[IceFire]

I think I've previously mentioned my intent to seriously upgrade my computer.  But I have a bit of a worry....I want to keep the Audgy (my budget mandates that I do so) but I've heard that some people have problems with the Radeon 9700 and Audigy cards installed.

Also, I've heard that the R9700 has game compatability problems.  Anyone have anything to say about this either way?

[Nico]

Originally posted by IceFire
I think I've previously mentioned my intent to seriously upgrade my computer.  But I have a bit of a worry....I want to keep the Audgy (my budget mandates that I do so) but I've heard that some people have problems with the Radeon 9700 and Audigy cards installed.

Also, I've heard that the R9700 has game compatability problems.  Anyone have anything to say about this either way?

for the audigy thing, dunno.
for the radeon, I have some graphical bugs with Serious Sam, and that's all.

[IceFire]

Well...33 views...no comments.  How about some more reassurance or discouragement

[Stryke 9]

Radeon. Buh. Audigy grunk buh-buh-buh-BUH! Dook.

Ung.

[Styxx]

That was enlightening.

Sorry Ice, can't help. Never tried any of the aforementioned pieces of equipment.

[Stryke 9]

Club!

[hits Styxx with a branch]

[Styxx]

Post count reset in... one pointless post!

[Nico]

isn't technology wonderful?

[Ryx]

Well, I looked at the Rage 3D boards and I couldn't find any problems with Audigy. There are/were some problems with AGP8x on some mobos, though.

Rage 3D is the biggest ATi (fan)site out there, I think.

[Nico]

I bought an Ati, dunno, I prefer a card directly from the manufacturer, rather than a mix between the chip frm ati and a card from someone else. after all, the drivers are made according to the 100% ati card.

[IceFire]

Originally posted by venom2506
I bought an Ati, dunno, I prefer a card directly from the manufacturer, rather than a mix between the chip frm ati and a card from someone else. after all, the drivers are made according to the 100% ati card.

Agreed on that point.  Mine will be coming from ATI.  Heck, I could drive an hour and knock on their corporate offices and get one! HA!

Well, I think I will stay the course.  Going a bit rebel this time round....AMD, ATI, nForce 2....a little bit different than my previous Intel, nVidia, VIA (uggh...I know).

[Admiral LSD]

nForce2 has fairly good onboard audio (it has a hardware audio processor as opposed to the software AC'97 crap on virtually every other chipset...) rumoured to be comparable to the Audigy so if the latter doesn't work, you'll have something to fall back on. Just remember to look for a board with the MCP-T South Bridge and avoid the Chaintech 7NJS -- it has an MCP-T but uses an external, standalone audio chip instead. I haven't even budgeted for a sound card in my new machine (using an EPoX EP-8RDA+ nForce2 motherboard), I'd be taking a step backwards fitting my old SBLive in place of the APU and getting something better would mean spending upwards of AUD$500 on something like an Audigy 2 (which still can't fully handle 24-bit 96Khz DVD quality audio...) so I have nothing to lose in at least giving the APU a go.

[IceFire]

Pretty sure the ASUS A7N8X has the MCP-T southbridge.  Correct me if I'm wrong.

Everyone here seems to have positive comments.  I have heard there are little niggles with ATI cards and some games but most seem to have been overcome or fixed by the Catalyst drivers.  There are no problems with FS2 are there?  And FreeLancer has been fixed by the latest drivers yes?

[Admiral LSD]

Originally posted by IceFire
Pretty sure the ASUS A7N8X has the MCP-T southbridge.  Correct me if I'm wrong.

The A7N8X Deluxe does, the regular A7N8X uses the MCP.

[IceFire]

Originally posted by Admiral LSD


The A7N8X Deluxe does, the regular A7N8X uses the MCP.

The Deluxe does...and the regulard A7N8X uses the MCP....which is what you said the Deluxe does...I'm confused

Pretty sure I'll be going standard.  Don't want some of the extra features and definately more interested in the Audigy and the motherboards overall functions.

Also using old HDD and CD drives so I'm not going to Serial ATA.

[Admiral LSD]

Originally posted by IceFire
The Deluxe does...and the regulard A7N8X uses the MCP....which is what you said the Deluxe does...I'm confused

Let's try this again: There are two nForce2 South Bridges: MCP and MCP-T. MCP has a single LAN MAC, 6 USB ports, ATA133 controller and I think, a basic APU. The MCP-T adds two Firewire ports, another LAN MAC and the full blown "SoundStorm" APU. Now, Asus make (at least) two models of nForce2 board: A7N8X and A7N8X Deluxe. The former uses only the MCP South Bridge while the latter utilises the MCP-T (as well as adding an SATA controller to the mix).

You can save a few bob (and get an MCP-T as well) by going for a board like the EPoX 8RDA+ which are around US$40-50 cheaper than the A7N8X Deluxe while implementing nearly all the available nForce2 functionality (including the "SoundStorm" APU but as EPoX include no SPDIF header in the box, the board isn't allowed to carry the official certification.) with the exception of the second 3Com LAN MAC (the nVidia one is better anyway) but unless your on both broadband and a LAN without some kind of standalone router you won't miss it.

[Razor]

Originally posted by Stryke 9
Club!

[hits Styxx with a branch]

Post count reset in... one pointless post!

Points and laughs at Stryke.

If I remember well, this is the second time this happened.

[IceFire]

Thanks Admiral for the advice.  Seems like not too much in the way of negativity towards ATI.  And it seems like most problems have been fixed by ATI drivers when the problems arise.

[Admiral LSD]

Originally posted by venom2506
I bought an Ati, dunno, I prefer a card directly from the manufacturer, rather than a mix between the chip frm ati and a card from someone else. after all, the drivers are made according to the 100% ati card.

What about chip from ATI and card labelled as ATi but manufactured by someone else? I found this while trying to find pictures of the various Radeon 9500 Pro cards (to get an idea of where the onboard power connectors are so I can better plan the wiring in my case). It seems a certain number of ATi's retail cards are made by Sapphire:

Not only has Sapphire been busy making their own retail line of graphics cards, they've also quietly gone about making ATIs boxed retail cards for them as well. There's a good chance that that retail ATI 9700 Pro of yours was actually made by Sapphire. This should bring immediate confidence in Sapphire to anyone who has ever used a retail ATI card and noted the excellent image quality they are known for.

http://www.rage3d.com/reviews/Sapphire/sapphire9500p/

I was planning on buying the Sapphire card anyway (it's reasonably priced and received several favourable reviews) but this has made me a bit more confident in that decision nonetheless.

[Kazan]

Radeon 9700 + Audigy problem = chipset problems on some motherboards


Not ATI's fault
Not SoundBlaster's fault




DO NOT BUY the nForce/nForce2 it's got more problems than swiss cheese has holes

get a shuttle motherboard ( http://www.shuttle.com )