Do the mobo and vid card seem like they fit?

[foycur]

I have an AsRock P4V88 mobo with an AGP slot for video. It's a P4 system that I'm trying to squeeze every last bit out of before I send it to my boys' room. Currently I have a 7600 GS 256 MB card in there, and want to replace it with a card I saw on newegg, the Sapphire 100228L Radeon HD 3850 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 AGP 4X/8X. I'm in the process of switching out my 512 MB x 2 PC2700 memory to 1 GB x 2 PC3200 memory. Between the memory and buying this video card (if I do), I'm talking about $150 to do what may be the last upgrade ever on this machine.

The owner's manual for the mobo doesn't help me much except recommending I don't use a 3.3 V powered AGP card in the slot, otherwise my mobo might explode on me.

Sooooooo......any thoughts on this particular purchase? I'd like some feedback from the uber computer dudes on the board.

 

[red1776]

Hi foycur,
the Hd 3850 agp is the best agp card out there, it will work fine in your board.

 

[foycur]

Money, thanks Red. I picked up a Sapphire card today through Newegg for less than 100 bucks.

And that, my friends, is the last upgrade my P4 system will get before succumbing to the call of the quad core. By then, it will likely be an octocore.

 

[foycur]

An update. I picked up 2 GB of PC3200 RAM (2 x 1 MB) and the HD 3850 512 MB card. The difference is amazing. I can actually play COD 4 now without having to watch it skip along at 4 frames per second. Half Life 2 looks considerably better than when I had my old NVIDIA 7600 GS 256 MB.

I can only imagine what a quad core with a PCI express card and 6 GB RAM would do....

 

[red1776]

Very nice foycur, glad its working for you just don't get carried away with the ram though, you wont see any gains in anything over what you have now. this article explains modern memory demands pretty well if your interested.
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/memory-module-upgrade,2264.html

 

[foycur]

Red, I tried installing Fallout 3 and playing it. After about ten minutes into the game, it froze up and I had to restart my whole system. Played it again, same thing. I have a 480W power supply. Maybe it's 'shorting' the system, not enough juice?

 

[LinkedKube]

Its probably made your card overheat, FO3 is a demanding game. As soon as you get into the game, set the eye candy (graphic settings) as low as you can. If you proceed with no more issues its definately a heat issue.

 

[foycur]

I'll try it, see what happens.

 

[04ihegba]

Yep, cooling is perhaps the biggest issue, your PSU will cope, and your only other real bottleneck is your RAM speed, but that cant be helped.

 

[foycur]

so I turned down the graphics on it, which appears to have worked. That sort of sucks, can't max out my graphics because the card runs so hot. Oh, well, the next stop is a new system at some point in the next 18 months anyway.

 

[red1776]

foycur, if you think its heat causing the problems (remember FO3 is a high test game, and your card is an agp) and you have a pci slot available below your 3850, you could try something like this
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835209016
i used one on an older machine i had and it took the temps down 15c.

 

[LinkedKube]

I didnt look at the link and im guessing its a pci slot cooling fan, with two fans to point towards the card? Those are a decent fix if you have the slot.

 

[foycur]

I actually have one of these in my parts box. I'll put it in a give it a go.