Vista 64 & 4850 Issues?

[sheemone00]

Currently I'm looking to build a new rig (Reference Thread) and while I was browsing through the HD4850 video cards, I saw that a number of people had issues with Vista 64.

BSOD, cycling resets, etc.

Should I be weary of these issues?

 

[taltamir]

no. there are no such issues with vista itself anymore. just make sure you get SP1, not gold (I would have told you the same about XP, 2k, 98, 95... MS first revision of an OS is always buggy).

oh wait... you are asking about 4850 having issue, not about VISTA having issues... duh.

8800GT and the 4850 are two cards I would NOT advice ANYONE to get with the reference cooler.
They just run too hot. You should be very weary of these issues, and sidestep them alltogether by getting a non reference cooler design. Asus has one, and sapphire, and most other companies too...

 

[sheemone00]

Thanks for the heat warning.

So this is the reference cooler design one: ASUS Reference Cooling

and this is the one with a non-reference cooler design: ASUS Non-Reference Cooling

??

 

[shangshang]

I'm using vista64 and 4850 and so far i think vista64 is ok, but I do experience a few video drivers crashed when I watch/run WinDVD, but vista has always been able to recover from the crash without BSODing, and the PC would run fine after the recovery.

I don't know if this is a Vista64 specific issue or Catalyst 8.8 issue or th 4850 issue, but all I know is that this was happening to me on XP nor Vista32. So I'm chucking this one up to Vista64 and Cat 8.8, but this isn't a big problem as Vista64 has always been able to recover.

Since moving to Vista64, haven't been gaming so I don't know about games.

I'm having a hard time finding any fun program that is native 64bit though. Internet Explorer 64bit sucks too. It hangs all the time, and there isn't any 64bit pluggins for it, like Adobe Flash. In general, the only apparent benefit to me to running Vista64 right now is to use all 4GB or RAM (which I don't use all). Other than this, I really don't see any apparent benefit that enhance my computing experience or productivity in any way!

edited:
and yes the 4850 does run HOT with reference cooler. What I've done is just to put an old pentium3 fan on the back of the card, yeah just put it on the back just like that, and this alone cools the card 5 C degrees and this is enough for me to avoid dishing out money for an aftermarket cooler. I don't plan to keep the 4850 much longer so I definitely don't wanna spend money on cooler.

 

[ZetaEpyon]

I had real problems with my 4850 on Vista 64, and seemingly not related to the heat issues. I'd created a profile to adjust the fan speed, which worked well for keeping the temperature at a sane level, and it didn't help.

Essentially what would happen is the display driver would crash or stop responding. Sometimes Vista was able to recover, and other times not, and the whole system would go down. This happened to me both in games and just sitting at the desktop, regardless of gpu temperature. The problem may have something to do with using dual monitors based on various posts around the internet, but I could never figure it out. If you're using just one monitor, you might have no problem at all. If you want to search for the particular issue, look up "atikmdag". There are a whole host of fixes proposed, but none of them worked for me.

Many of the things I read indicated that it's a problem with Vista itself, and that the nVidia drivers can do the same thing. Despite that, I've never had it happen with the 8800GT prior to switching to the 4850, or with the 8800GT after switching back from the 4850.

Kinda sad, I wish I could figure it out, because the 4850 performance was very nice.

 

[taltamir]

Originally posted by: sheemone00
Thanks for the heat warning.

So this is the reference cooler design one: ASUS Reference Cooling

and this is the one with a non-reference cooler design: ASUS Non-Reference Cooling

??

correct... but that asus you linked is also a highly expensive "Top edition overclocked at 680MHz".
There should be a cheaper one. and you can oc it yourself. But newegg does not carry that specific asus model.

So maybe one of these two:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16814102770

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16814261027

 

[sheemone00]

If I'm not looking to OC the video card is the reference cooler sufficient to keep the temps down?

no. there are no such issues with vista itself anymore. just make sure you get SP1, not gold (I would have told you the same about XP, 2k, 98, 95... MS first revision of an OS is always buggy). oh wait... you are asking about 4850 having issue, not about VISTA having issues... duh.

