Upgrading a card - how to's?

[teddyv]

Hi Folks - I have a 939 Epox-based system with an MSI x800 video card and just the drivers installed (not the whole CCC.) I hopped on the $39 NewEgg Sapphire 3850 and expect (hope!) it to arrive on Tuesday. I have no idea how to do the upgrade though?!?

1. Are the Sapphire drivers (CD) adequate or should I go to AMD/ATi and try and download the drivers there?
2. Do I need to install the whole CCC or is the old option of just drivers still available?
3. To do the upgrade do I just remove old, install new, install drivers/software when and if it asks me to - or, do I uninstall the current video drivers then do the card swap and load drivers/software on reboot?

Any other advice? Any warnings with the Sapphire drivers/software?

Thanks folks!

 

[Leyawiin]

AGP system? I would think the most current drivers on Sapphire's site for the card would cause the least headaches. The HD 3850 AGP has been known to be a bit problematic as far as driver installation goes.

 

[teddyv]

Sorry - the board and the x800 are PCI Express x16.

You bring up a good point however ... I just noticed the 3850 is PCI Express 2.0 x16 -- will that work in the PCI-E 16 (ie non-2.0)?

 

[kmmatney]

To upgrade you do the following:

1) Download the new drivers you are going to use (probably from ATI's web site), but do not install them yet

2) Uninstall your old video card drivers, then shut down the computer (it will need to restart anyways)

3) Remove old card, install the new one

4) Startup the computer. It will detect the new hardware, just cancel out of the screen that looks for the driver

5) Install the new driver. It will need to reboot, and all should be OK.

You can still just install the drivers - you don't need the CCC. However the latest CCC versions are better than they used to be - they startup faster and work better than before, so I would install CCC as well.

looks like the new card will be about twice as fast as your old one...

 

[vj8usa]

Originally posted by: kmmatney
To "upgrade" (I'm not sure it's much of an upgrade)

What makes you say that? The 3850's faster than the X1900 cards, and significantly more powerful than an X800 (not to mention you get SM3/4 support as well, which the X800 lacks).

 

[kmmatney]

Originally posted by: vj8usa

Originally posted by: kmmatney
To "upgrade" (I'm not sure it's much of an upgrade)

What makes you say that? The 3850's faster than the X1900 cards, and significantly more powerful than an X800 (not to mention you get SM3/4 support as well, which the X800 lacks).

My bad - I looked up some benchmarks, and the HD3850 should be about twice as fast as an an X800. I still have an X850XT on one of my systems, and I remember looking at the 3850 and deciding it wasn't a good upgrade back then. However it looks like a pretty decent upgrade, now, for $39.

 

[cusideabelincoln]

The HD3850 is way more than twice as fast as than X800 - "way more" depending on what version of the X800 he had since there were several ranging from mid-range to high-end. If he's coming from a vanilla X800, the 3850 will completely rape it. I know. I went from an X800GT to an HD3850 and... well my framerates were through the rough. To put it quantatively, which I really can't, I saw at least (at least) four times the performance improvement.

 

[teddyv]

Thanks for the help folks - it is an MSI TD-128E (Link to NewEgg). If I remember right, it was the low end of the x800 scale. Hopefully it will be an upgrade, I really only use it to do web/e-mail, watch DVDs, some Photoshop/Dreamweaver, and play WoW and UO.

I am upgrading because the fan assembly falls out of the x800 if the case is taken off the side (and the card fan faces down.) I called MSI and am a few months out of warranty -- after spending 10 minutes explaining the whole fan assembly (which works fine) that fits onto a hub on the card is no longer secured and falls out and trying to find out if and what kind of glue originally secured it, the tech just offered to sell me a new fan assembly for around $30 shipped. But then couldn't explain how to secure the new fan assembly, which would replace the current working fan assembly, to the hub. When explained that would then leave me with two working fan assemblies and no working card, I was disconnected (no more MSI for me!)

Now I just have to worry if my 430-watt Thermaltake will have the juice to drive it as the x800 did not use the 6-pin power connector I am also running a DVD burner, DVD-ROM, two internal HDs and an external HD, and it will go into an Antec Sonata II case.

 

[ultralord910]

Since you X800 is pcie, then why not upgrade to a HD4670 instead? Its similar size to your X800 and doesn't require a 6-pin power connector and is around the same speed as a HD3850.

Power consumption

 

[teddyv]

Thanks for the link, the big differences in power consumption simply never occurred to me!

I got it for $39 shipped (no rebate), seemed like a great deal. If the PS cannot push it I will return it for a 4670, or maybe get a better PS so when I upgrade to dual core I don't have to do it then.

 

[daveybrat]

Teddy, link us what model of thermaltake power supply you have so we can see if it's enough for that card.

