Anyone tried new 3800 series with 775dual-vsta?

T

Twingo

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I just read from anandtech forum that all pcie 2.0 cards are not compatible with 880pro/ultra chipset, and the only way of getting them work is flashing the BIOS to PCIE Gen1:(. Anyone tried 3850 or 3870 on 775dual-vsta? My 3870 is coming tomorrow, if it doesn't work I'll probably need to buy a new mobo:rolleyes:
 
Twingo said:
I just read from anandtech forum that all pcie 2.0 cards are not compatible with 880pro/ultra chipset, and the only way of getting them work is flashing the BIOS to PCIE Gen1:(. Anyone tried 3850 or 3870 on 775dual-vsta? My 3870 is coming tomorrow, if it didn't work I'll probably need to buy a new mobo:rolleyes:
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I posted in that thread you were referring to on Anand and I just changed my post after looking at both boards on Asrock's Site (4CoreDual, 775Dual). Asrock blamed the incompatibilty of the 4CoreDual-VSTA on the Chipset/BIOS of that motherboard. The 775Dual uses the PT880 Pro / Ultra Chipset rather than the PT880 (non-Pro) / Ultra chipset which the 4CoreDual uses, so I don't know if there would be a difference. Your best bet would be to contact Asrock directly and I'll bet they'll have an answer for you right away.

Edit: Looks like someone already contacted Asrock and they said the 775 doesn't work with the 8800GT. So it doesn't look good for the HD 3870 on the 775 either. Sorry.

http://www.hardforum.com/showpost.php?p=1031634961&postcount=126
 
Considering that the 8800GT works on the 775Dual after flashing the bios to make the card into a non-2.0 pci express card, I think the same could be done to the 3800 series. I think it was optimummind that first did this, and he contacted the manufacturer of the card to get the bios.

edit: I hope it works too, because then I wouldn't have to buy a new motherboard as I have the 775Dual as well.
 
skadebo said:
Considering that the 8800GT works on the 775Dual after flashing the bios to make the card into a non-2.0 pci express card, I think the same could be done to the 3800 series. I think it was optimummind that first did this, and he contacted the manufacturer of the card to get the bios.

edit: I hope it works too, because then I wouldn't have to buy a new motherboard as I have the 775Dual as well.
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There is no VGA-BIOS Flasher that currently works with the 3800 series from what I have read on Techpowerup and Anandtech. They are working on it though.
 
Yes, I just got my card today, and it works - sort of.

First of all, I wasn't expecting much, but I removed an AIW-X800XT AGP and put the Sapphire HD3870 in the PCI-E slot. Guess what? It booted up just fine, right into Windows XP. I didn't even have to modify any BIOS settings. Big surprise.

Anyways, after a driver update I started testing some games (UT3, Half-Life lost coast benchmark), and I did have a lot of random texture / geometry corruption. However, nothing crashed, just these weird triangles and spaghetti strands stringing across the scenery here and there. I'm not sure what this is due to, but I hope it's just my measly 300W power supply (Update 11-24-07: It wasn't the power supply, it was the PCIE downstream pipeline BIOS setting, see post #15) - the 12V rail was at 11.3V just during desktop! (Update 11-24-07: No it wasn't - the windbond chip just underreported, multimeter showed ~12.0V). It's a miracle nothing crashed. Then again, I have overvolted my CPU, maybe that averted a CPU crash.

Anyhow, a bigger power supply is on the way, I'll know in a week if that fixes it. I'm thinking it could also be BIOS settings... who knows. Here's my config:

Updated:

Old PSU: 300W Fortron/Source FSP300-60PN power supply, single 12V rail rated 18A - apparently insufficient, as this drops to 11.0V under full GPU load
New PSU: 400W Enermax Liberty ELT400AWT power supply, dual 12V rails each rated 20A, 30A combined. Due to arrive 11/27/2007.

ASRock 775Dual-VSTA
BIOS ver. P3.00, 9/17/2007
CPU, PCI-E sync (CPU 266, PCI-E 100)
Vcore volt-mod and droop-mod by me as described at http://forums.vr-zone.com/showthread.php?t=192571

Core 2 Duo E4500 (11x multiplier), 1.4V per hardware volt-mod
FSB 266 MHz, giving 3GHz CPU
2x 1 GB DDR2-533, 4-4-4-12-2T (Crucial CT2KIT12864AA53E)
Windows XP

Old GPU: ATI Radeon All-in-Wonder X800XT AGP
New GPU: Sapphire Radeon HD3870 PCI-E
 
gustep12 said:
Yes, I just got my card today, and it works - sort of.
Click to expand...

That's great, I'll pass the word to a few who asked this question on another forum. Sounds like you need a new power supply. What make and model is your power supply specifically?
 
O.k., here are a few updates:

- My current PSU is an FSP Group (Fortron/Source) FSP300-60PN, with a single 18A rated 12V rail. Overall, this PSU has been very reliable, but I guess it's too weak for the new GPU. Under load (windowed 3D game), the 12V rail even dropped to 11.0 volts! However, the 5V and 3.3V rails are still perfect.