Well I'm looking for any issues that I should be looking out for overall, so if you know of any Vista related issues please post them thanks!

 

[Insomniator]

I have a 4850 (ref cooler) and installed vista64 a week or so ago. No problems at all, played through Crysis @19x12 with no crashes, no problems.

At 60% fan speed the 4850 is low noise and runs at 55C. Set it to 75% and start a Crysis game and at load its about 75-80. Perfectly fine!

 

[taltamir]

low noise is subjective... at those speeds it should sound plenty loud to most people.

 

[Insomniator]

75% is quite audible but doesn't matter when I am playing a game, 60% I can't hear at all. Its odd, the noise starts at like 65%, anything under is near silent in a p180 and anything over is audibly louder and louder.

 

[soybeast]

No issues here with 4850 and Vista 64. Using Catalyst 8.6

 

[Adam8281]

I've been running Vista 64 with a Visiontek 4850 for over two months, without a single crash or glitch. Have played through Bioshock, Crysis, Age of Juarez, Gears of War, and Mass Effect.

 

[sheemone00]

Thanks for all the replies. After researching a bit more on the 4850 cards I think I've decided to get this one: MSI R4850

Looks good?

 

[heylookitsjerry]

I'm also in the same boat as sheemone00 -- installing Vista64 soon with a new 4850! Bumping for more comments and as a thanks to the OP+the repliers for all the info.

 

[taltamir]

looks good... 172$ after MIR and shipping... and with a huge cooler like that you could actually OC it

 

[Spike]

Originally posted by: Adam8281
I've been running Vista 64 with a Visiontek 4850 for over two months, without a single crash or glitch. Have played through Bioshock, Crysis, Age of Juarez, Gears of War, and Mass Effect.

LIAR!!! I know thats bs since bioshock is such a piece of crap port from a coding standpoint

To the OP I use vista 64 and a 4870 with no issues. Since upgrading the card my picture slideshow screensaver sometimes crashes which seems odd but other than that I have had no problems with the card when gaming.

I do agree that the reference cooler is pretty poor on the 4850, make sure you find a non-reference design so heat won't be an issue.

 

[sheemone00]

Thanks again, now to find a motherboard...

 

[sgrinavi]

Well..

I've had (3) different 4870's and (2) different 4850's running under Vista Ultimte 64 in both single and crossfire modes. My only issue had to do with aftermarket cooling. They are, as many have stated, HOT, but they are also very fast and quite reliable.

 

[taltamir]

mass effect is ALSO a crappy port... and crysis is just crappy.

 

[Spike]

Originally posted by: taltamir
mass effect is ALSO a crappy port... and crysis is just crappy.

Mass Effect worked fine for me without crashes oddly enough (Vista 64), same with Crysis though that should since it's not a port. I actually found crysis kinda fun, especially since I did not have to pay for it (gift). If I dropped $40 on it I might be annoyed.

 

[Insomniator]

Why all the hate on crysis? I thought it was epic...

 

[taltamir]

weak, short story, enemies take a ton of shots to kill, but only one thrown object (like a box) or a few moments of choking to kill. So melee is the most effective weapon. I like the suit gimmick, but it couldn't carry the whole game...
Oh, and the system requirements were out of this world. Still are. a modern system will require you to lower settings to the point it looks like crud to play well.

 

[Roguestar]

Crysis still looks awesome on medium settings. The first 60% of the game was great but unfortunately the terrible story twist and shoot-shoot-shoot gameplay from that point on ruined the otherwise loads of fun I was having while sneaking up on koreans so I could pick them up, run away, and throw them off a cliff into the sea.

 

[taltamir]

yea, i gotta admit it had its good moments

 

[Roguestar]

I play it in the hopes that one day, I will throw a korean soldier into the sea and he will not only survive, but swim back to shore, train himself up and rally his brethren and be the end boss of Crysis 2. I like to think of myself as a natural selector .