WTB SAPPHIRE HD 4000 Radeon HD 4650 8x AGP w/1 GB RAM

[Agent Orange]

I'm looking for this particular 8X AGP video card for a project. I'm willing to pay any reasonable price for the card, but will not go for the current eBay offers. :shock:

 

[GiGaBiTe]

Ebay has one card for a bit less than the card was when it was new:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Sapphire-HD...391107?hash=item1c6be71703:g:FL8AAOSwRoxXn-Cw

Though I'd advise against getting one of these cards, they're more trouble than they're worth. These cards have all sorts of issues with drivers because they're basically a PCIe GPU with a bridge to the AGP bus. They require special drivers, normal ATI drivers won't work with this card and even the special drivers often don't work properly. I bought one of these cards in 2009 for about $90 new and I could never get it to work properly. It was supposed to resurrect an old AGP system but I ended up sending the card back to Newegg because it never worked reliably and sent the system off to the recyclers.

Something like a 7800GS would be better. It's not as fast and doesn't support DX10, but it's a much cheaper option and works reliably.

 

[Agent Orange]

Ebay has one card for a bit less than the card was when it was new:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Sapphire-HD...391107?hash=item1c6be71703:g:FL8AAOSwRoxXn-Cw

Though I'd advise against getting one of these cards, they're more trouble than they're worth. These cards have all sorts of issues with drivers because they're basically a PCIe GPU with a bridge to the AGP bus. They require special drivers, normal ATI drivers won't work with this card and even the special drivers often don't work properly. I bought one of these cards in 2009 for about $90 new and I could never get it to work properly. It was supposed to resurrect an old AGP system but I ended up sending the card back to Newegg because it never worked reliably and sent the system off to the recyclers.

Something like a 7800GS would be better. It's not as fast and doesn't support DX10, but it's a much cheaper option and works reliably.

Thanks for the info. I've seen just everything on eBay and some go as high as $275 - real crazy. I have a Nvidia 7800GS up and running in my A7 project now, and was just looking for that little extra something or another. There is one, new in the box, somewhere in the Russian Federation, and the source wants $65 plus shipping for the thing. Still mulling that one over. Sounds like you had a real bad time with Newegg on that board. I haven't considered driver problems, maybe I should take another look at this.

 

[GiGaBiTe]

Sounds like you had a real bad time with Newegg on that board.

Naah, Newegg didn't give me a hard time at all with that card's RMA.

The people that designed the card had good intentions of being a throwback to the AGP bus, but the design itself was just bad and should have never been attempted. When you force hardware to do something it was never designed to do, you're going to have a bad time and numerous other people have written about the awful driver problems and the card not working properly.

There were a few models with HDMI ports instead of the S-Video out and those were even worse. A normal PCIe HD4650/70 had a Realtek HDMI controller, but AGP cards can't have multiple devices on the AGP bus so it was jimmy rigged in the GPU. It required a separate driver that had absolutely no support and barely worked. It also didn't support sound for obvious reasons so it was a pure video only link

 

[Agent Orange]

Naah, Newegg didn't give me a hard time at all with that card's RMA.

The people that designed the card had good intentions of being a throwback to the AGP bus, but the design itself was just bad and should have never been attempted. When you force hardware to do something it was never designed to do, you're going to have a bad time and numerous other people have written about the awful driver problems and the card not working properly.

There were a few models with HDMI ports instead of the S-Video out and those were even worse. A normal PCIe HD4650/70 had a Realtek HDMI controller, but AGP cards can't have multiple devices on the AGP bus so it was jimmy rigged in the GPU. It required a separate driver that had absolutely no support and barely worked. It also didn't support sound for obvious reasons so it was a pure video only link

Well, I owe you a beer on that one, you've got me convinced. I'm a little closer to getting W7 setup on the A7N8X, and was looking for a wee bit more push. More on that in the A7 thread later. Looks like the root of the problem is in getting the S.I. controller to acknowledge the HD when installing the OS. I think I have a driver that should work.

 

[GiGaBiTe]

If the SI SATA controller is onboard and is SATA I then you'll probably have to jumper the drive in backwards compatibility mode. Some SATA I controllers won't properly detect SATA II/III drives, like the VIA 8237.

 

[Agent Orange]

If the SI SATA controller is onboard and is SATA I then you'll probably have to jumper the drive in backwards compatibility mode. Some SATA I controllers won't properly detect SATA II/III drives, like the VIA 8237.

I don't know when SATA II & III were born, but SATA I came around about 2003. The mobo is 2005 and has 2 onboard SATA connections. The manual says the SATA transfer rate is 1.5 GB per sec so that would indicate SATA I, as SATA II is 3 GB and SATA III is 6 GB. I do have some early SATA HD's lying about if that problem presents itself. Then there's always the option available for a PCI SATA controller (providing I can get compatible drivers).

 

[GiGaBiTe]

Hm, you must have a later variant of the A7N8X then because the manual states it's from late 2002. The motherboard pictured in the manual shows the pads for two SATA 150 ports but not installed.

PCI SATA II controllers are fine and dandy, they just won't ever be able to run at full bandwidth due to the PCI bus bandwidth limits. I don't think you'll have any issues with drivers.

 

[Agent Orange]

Hm, you must have a later variant of the A7N8X then because the manual states it's from late 2002. The motherboard pictured in the manual shows the pads for two SATA 150 ports but not installed.

PCI SATA II controllers are fine and dandy, they just won't ever be able to run at full bandwidth due to the PCI bus bandwidth limits. I don't think you'll have any issues with drivers.

My A7 has '2005' on the silkscreen and matches my copy of the manual, and there are 2 SATA connectors on the board. Also, this mobo is an A7N8X Deluxe with no rev numbers. I'm going to try to get W7 into the thing this weekend, but that will be between football.

 

[xjas]

I've never had a single problem - driver or otherwise - with my HD3850 AGP. The ATI 'Hotfix' driver needed to be installed manually (installer didn't work, instructions are easily found on Google), but once it was set up it works great. Granted I'm not putting it through a gruelling test of endurance but it's great for casual gaming. I can run ~2012 games on a ~2004 P4/3.0HT acceptably with it.

 

[Agent Orange]

I've never had a single problem - driver or otherwise - with my HD3850 AGP. The ATI 'Hotfix' driver needed to be installed manually (installer didn't work, instructions are easily found on Google), but once it was set up it works great. Granted I'm not putting it through a gruelling test of endurance but it's great for casual gaming. I can run ~2012 games on a ~2004 P4/3.0HT acceptably with it.

Thanks for the input. I have a Nvidia 7800GS 8X AGP w/512 MB installed. I was looking for a 1 GB 8X AGP.

 

[xjas]

Thanks for the input. I have a Nvidia 7800GS 8X AGP w/512 MB installed. I was looking for a 1 GB 8X AGP.

Yeah I was just commenting because it's exactly the same driver for both cards, and it works fine for me. I don't share Gigabite's experience at all. My card is also a Sapphire BTW.

 

[Agent Orange]

Yeah I was just commenting because it's exactly the same driver for both cards, and it works fine for me. I don't share Gigabite's experience at all. My card is also a Sapphire BTW.

Is your card a 1 GB? If so, let's make a deal. :D