hmmm the high 4000s were what i wasa getting with the p4g8x b4 overclocking....set at 4x

HEY you guys....I wrote Asus about returning the P4G8X and which mobo to get and here is their response after two weeks:
"[4/29/2003 7:31:00 AM - erichme]
The P4C800 only have a requirement that the serial number for the Radeon card be a rev 30 or higher. Please download and see the section labeled "ATI Radeon" in the P4C800 manual. Otherwise, the system will work with the components you listed and is 8X AGP compliant as well. Also, look at the manual for memory/processor requirements. Since your processor is a 533FSB, you can use PC2700/PC2100 memory, but if you want to use PC3200 memory, you will need to purchase an 800FSB processor.
Please let me know if you have any other questions."
So it looks like if you do not have a new ati radeon 9700 pro...you might have trouble as well. let me know what you all think. -matt

Hi everybody, I found this forum by accident and I am pleased I did, having read most of the posts about this problem I would like to share my thoughts about it. I purchased a MSI GNB MAX board the other week same chipset as the ASUS P4G8X and I have exactly the same problems!! I have spent a week and a fortune trying to solve this problem, I have done most of the things you guys have done power supply ect; latest drivers, changed memory to which the end result was absolutely no difference. In desperation I went out and bought an ASUS P4PE which has the 845PE chipset (and only 4x agp) and guess what! post problems, endless reboots and crashes. Stick my geforce 4600ti back in and both boards run as sweet as a nut. My supplier is exchanging my MSI board for the new MSI 875p neo tomorrow but I'm not convinced! Incidently I stuck my 9700 into a MSI KT4 ULTRA (AMD processor/KT400 chipset) which as roughly the same features as the GNB MAX set it to 8x with no problems at all runs well using it now not a hitch! I still prefer the P4 pro and I hope this new neo board will solve it but we shall see.

I was just about to order the parts for the first computer I will have ever built when I discovered this forum. I was planning on using the Asus P4G8X and the Radeon 9700 Pro but now I am worried. Is this a problem for just a few people or for everyone with this combination trying to run at AGP 8X? I chose this motherboard because of the great features it has. It uses cheap ram as well and I can use a P4 2.53 in it fine. Any suggestions on whether I should stick with this combination? I would like to first computer I build to go together smoothly. Thanks
Andrew

it pretty much depends on which revision of the 9700 pro you get ....no telling

Well if I havent even bought it yet wont i get a pretty new revision? Or could I ask when I order what revision it is? Thanks

I bought mine recently.....it wasnt retail box it was OEM however so the new retails might be the newer rivisions

Andrew...you may or may not get a new version. It all depends on how long it has been sitting on the retailers shelf.
If I might make a recomendation, if you have your heart set on the Asus boards...get the newer chipset version...the P4C800 wich has all the features of the P4g8X plus it will also offer support for the latest processors...running on the 800 frontside bus. Bear in mind, it has only been out for a very short time, and with that said, it will probably no doubt go thru several bios updates before it is finally "tweaked in"
Do not be surprised if you run into comatibility problems with the ATI 9700/9500 pro cards....even with the p4c800. From what I can gather from reasearching this combonation...all the issues have not been fully resolved....YET! I am sure they will be. There are too many owners of this combination for the makers of the ASus boards and Ati graphics cards to let it go.
For the record, I have the p4c8x deluxe and 9500 pro card and my system has been stable for a while noe...but with fast writes off and only 4x mode.
I am swapping this mobo out for a p4c800 board tomorrow, with a 15% restock fee back to the online retailer where I purchased the ati.
I personally feel the e7205 chgipset is not going to see too many more new motherboards. I am resonabley sure Intel will be pushing the 875e chipset now.

p4g8x supports 800fsb just the same as the new chipset. Wish i understood more about computers before i bought 4 512mb ddr 266mhz dimms... i would have bought 400mhz ddr

http://www.tomshardware.com/mainboard/20030429/index.html

To the person who said he doesn't know about gettting a p4g8x and a 9800 pro...... i have a 9800 pro and play 3d games none stop and haven't had a single crash.

Hello...P4G8X DOES NOT support the 800FSBus. Please check your specs.

Here is quote from ASus:

3GHz+ CPU and Intel® Hyper-Threading Technology support
Leveraging the Intel® E7205 chipset to support 3GHz+ P4 CPUs on 533MHz FSB, DDR memory, Intel Hyper-Threading Technology and a full-range of advanced features, the P4G8X Deluxe delivers a full-value, high-performance solution for today's most demanding tasks.
Here is a link to the ASUS site:
http://www.asus.com/mb/socket478/p4g8x/overview.htm

I stand corrected. My apologies to Alex. After reading his link to Tom's hardware guide, it apears you can indeed get your Granite Bay chipset to run at the 800FS bus speeds...albiet...highly overclocked.
Acording to Tom's, it does run however.
I still contend however, that Intel is moving forward and leaving the Granite Bay behind. So for future upgradablility, I am going with the newer 875.
You can get these boards Asus P4c800 for aroung 200.00 online...retail box.

Alex Colderbank,
Are you saying you're running P4G8X and 9800PRO without problems, which means AGP8X, Fastwrites On etc, without tweaking the stardard settings?

Here are my experiences on this topic. First my setup :-

Hardware:-
P4G8X
Intel Pentium 4 3Ghz (w/ hyper-threading)
2Gb (4x512k) PC2100
ATI Radeon 9700 Pro
Creative SB Audigy 2
120Gb Seagate Barracuda (SATA)

These settings are confirmed not to crash (for me):-
AGP 1.5V
AGP Mode: UC
AGP Speed: 4x
Fast-write: Disabled
Write-combine: Enabled

Same settings but fast-write enabled are confirmed to crash.

