 is a reasonable option too that should last tons of time.
Click to expand...



lol. My only other card before the x1900xtx, is an ATI 9700 all in wonder! AGP interface! Which **HAS** a slot on my mboard!

Dead cardf? Just my luck. My life seems to be full of tricks and traps, that famous people never encounter. Anyway, I'm looking for a dongle card (2 6-pins is okay, just no 8 pins). Any suggestions?
 
swaaye said:
Probably PCIe incompatibility. Or ya maybe the motherboard is flaky.

Hit up ebay. I've run up to a 3870 in nForce4 and that is a PCIe 2.0 card. The 4000 series would probably work too. 4850 would max that CPU out. Maybe look for 1gig cards since 512mb is often an issue for anything recent. I've played new stuff like Dishonored on 3870 and 4850. 3870 won't run Skyrim correctly fyi.

Don't buy old NV cards because many are flaky because of the bumpgate solder controversy.
Click to expand...

I'm SKEPTICAL about buying used cards. just look at the troublex I have with NEW cards! Most (all?) of the cards I KNOW will work, are no longer available (new). I don't want to trash my BEAUTIFUL (to me) system, on account of a GPU.
 
swaaye said:
Probably PCIe incompatibility. Or ya maybe the motherboard is flaky.

Hit up ebay. I've run up to a 3870 in nForce4 and that is a PCIe 2.0 card. The 4000 series would probably work too. 4850 would max that CPU out. Maybe look for 1gig cards since 512mb is often an issue for anything recent. I've played new stuff like Dishonored on 3870 and 4850. 3870 won't run Skyrim correctly fyi.

Don't buy old NV cards because many are flaky because of the bumpgate solder controversy.
Click to expand...

PCIe 2.0 is what GT620 uses. I suppose there is a conundrex there somewhere, but it shouldn't be that.
 
HMBR said:
gt 620 probably never uses more than 30w anyway,
if it's not working I would first test the card with a newer PC, if it works, it's probably some strange compatibility issue, back in 2008 I had to update the bios of my asrock nforce MB to support HD38xx Radeons for example... I've also seen HD4800 radeons not working with a few nforce 650 MBs

PCIE 1.x should work (and works) with PCIE 2+ VGAs, but it could be a problem of your specific MB+VGA combination and whatever aspect on the firmware is causing it.

GT 620 is a renamed GT 520 basically, it's a Fermi GPU, just like a GT 430 (but half of it), I don't remember reading about many compatibility issues from Fermi GPUs (PCIE 2.0) and older MBs.
Click to expand...

Funny thing is, their customer support NEVER got responded to me (email) on this issue (3 days now). I even asked, if not this card, then what card? You're the second vote for

I don't have a newer PC to test with (trying to AVOID that).

Are you saying I should try looking for a BIOS update? Still, if anything, this card should work BETTER than me running an ATI X900XTX in an NVIDIA motherboard right?

One thing, i learned, so far, (take away) is BE CAREFUL not to install your Cooler Master radiator upside down. They are bisymetrical on a horizontal line across the middle. If you do (i did), you get CPU overheat in a few minutes without even playing a game. lol! sheesh. As I get older, I guess I'm less attentive. It didn't help that the decals on both sides appeared identical. A nice ARROW (this end up) would have been useful. It's been over 7 years since I built it.
 
There have been BIOS updates for boards released in the past few years that address PCIe video card issues. But there's certainly little chance of a BIOS for a nForce4. The last BIOS for my DFI NF4 Ultra-D is from like 2006.

Actually now that I think about it, I've always had occasional weirdness with nForce4 and PCIe video. It's not unstable, but sometimes there is image corruption during reboot for example. Like the card isn't quite initialized correctly until the Windows driver loads.

BTW there's never been any motherboard vendor bias on video cards. ATI on nforce is not a problem.
 
I have a nforce 520, working fine. Just a crazy issue where selecting 1024x768 85Hz will give me 60Hz so I have to run at 75Hz instead. I would like to replace that 7600GT (which I suspect of overheating when gaming for long) with a geforce 210.
The geforce 210/GT220/GT240 generation is maybe a good bet (except noisy GT220s).

On the AMD side, a Radeon 5450 with gddr3 is maybe nice, it's a lot more powerful in games than you would believe by looking at it or its specs.
 
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