Radeon 9800 Pro Tips

[Max]

1. Be sure sure to check your power supply before installing. 300 watts is required to drive this card...more if you have multiple media devices. Skuzzy suggested the Antec 430 watt box.

2. If you need to upgrade your power supply, be sure in the 3 prong power cord input on the back of the power supply matches the opening on the back grill of your computer case.

3. The 9800 Pro requires additional power other than the AGP slot...a power extension cord is supplied. DO NOT unplug your hard drive power connector as suggested by the install guide. Simply use one of the extra power source plugs available.

4. If switching over from an Nvidia card, be sure to remove all drivers/software before installing the ATI drivers/software.

5. Have plenty of Basel Hayden's Bourbon on hand if you went about it half-assed backwards like I did. (Thanks for all the help Skuzzy!!)

Now a question...
I finally have this card installed properly...I think...but when booting AH I get the white screen of death as the AH splash screen comes up. Any solutions?

Off for more Bourbon....

DmdMax

[214thCavalier]

If you previously used an Nvidia card, try deleting the video7.cfg file in the AH settings folder.

[Max]

Thanks I seem to be OK now.

Maiden Rad 9800 flight was mid-70's FR. That's about 10 more than my GF3 Ti200. Any thoughts?

DmdMax.

[Skuzzy]

If I remember correctly, you have a 1.8Ghz P4.  At this time, you are CPU limited.  The 9800Pro can stand up to about a 3GHhz P4 before it is bring pushed.
Basically, you got a nice card that will outlive your current motherboard and CPU quite easily.

[FOGOLD]

Don't worry. I just put an 9800 pro in simply because they were so cheap. I knew I was proc limited, but couldn't resist (XP2000).

My FR isn't THAT much better than my old GF3 Ti 500 because AH is quite a processor dependent game. Made a huge difference in Il2 FB for some reason though.

Problems with last Beta of AH2 though. V poor framerates. Seems to be a general problem. Havn't tried latest Beta yet. Nvidia owners seem to get on much better.

Skuzzy, could you tell us if it is ok to import the settings file from AH to the AH2 Beta? Is it better to set everything up from scratch?

All the best everyone?

[Max]

Originally posted by FOGOLD
Skuzzy, could you tell us if it is ok to import the settings file from AH to the AH2 Beta? Is it better to set everything up from scratch?

I was told it's OK to do, and did it. Worked fine.

DmdMax

[Max]

Originally posted by Skuzzy
If I remember correctly, you have a 1.8Ghz P4.  At this time, you are CPU limited.  The 9800Pro can stand up to about a 3GHhz P4 before it is bring pushed.
Basically, you got a nice card that will outlive your current motherboard and CPU quite easily.

Just checked...that's 1.85 Ghz to you, mister
Thanks for all your help Skuzzy!

DmdMax

[Skuzzy]

Hehe,..well Intel never shipped a 1.85Ghz P4.  

[Max]

Dimension 8200  
Service Tag 46CY511
Express Service Code 9091674613
Processor Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 1.90GHz
Processor Speed 1.85 GHz
Memory (RAM) 512 MB
 

We'll call it a draw

One of the primary reasons I grabbed the 9800 Pro was due to the higher dependency AH2 would have on vid cards as opposed to CPU's. Was I wrong?

DmdMax

[Pfunk]

Originally posted by DMax
Dimension 8200  
Service Tag 46CY511
Express Service Code 9091674613
Processor Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 1.90GHz
Processor Speed 1.85 GHz
Memory (RAM) 512 MB
 

We'll call it a draw

One of the primary reasons I grabbed the 9800 Pro was due to the higher dependency AH2 would have on vid cards as opposed to CPU's. Was I wrong?

DmdMax

Unfortunatley as it stands now Radeon cards are a poor choice for AH2 due to a bug, if or when HTC fixes it your choice is most excellent

[FOGOLD]

Unfortunatley as it stands now Radeon cards are a poor choice for AH2 due to a bug, if or when HTC fixes it your choice is most excellent

Yes. This is a bummer. If it's a bug, HTC are saying VERY little about it or owning up to nothing.

I was a bit of a Nvidia fanboy but I really hope i havn't boobed big time here.

[aSTAR]

Your statement #3 ?

So what happens if a person follows the instructions posed by ATI


I did the extra cable install and have had no problems.

My power supply: 530 watts.

aSTAR

[Max]

Originally posted by aSTAR
Your statement #3 ?

So what happens if a person follows the instructions posed by ATI


I did the extra cable install and have had no problems.

My power supply: 530 watts.

aSTAR

Some clarification...
The Rad Pro 9800 requires a power source and the install notes suggest plugging the extension power cord into the back of your hard drive, then using the pigtail provided with the extension cord, as a recepticle for the power source that was orginally feeding the HD. Perhaps ATI assumes you don't have additional power plugs available for the card.

If you followed ATI's set-up instructions and have no problems; fine. I plugged into the pigtail coupled to the power cord feeding my HD. In either case, given the fact I had a 250 watt power supply, I created a multitude of problems --- too numerous to mention but they were hard drive related, I suspect.

Long story short, during one of my many conversations with Skuzzy, he advised not fooling with the HD power cord.

Sorry if that seems a bit confusing, am in need of more morning coffee

DmdMax

[aSTAR]

Thanks bud for the reply, appreciate that. I did my first assembly
of a new unit and am always reading & checking to see if I have done these things properly.

aSTAR