These settings also crash :-
AGP 1.7V
AGP Mode: USWC
AGP Speed: 8x
Fast-write: Enabled
Write-combine: Enabled

From that last configuration I changed AGP to 1.6V and strangely enough it hasn't crashed since but it has not been long enough (2 days of solid playing) for me to confidently say I fixed the problem.

At the moment is is looking likely there is no way to get this card not to crash if fast-write is enabled using my configuration.

It's a hard problem to diagnose because sometimes it will crash frequently (if the settings are very bad) or sometimes occasionally if the settings are better but not perfect. I don't know about you people, but one crash is one too many for me, and the only configuration I have never had a crash with and have been playing a long long time is 4x and fast-write off.

Waiting for new drivers is false hope, this would definitely appear to be a hardware problem. Short of ATI recalling all their cards and issuing new ones I don't really see a good solution other than finding settings that work for you. Personally i'm happy to take a slight performance hit for the sake of stability, but since most of us on this forum all spent extra money for top of the range PCs that does little to reassure us.

What is the final moral here, don't buy ATI? Probably not - everyone has made mistakes in the past. Let's hope future ATI cards do not have these flaws.

I have all settings on.. fast-writes + 8xagp.

p4 3.06
p4g8x
ati 9800 pro
2x SATA Seagate 80gb.. 160gb Raid 0
Soundblaster audigy 2 platinum
Cooler Master ATC-SX2 case (i think)
1gb ddr 266 (did have 2gb advance Ram but they had errors, dunno if they came with errors or if they died while i had them.. only just found how to memtest them properly)
samsung sb48 combo drive (something like that)
creative 6.1 6700 inspire speakers
550watt qtec (i think) power supply.. dunno if it is true 550watt.

I played Unreal 2 with all graphics settings on maximum + maximum AA and anistropic thingy mobob. never locked up once. I completed it but still play it a little just cus the graphics are so good and fast.
Everquest works fine too.
Warcraft i play a very very lot and only had one crash, it was a memory error which i traced to my bad dimms.

Also run 3dmarks2003 twice with no problems since the memory was sorted.

What I dont understand is, after reading the link to Tom's hardware, (Alex provided) is why that article didnt mention this problem. It appears Tom's crew tested and tweaked this combo extensively. Not one mention of a crash. How peculiar is that?
Also, the people at ATI who write the code for the drivers must be coding on a P2 166 platform or something, because when they release drivers, they obvioulsy must be happy with them. Maybe they need to code the Catalyst 3.3's on a P4G8X and a Radeon 9700Pro. I take that back....if they coded using a box with that combo, they'd never finish writing the drivers due to all the crashing and subsequent restarts. (A little humor there)
One question....does anybody have a thermal probe attached to the ATI card? I do, I slipped it on top of the heatsink, but under the fan...sorta wedged it in there. My card runs right at 160 degrees C running 3d apps. Seems pretty hot to me. It idles at 152. I have 3 case fans not counting the power supply fan, the processor fan, or the ati fan. Could heat be causing this? Anybody else with a monitor probe...please chime in.

So guys what will I be sacrificing if I go with the P4c800 other than the extra couple dollars for the different board? Can I only use a P4 3Ghz on it or can I sitll get lik ea 2.53 Ghz? Also how much more is the ram i am goign to have to get for this board that DDR 2700? I really dont know what to do here. I want to order the parts for my new computer tomorrow and now because of this forum do not know what motherboard to get. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Andrew
Also do you all think this problem will be fixed in the future? So I could just get p4G8X and run it at agp4x and no fast write until they fix it? Or does even that not work for everyone? Thanks again

Ok After some research I think I am going to go with the P4C800. I am still going to get a P4 2.53 though. I am wondering, if i buy DDR 3200 400mhz ram from Kingston incase I upgrade processors in the future, will it act just like DDR 2700 or 2100 which is what my 2.53 processor will use? Or do I have to buy 2700 or 2100 to go with my P4 2.53 Ghz? I havent ordered my Radeon 9700 Pro yet either. When I do, is it possibly to ask them what REV number the card is? It looks to me like if you get a card above 30 everything will work fine at AGP8x.
Stro
Sorry for fillin up the forum guys.

hi.....

if you haven't bought a board already then u may aswell get the latest one.
I'm only learning about PCs atm(although i'm not stupid) but i think u will need a proccesor that is 800mhz fsb to be able to get the full memory potential out of the new mb..... is this correct? (unless u force a different fsb)
I thought about the above myself... because i have a 533 p4 3.06fsb , i was wondering if i could get 400mhz ddr memory and make my proccesor run with a 200mhz x15 multiplier instead of 133x whatever it is... would this be possible or would i need an actual 800mhz fsb p4? .. same problem as a u nearlly.

I think the p4 used in the p4g8x on the link on toms hardware page was an 800fsb, although it doesn't say (or i didn't read it)

I see a lot around about the new P4 3.0 GHz with 800Mhz FSB. Why cant I find anywhere to buy this chip by itself? Also I saw that they are planning on releasing some of the lower speeds with 800 Mhz FSB. Does anyone know when these are coming out or how much they are going to cost? I think I might just wait and get one of them instead with the new P4C800.

Hmm maybe PSU is the real deciding factor here. What I would like people to post is the following :-

What PSU (model number) are you using
Does your PC definitely crash with fast write on at 8x or does it definitely not crash with fast write on at 8x.

The criteria for definitely crashing is obvious, I'd say the criteria for definitely not crashing is 24 hours of solid usage under those settings without a single incident - please don't post if you're not sure or if you are not using 8xfw because it may be misleading.

I'll start :-

431W Enermax EG465AXVE-G-FMA PSU with Manual Fan Control/Temp
Definitely crashes.

Who knows, we may spot a trend!