 

[teddyv]

Here it is:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16817153023

Looks like I am right on the edge with it, though with the power consumption charts it looks like I can squeak by until I do the big system upgrade later this year.

 

[evolucion8]

It will be a nice upgrade, the only card which could come close in some scenarios with lots of anti aliasing and high resolution was the X1950XTX, specially in old games, but in heavy pixel shader games and lots of geometries, the HD card is faster overall and the X1950XTX is much faster than any X800 card

 

[toyota]

Originally posted by: teddyv
Here it is:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16817153023

Looks like I am right on the edge with it, though with the power consumption charts it looks like I can squeak by until I do the big system upgrade later this year.

thats the worst name brand 430watt psu on the market. in only provides 18 amps on the 12v which is something that even most 300 watt psus can surpass. the 430watt rating makes people that dont have a clue about psus purchase it thinking its good. its really rediculous and misleading of thermaltake to even advertise that as a 430 watt unit.

depending on the rest of your specs you could be asking for trouble running a 3850 with that psu.

 

[teddyv]

I originally got this Thermaltake in 2006 when the PS that came with my Antec Sonata II started to fail. I RMA'd the 450-watt Antec and since the Thermaltake I bought to hold me over for the 3 or 4 weeks it took Antec to send me a new one worked so well I just put the new Antec in storage when it finally arrived. I am not sure what Antec sent me, I just remember it was one of the EarthWatts series - I am hoping it is the 500-watt, or at least the 430, and not the 380-watt.

From the sounds of the recent comments on the Thermaltake, it sounds like it might be worth switching to the Antec (and writing Thermaltake an exceedingly nasty letter...)

 

[vj8usa]

Originally posted by: teddyv
I am hoping it is the 500-watt, or at least the 430, and not the 380-watt.

The 380W Earthwatts isn't bad at all, actually - dual 17A 12V rails.

 

[teddyv]

Just back from the storage locker - it is an Earthwatts 500, here is the Newegg link:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16817371007

I have it out of the box and plan on swapping them out in a few minutes. Hopefully this one will have plenty of juice to drive everything!

 

[teddyv]

The 3850 arrived today/ I uninstalled the two existing ATi entries and turned the system off. I took out the x800 and installed the 3850, then turned the system on. I turned down Microsoft's offer to find the driver for new hardware found, then put the install CD in and installed the new driver software. I rebooted and reset the res and all looks good. Then I shut down, hooked up the new 22" Acer LCD I bought a few weeks ago, and fired it back up. I reset the res to native (1680x1050) and WOW what a difference! Nice to have this much space. Text doesn't look as good as with the 19" Dell CRT, but the space is simply awesome.

Anyway, happy ending.

I did notice the new 3850's fan was awful slow to start up when I got in installed, but seems to be working fine. Anyway to check what the temp is?

 

[toyota]

Originally posted by: teddyv
The 3850 arrived today/ I uninstalled the two existing ATi entries and turned the system off. I took out the x800 and installed the 3850, then turned the system on. I turned down Microsoft's offer to find the driver for new hardware found, then put the install CD in and installed the new driver software. I rebooted and reset the res and all looks good. Then I shut down, hooked up the new 22" Acer LCD I bought a few weeks ago, and fired it back up. I reset the res to native (1680x1050) and WOW what a difference! Nice to have this much space. Text doesn't look as good as with the 19" Dell CRT, but the space is simply awesome.

Anyway, happy ending.

I did notice the new 3850's fan was awful slow to start up when I got in installed, but seems to be working fine. Anyway to check what the temp is?

its always best to use the drivers from ATI website not the ones on the cd. the only reason to ever use the ones on the cd is if its a newly introduced card since ATI is too lazy to usually immediately support new products from their site.

 

[teddyv]

I could not get the new file from AMD, kept losing con at 70% or so - the CD had the last release from December so I thought it would be ok.

Should I try again to get the most recent? Would that mean uninstalling everything, using CCleaner's reg cleaner to clean the registry, then re-installing? How about catalyst? I really am not going to be fooling around with it, can I just install the driver package?

 

[toyota]

Originally posted by: teddyv
I could not get the new file from AMD, kept losing con at 70% or so - the CD had the last release from December so I thought it would be ok.

Should I try again to get the most recent? Would that mean uninstalling everything, using CCleaner's reg cleaner to clean the registry, then re-installing? How about catalyst? I really am not going to be fooling around with it, can I just install the driver package?

well the driver from Dec should be fine but the newest one may have fixes and improvements. I just use the normal ATI uninstall utility. I dont fool with all that other other stuff and in fact the only time I ever had a driver issue was when I did use a driver cleaner.

 

[cusideabelincoln]

The 8.12 drivers are perfectly fine. No reason for you to switch to the Cat 9s just yet. Forget about drivers and enjoy some games.