- My new PSU will most likely be the Enermax Liberty ELT400AWT 400W PSU (already ordered). Just 400W ? Yes, but this PSU has a good price (US $72 shipped, currently at Directron.com), it is modular, has a high efficiency and active PFC, and it has 2 relatively beefy 12V rails, i.e. each rated 20A, combined 30A. This is comparable to many 500W PSUs. Basically, for the new generation of video cards and motherboards, what is most important is the number of combined amps available at 12V, and in this regard, this "400W" PSU is very good.

- I just updated the 775Dual-VSTA motherboard to BIOS v3.00, 9/20/2007, but the artifacts in 3D games are still there. I guess it really is a voltage problem, i.e. because of my currently still underpowered 12V rail, or a manufacturing defect.

I'll keep you updated.
 
gustep12 said:
O.k., here are a few updates:

- My current PSU is an FSP Group (Fortron/Source) FSP300-60PN, with a single 18A rated 12V rail.

- My new PSU will most likely be the Enermax Liberty ELT400AWT 400W PSU (already ordered). Just 400W ? Yes, but this PSU has a good price (US $72 shipped, currently at Directron.com), it is modular, has a high efficiency and active PFC, and it has 2 relatively beefy 12V rails, i.e. each rated 20A, combined 30A.
Click to expand...

Just remember, READ the system requirements before plugging new hardware into your system, pulling too much current from the power supply can cause damage to other components in your system if the power supply dies a horrible death. Luckily gustep12 didn't cause any damage.

On AMD/ATI's HD 3800 Series - System Requirements page it states:
ATI said:
450 Watt or greater power supply with 75 Watt 6-pin PCI Express® power connector recommended (550 Watt and two 6-pin connectors for dual ATI CrossFireX™)
Click to expand...
http://ati.amd.com/products/radeonhd3800/requirements.html

According to [H]Enthusiast's testing the 3870 draws 116 Watts at full power.
Assuming that's all on the 12V rail, that's about 10A steady-state, not peak, just for the video card. More if overclocked. Also in the review it stated that the test system draws 152W without a video card, so 30A is cutting it close, since may power supplies don't quite deliver full capacity for extended periods. I'd take ATI's advice and go for a solid 450 Watt power supply rather than a 400. [H] gave a Gold award to the Corsair VX450W (33W - Tested 12V rail), I'd suggest going for that. $80 - $15 rebate + $8 shipping at one retailer (~$73). http://hardocp.com/article.html?art=MTM3NSw5LCxoZW50aHVzaWFzdA==
 
It is working with 775dual-vsta. My sapphire 3870 arrived this afternoon, it took me three hours to put it in, had to take out the AIW x800xt, cut all the watercooling tubing to switch the position so 3870 can fit in. It's working fine with my 400W power supply, I have a FSP Zen 400, which has no fan so it's dead quiet. Ati did a wonderful job for they don't have any compatibility problem like 8800GT has with 775dual-vsta. Well done, ATI!:cool:
 
bbf said:
Just remember, READ the system requirements before plugging new hardware into your system. I'd take ATI's advice and go for a solid 450 Watt power supply rather than a 400.
Click to expand...

Well, "requirements" are one thing, but unfortunately, saying "450W" is not specific enough. What they should instead tell you is how many amps you need on the 12V rail. I won't be buying something just for the Watts figure, I buy something after considering the full specifications. Example: The 450W Corsair PSU that you recommend has 33 amps on the 12V rail, the one I am buying has 30 amps. Not much of a difference. The greatest difference is that the Enermax is modular.

Specifically:
*********************
450W Corsair VX450W (not modular, $73 after rebate)

3.3V - 20A
5V - 20A
12V - 33A

3.3V + 5V combined: 130W
12V: 396W (33A)
*********************

*********************
Enermax Liberty ELT400AWT (modular power supply, $72 shipped)

3.3V - 26A
5V - 28A
12V - 30A

3.3V + 5V combined: 150W
12V: 360W (30A)
*********************

Considering this, I think both power supplies are very similar in value. I do agree that the Corsair one looks pretty good also, especially considering that it's essentially a 500W Seasonic inside (as the review says).
 
Just remember that the Corsair has been tested by the HardOCP to supply the full rated power at 45 degrees C (12V-33A, 5V-8A, 3.3V-5A, 5VSB-2A.) Plus it survived the 8HR torture test at 80% load. To me that means a lot. The Enermax Liberty series has not been through the same sort of testing, so it may or may not live up to its claims.

Personally, I'd rather have higher capacity than modular cables at the $80 price point, but it just depends on what you want/require.
 
Hi all,

I figured out what caused my texture corruption - it wasn't the power supply as I first thought.

Instead, it's a finicky BIOS setting on the 775Dual-VSTA, and probably also on other similar boards with the same chipset.

You must set PCIE DOWNSTREAM PIPELINE --> DISABLE

Otherwise you'll get said texture corruption, especially in newer games like UT3.

After this, everything works perfectly. Also, now I have 2 surplus power supplies, which I bought to fix the defect, but which failed to help. Turns out that the voltage also didn't drop as much as expected, the 11.0V are what the board (windbond chip) reports, but actually when I use a multimeter, I measure 11.9V.
 
Anybody running a Sapphire 3850 AGP with an Asrock 775 Dual VSTA?

I am thinking about going this route to squeeze some more out of my system, but I can't find anyone who has run with this setup.
Asrock, has been no help, saying to pick a card from their VGA list....
 
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