X800 XL for AGP anyone ?

**exAndrzej** · 07-05-2005, 08:25 PM

Hi All,

Just a heads-up to let you know that we will be sampling the major publications with AGP versions of the X800XL card VERY SOON

If the pricing from our partners on this product is as competitive as the PCI-Express variant...

...then it should make the choice of card for gamers who want 'plenty of 1600x1200 bangs for not so many bucks' on existing AGP kit much easier

**8bit** · 09-05-2005, 04:28 PM

I've got one

It's t3h pr0n (scuse my l337

)

HL2 all detail settings maxed with 6xAA and 16xAF no problem w00t

**Kezzer** · 09-05-2005, 04:47 PM

I got the Connect3D X800XL the other day in my new system (see sig). She's a beaut, runs HL2 on full settings at 1280x1024 quite nicely

**neonplanet40** · 10-05-2005, 10:15 PM

im getting a club 3d one nexty week as they seem to be overclocking better with the extra power connecter. ty to komplett for getting them in.

Neo

**8bit** · 31-05-2005, 11:05 AM

andrzej, is there a known issue with the official Catalyst drivers from ati.com with the AGP versions of X800XL? I find they don't work right (refusing to use AA/AF/VSync even tho they forced on in the Control Panel, corrupt/flashing/missing textures, general poor fps etc) in games with my Sapphire X800XL 256Mb AGP card. Only the 5.1 version drivers that came with the card seem to work right and I do NOT want to be stuck using whatever out of date versions Sapphire supply.

I did post in another thread where someone else is having similar problems but I wanted to post here cause I knew you'd get the topic update notification and if possible I'd like to hear the official line on this as it sounds like there are a number of people with the same issue.

Please help! I want my nice new card to kick a55!

**exAndrzej** · 31-05-2005, 11:28 AM

Originally Posted by 8bit

...corrupt/flashing/missing...

Very unusual - and not part of the experience

As far as I am aware - none of these are issues that you should encounter at all

You should get 'perfect' results with the latest Catalyst driver

Have you tried completely uninstalling all previous graphics drivers (us and the other guys), as well as .NET, before putting the latest .NET Framework version on and then the latest Catalyst driver ?

My suggestion would be to check with Sapphire's tech sup first to ensure that there is not an issue - then try the complete clean-out/re-install - and see if that makes a difference

Just so you know, I put my present PCI-Express and AGP rigs together about 6 months ago and I am constantly swapping cards in and out

I had a similar experience to you only twice:-

1) When I had been looking at 'other cards' and then - using DriverCleaner - discovered that some of them had been less than 'tidy' when uninstalling themselves... talk about shrapnelware !

2) When a card had a memory issue - but only in a specific location - so that many tests did not reveal the issue - but when playing games at high resolution the issue could be profound

The first was solved by cleaning out old (opposition non-WHQL !) drivers and the second required a card-swap by the manufacturer

**8bit** · 31-05-2005, 11:52 AM

Hi,

WOW, thanks for the fast reply!

OK, the reason I want to use the ATI drivers is mainly out of principal, I wanted a 100% ATI certified compatible card from a board partner. That and because I find the Sapphire site *painfully* slow and they have the 5.3 drivers at present, not 5.5.

I will have a rifle through their tech support stuff when I can face 5 minute page loading times

Incidentally, the last card from the "other" GPU company I had was the original GF3 Ti200 that came in the machine when I bought it 2nd hand. Since then, the only part from that machine I still have is the DVD ROM drive

and its had about 4 reinstalls of windows since then, including when I replaced the GF3 with a Radeon 9800 Pro

so i doubt it's because of old forceware junk lying around on the system...

Given that this X800XL card is a ViVo model I've been trying the following:

- completely uninstall ALL Ati stuff using Add/Remove programs CPL
- reboot into safe mode once above all done and remove ATi stuff with driver cleaner pro
- reboot into normal mode and install:
> Catalyst driver 5.5
> Catalyst WDM driver (latest version)
> Control Panel applet (NOT the .NET thing, it's too big and personally I don't like it
- then reboot again.

Is there some reason I must use the .NET thing instead of the CPL with this card? Is there perhaps (as suggested in another thread on this card) something in the installer for the ATi released drivers which does not correctly identify the Sapphire board as being a card that it supports? When I got the card at first I didn't bother with the drivers on the CD as they are 5.1 and 5.4 was available. They didn't work at all. Installed, rebooted then XP still wanted to look for and install the drivers

Should I have forced XP to use the drivers I'd just installed?

The thing that makes me think maybe the sapphire card isn't correctly identified is that even when the Sapphire drivers are installed it tells me the card is "X800 Series", I thought it would be identified as "X800 XL" or similar. Am I reading too much into that?

Sorry Andrzej I realise you're not a tech support person over there. I have heard of a few people at least with this issue on this forum alone so without any definitive answers I'm assuming responsibility for trying to find a solution on behalf of anyone still forced to use old old Sapphire provided drivers with this card.

TIA for any help m8
8bit

**YorkieBen** · 31-05-2005, 01:31 PM

Andrzej do you know if the Arctic Cooler VGA silencers work on the agp x800xl series (I ask because the AGP x800xls have a larger PCB than the pci-e ones)

**exAndrzej** · 31-05-2005, 01:35 PM

Originally Posted by 8bit

...any help...

I can't promise to be of any help

However, I can tell you that ATI's Catalyst drivers work properly for all of our cards

The difficulty is having a clean set-up on the box to see if - in a virgin environment - everything works perfectly...

...but that can be a pain

Please take the fact that this forum is not plastered with similar experiences to mean that you have been 'lucky'

You don't need to use CCC - but I only use it and have not had any issues - so I was looking to remove a 'variable' - the driver itself is the same

I really think you have tried everything

Is there a reason why you don't think that this could be caused by a high-end memory issue or problem with a pipeline ?

i.e. why you don't think it might be a hardware issue

Please check with Sapphire and see what they say

**exAndrzej** · 31-05-2005, 01:58 PM

Originally Posted by YorkieBen

...Arctic Cooler...

You would really need to contact your board supplier to see if they think it is cool

**SilentDeath** · 31-05-2005, 02:02 PM

The drivers from sapphires site and on the driver cd work fine? is it just the ati official ones that have problems?

Originally Posted by 8bit

The thing that makes me think maybe the sapphire card isn't correctly identified is that even when the Sapphire drivers are installed it tells me the card is "X800 Series", I thought it would be identified as "X800 XL" or similar. Am I reading too much into that?

ATI cards are usually identified buy their PCI device ID which is shown on boot up, check that it is correct for your card. There are sometimes several variations for nonpro/pro/xt etc..

Where it says "X800 Series" - that is normal and happens with all cards, atleast with the 5x r3x0 cards I had, and the x850xtpe I have now.

**8bit** · 31-05-2005, 04:21 PM